What Does It Take For Creative Organizations To Be More Efficient?
By Andrea B. Ruskin
"It’s very hard to anticipate the issues of tomorrow when you are busy solving the problems of today. And the more successful the company, the harder it is." T. Alex Blum
No matter how you produce your creative work, what kind of assets you produce, or what platforms or media you produce for, you have a process. It may be clearly defined, or completely opaque, but it’s a process.
The idea that creativity needs to be chaotic and disorganized to work is a romantic misconception. The ability to create is enhanced by the presence of structure and common process, not obstructed by it. The more you can standardize and simplify the common elements of any process, the easier it is to adapt it to different issues and situations as they arise.
Because Better Process Drives Better Creative
Organizations that pay attention to process and are willing to take time to question assumptions about how things are done are consistently more able to experiment and innovate and more able to respond to change and be proactive.
Because brand messages are now delivered on a multitude of platforms, the universe of agencies and creative partners has become larger and harder to manage. A clearly defined and consistent process will help orchestrate, and streamline production so brands can avoid confusion, wasted money, and ineffective creative execution. Process analysis can uncover root causes of inefficient processes that waste time and drain team cultures, roadblocks that get in the way of producing creative quickly and to the highest quality, lack of information and transparency into how much work is being produced and by whom, overspending, and so much more.
If you are looking to improve your team’s creative output, demonstrate the value of your in-house agency, validate or enhance your current creative and production resources, attract and retain the best talent, and quickly uncover and solve the root causes of recurring production challenges, you need to dive in to your process and figure out where are the gaps.
The question is: do you want to control the process and optimize the results, or let it control you?
Blum Consulting Partners specializes in process analysis for marketers and their creative partners who want to find ways to drive growth and save money at the same time.
