The Key Ingredient: Genuine Collaboration

As co-Founder of a firm with a wide range of services, I often find myself working with other service providers where there is some overlap between our scope of services. Oftentimes, it’s one of the hurdles of a project – the more people involved, the more opinions that may differ from your own.   But sometimes you find the holy grail of collaboration – when a group of people come together and are inspired and energized by each other, as opposed to competitive.  We always recommend our clients seek a team of advisors (consultants, designers, branding firms) that will create a sum greater than its parts – as a team filled with competitive entities or people who don’t get it is never worth the time, money or headache you will certainly run into.

Recently, the VSAG team had the chance work with a client in Manhattan, along with five other services firms, and saw the holy grail in action.  This kickoff meeting saw 20+ people  (some of whom had been on the project for a year or more), all from top-tier service providers in our industry.  During this eight hour work session, with presentations of tremendously detailed work, I witnessed fantastic listening skills, honest dialogue and a collective enthusiasm bubbling amongst all.  The focus stayed clear: a genuine end product, realistic expectations, great results for the client and an all-around winning project.  No one worried about services overlap, no one worried about who might get credit for an idea and the client, who has some of the best talent in the world in-house, was able to find the perfect balance of leadership, collaboration, passion, contribution and listening.  While the client and project remain confidential, I can say that working with Clark|McDowall, Gigunda Group, Roman & Williams, and Bar Lab is as good as it gets in the quest for Genuine Collaboration… and it’s going to be really fun.  I look forward to the lessons our team learns working such high caliber talent. Dan Simons