I know people who know people who know….you get the idea

Posted on | April 8, 2010

Ahhh….the sun is out – must bring out my happy face since today’s thoughts have drifted towards a subject near and dear to my heart: collaboration.

A lot of people talk about it. Few people seem to practice it.

A few years ago I learned the hard way that I didn’t know everything, and couldn’t do everything. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a lot of skills, but the reality is simple: sooner or later we all run into things we can’t do.

Some businesses seem to see this as a weakness. The integrated agency model is a good example of that. How many bloody agencies feel they have to do everything? They have to have every skill in-house (some not very good)? I can’t stand the integrated agency model. It leads to bloated overheads and inflated cost structures – two things I fight against tooth and nail.

Collaboration is key to my business. It’s critical. I am a big believer in getting the best people for the jobs and trusting them to produce results. But the key word there is trust. It takes time to develop these relationships. You need to feel each other out. You need to feel comfortable with each other.

What does this have to do with marketing? Everything and nothing.

My simple (see? Marketing & simple – it must be appropriate) mantra:

Don’t trust anyone who says they can do it all. They can’t. Get the rights skills together and lead them in the right direction. You’ll get there quicker, and way more efficiently.

- j

Comments