Successes and Lessons From our First Month

1+1=3, Let us Tell You Why.

It’s natural to think that 1+1=2, heck, it’s what we were taught in school! Without getting mathematical, what if the sum of two entities is greater than we could have ever thought? 

Insert Roadmap. 

Over the last month, we’ve experienced a spike in traffic, lead volume, and our combined capacities of Graphic Intuitions and Hewlko Design have resulted in service offerings and capabilities that far exceed what either agency could have provided alone. It’s a prime example where 1+1=3.  

How is this so?  Well by providing a greater range of services to the combined sets of customers it has opened up possibilities for all three groups.  Previous Graphic Intuitions clients needed customer research, previous Hewlko clients needed digital marketing and web design, now both sets of customers have access to these services plus a framework that can support all aspects of their business.  Prior to Roadmap, Graphic Intuitions and Helwko were specialists in specific fields, now combining all these specialties Roadmap can provide an all-encompassing growth strategy and supporting services.  This increased capability has attracted new clients (1) as well as added growth to the previous two (1+1) sets of clients.  So 1+1=3! 

When You Don’t Know-Ask! 

We may be professionals in all things marketing, but a merger is something we’ve never done before. We wanted this process to be done right so we enlisted Executive Coach Ernest Barbaric to help us navigate these changes with confidence.

Expect the Unexpected

As with all things in life, things don’t always go as planned. Despite six months of planning, there were last-minute items and hiccups that came we couldn't plan for. For instance, Facebook hasn’t accepted multiple name change requests, leaving us with an inconsistent brand presence online. 

Further to this, we had worked on aligning our processes, but after the dust settled from launch day clearly there was work left to do.  What had been easy to ignore prior to launch now could not be ignored. Our online file systems needed to be aligned, time tracking, and Project Management Systems. We had a plan...but we hadn’t anticipated all the details. 

There is also a culture change.  Again we had been working together for a long time prior but when launch day happens now it is for real.  We leveraged our corporate coach to help us through this transition and stressful period. A month in we feel much more united and stronger than when we started! 

Lastly, while we had communicated the change to our clients multiple times some were caught unawares. This surprised us considering we felt we had over-communicated the change!  Apparently not! A personal direct outreach calling campaign soon ensued. 

Beyond this, we expected that there would be little things that would pop up (they did!) and continue to do so.  

All in all, it was more work than we anticipated but anything worth doing is never easy!

Be Kind, Have Patience

Merging two groups is never easy, culture, processes, new roles, increased responsibilities, and the added stress of change are a lot to handle. It’s valuable to remember that you’re in this as a team that kindness and patience go a long way.

Not Everything Can Be Done at Once

We have so much coming down the pipe that we want to show you but good things can’t be rushed. This is only Phase I of our launch and rebrand and over the course of the year, we’ll continue to unfold more!