Teamwork and being a team player is a concept much used in business of all types and it seems to me that this applies especially to supplier agencies in the service industries such as marketing.
Some teams operate with strong directive leadership and firmly marked boundaries, others with quite considerable overlap in the way people and companies are expected to fit in. All teams however rely on flexibility and willingness:
– flexibility to work out of too tightly defined roles on a continuing basis and to consider what is going on for other players in the team.
– willingness to do this by keeping in touch so that impending direction changes are spotted before they occur.
A bit like a VEN diagram, the relationships overlap and in the area of SMEs this overlap between client and agency can be substantial. Willingness to share the pain and the benefits is vital in modern business, willingness to understand what is going on – and on a daily basis to take responsibility for pro-active participation is just part of the service.
It used to be said that service was an old fashioned concept no longer understood – actually I believe it is more important than ever and relied on extensively to keep SMEs operating successfully.
