Working beyond boundaries – Working Remotely

Now when you look at our company, because of our clients list, the fact that we boast a central London office you may think we are just another agency business. Well we do have an international footprint, we do have people in other countries, and we work for international brands, but we are far from traditional in the way we work or think. We have used a number of modern strategies and technologies (mostly free to anyone) to build our company and facilitate its growth and long-term survival. The benefits of this are keeping our overheads to a minimum and our people happy.

Firstly lets take our office, we are based right next door to one of the worlds greatest traditional advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi yet unlike them, we don’t have hundreds of employees turning up to work everyday.

Unlike our traditional neighbors across the road who have some 100+ employees (I got board and stopped counting after 101) who all turn up every day for work, our agency business is based on just 2 full time staff, everyone else works on a project and contract basis from their home office, and we make it a rule to make sure they get paid well, and always on time.

This has two benefits. Firstly we don’t have to manage people on a day-to-day basis as old school agencies do, we don’t watch the clock and see if people are at their desks for 9am every day, and we are not tied to the office all day ourselves, just to make sure that our “staff” stay until 6pm.

I find this great as it enables me to travel the World to speak and consult in any country, for any client that wants to hire my skills. Also my worldwide client base benefits from the fact that I am just 1 Hub of my team, wherever I go I take them with me, using my laptop, Skype and email.

Some may call what I am talking about, a virtual agency model, but to me that’s not right. Virtual means simulated, unreal, what we have built is not virtual at all, it’s very real indeed, based on real people having real business relationships, it may be working remotely; that’s true, but it is very physical and at times very emotional too, its defiantly not virtual.

So instead of bringing everyone into the office everyday, we all hook up on Skype and use our laptops to videoconference day-to-day issues. Then, when we are all working on a project together we can if need be come in and use our office as a physical Hub, where we can work face to face, brainstorm and develop ideas as we feel fit. But I will say this, once you get used to working with a remote, open team, it’s very hard to go back. What you do find is the reasons for getting together actually become more for social interaction and bonding; enjoying each other’s company, and adding glue to our daily remote relationships.

A film by one of our friends and colleagues in Sydney.

How can we pull this off? In short we know and trust in each other to get the jobs done. It’s this trust that is the key. Everyone in our company is appreciative of this way of working and the freedom it brings, and so, they consistently deliver. Our team includes developers in India, other companies in the UK and abroad, Media Planners and video producers in Sydney Australia, Graphic designers in Berlin, Editors and Producers in New York, and even teenage web guru’s who live in South America.

For traditionalists who argue against open workplace strategies like ours, the surprising thing is, nearly all of us still put in at least a 65 hours a week, not because we are all being watched by some middle manager, but because we love what we do, and we value and appreciate the way our company enables us to work.

If you think that you can offer something to our team, wherever you are, whatever you do, get in touch and introduce yourself, email info@asabailey.com