No HudsonBec-xit!
The importance of ensuring It’s Nice That, Anyways (and anything else we do) always work together.
Will and I run two separate businesses; one you’ll probably know — media company It’s Nice That, one you might know— creative agency Anyways.
Both are a similar in size (approx. 15 people each), and as we’ve grown we’ve had to consciously decide how we wanted these two companies to work together. Do we want them as completely separate entities? Do we want to find way to have them work closely together? Do we want to merge them into one for simplicity? Or do we find another way entirely?
Over the last 8 or so years we’ve to-ed and fro-ed on the best way to do it.
However, this decision and structure became increasingly important towards the end of last year as we started to plan our third business— educational resource, Lecture in Progress.
On reflection I’ve been thinking about this as our ‘Brexit’ moment; a defining point in how we ask a series of individual entities to exist, work, collaborate and contribute. A decision that has unique consequences either way we go (as we’re slowly finding out).
As the title of this article suggests we made a very clear decision to make sure the businesses, however different in their day-to-day output, are always linked and reap the countless rewards of that relationship.
They all exist as individual entities in the same corporate group, named unimaginatively ‘The HudsonBec Group’ (our surnames). This allows them to have their own Profit & Loss accounts, their own staff and processes, but not ignore the other businesses in the group.
To solidify this link, we clarified the group’s purpose (sorry, I’m aware writing about purpose on Medium is the most predictable thing going). Our passion has always been to support brilliant creatives, to showcase their work, to use creativity to make people feel something, or to communicate something in a meaningful way. Or, as we defined it “Enable Creativity to Thrive.”
Here’s a few of the ‘countless’ benefits that I mentioned earlier as way of illustrating our decision:
1. Share knowledge, talent networks, expertise and experience
Why have the knowledge of 15 people when you can ask 30? One of Anyways’ key advantages is that we can make the most of the incredible talent relationships we’ve built through It’s Nice That, like we have with our Google work or Unilever project. Equally, It’s Nice That gets the benefit of being surrounded by incredible agency creatives, project managers and producers from Anyways.
2. Support each other with cash flow and finances when needed
Why not embrace the chance to look to the other business to help support tricky financial periods? Also, why ignore the profits of one business to develop an opportunity in the other?
3. Be efficient in the way we operate, from studio to systems and staff
Would a company of 15 have full time HR support? Maybe not. Would we be able to have a full-time studio manager? Maybe not. Would we be able to rent a big studio in North London? Maybe not. Also, in a very small business future career opportunities can be limited, across multiple companies the chance of progression for our staff is much better.
4. See amazing new business opportunities shared
Why not offer our It’s Nice That clients Anyways or Lecture in Progress services if they have the need? Why not double the amount of people thinking about new opportunities across the group?
5. Enhance the reputation of the individual companies
Why not make the most of the reputation we’ve worked so hard to create with It’s Nice That for our less established and well-known companies? Lecture in Progress has much more chance of success being associated with It’s Nice That and Anyways. We are more exciting and impressive together.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
So, as we embark on 2017, a year that sees It’s Nice That turn 10 years old, Anyways complete it’s first official year and Lecture in Progress get off the ground, I’m excited to learn even more about the benefits of our decision to remain.
