How do you bring diverse teams in 15 countries together to form a single digital agency?

Business Challenge

Clients have asked for specialized digital services for years, and this organization responded by doing acquisitions across markets.  The challenge was these acquisitions reached the largest size they could in their markets and recognized clients were looking for global partners in their digital agency partners.

Approach Taken

We working directly with the CEOs of the five largest subsidiaries and the global management team of the parent agency and set up a repeating set of quarterly workshops to ensure real relationships were built.  We then developed a new agency brand and defined the values and tools that would bring the subsidiaries together and ensure a successful merger.  To ensure there was ongoing collaboration, we extended this work into the office leadership teams and developed a set of tools to ensure transparency and team work.

Impact

The agency came together, attracted additional subsidiaries that volunteered to be part, and launched in over 10 markets.  After two years, the footprint expanded further and over 90% of the agency entrepreneurs remained in the business.

Lessons Learned

• Mergers require trust and teamwork across the leadership team.
• Communication must be extended to broader teams and maintained with consistency to avoid confusion.
• Software tools are essential to add value back to the business units and ensure collaboration.
• An independent but collaborative stance with the parent organization only succeeds with commitment from both parties.

Team

This initiative was completed with a small global team focused on business development and operations that reached into the business units to coordinate existing local teams.  This kept costs down and avoided duplication of roles.