As you talk about evolution - whether personal or professional, company-wide or inter-departmental - there are a few things which have made us function properly as a business, service our clientele and perhaps, most importantly, provide a good work environment for our employees.
And for us, it boils down to a reference from America's Pastime: the strike zone.
Today more than ever before, we focus on one thing - video. Sure there are many ancillary services which wheel off of the content we create, but narrowing our focus and 'keeping the ball around the plate' so to speak has allowed us to flourish.
Years ago, when our Co-founders decided to open Oswego Creative they took their industry expertise and made a bet - that no one could tell stories the way they did.
Fast forward some 30 years later and the success they've been able to build, a family-owned and operated award-winning multi-media production and digital marketing agency which has weathered each economic downturn and upswing isn't without strategic business realignment and development decisions and effort along the way.
Most notably, as mentioned - a narrowed focus, but also developing an industry-specific or vertical-based business development strategy. And the two go hand in hand.
In the past, when a client called and asked for something from us, we did it. 'Can you do print collateral?' 'Sure', we said. 'Websites?' 'Yep!' 'PR?' 'You betcha'.
And that was profitable. And that was the right choice at the time.
But, there was always a video component to everything we did and decreasingly was it front and center.
As a result, our staff lost focus of our founding principal - what our strike zone is - storytelling through video.
Subsequently, as we looked at our client roster and our prospects - we chose to be experts in a small number of industries rather than shooting video for a wide variety.
Any kid today can walk into Best Buy and get a computer and a camera and shoot video - and there's a market for that type of content.
But that kid cannot specialize in the art of the craft of video production. And that kid cannot simultaneously understand the clients business as their own, their value proposition, what their customers need to hear and what their employees need to hear as well.
This approach isn't revolutionary. It isn't going to redefine the Modern American workforce. But I do believe it is a pathway to success... and what many, many profitable businesses already know and what many, many of those who've hung their shingle on their own have come to understand.
Some 'Mad Men' who work for large agencies survive on being 'all things to all people', but for us after we shifted our bearing to providing engaging video content, we realized two things; 1) what we are the best at and 2) proved to us that telling great stories is really what our clients need.
Short story long, find your strike zone and stay there.
By Dominic Giarratano
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