Group Projects Director and Head of People, Carly Lipman, has taken a look at the challenges of future-proofing your agency as we reemerge after lockdown. In the first of her two-part series, she looks at how your ‘vision’ needs to be the first to get a makeover before any long standing actions can come into play.

From vision to action: The Covid Revolution

1. Vision

And the prize for the biggest event of the century goes to COVID-19. Global, impactful, experiential, causing death, destruction and almost wiping out an entire industry – it became and will remain the revolution that changed the world. No applause required.

For those of us who managed to survive from sheer courage, determination and a drive that will not die, we may be compelled to change everything we do and how we do it, but not who we are and what we stand for. I don’t have to remind you that Nelson Mandela spent 27 years waiting for his freedom, upholding his vision and emerging only to manifest it. He said “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it”.

In order to face the cultural revolution that is Covid; it’s now more important than ever to ‘future proof’ your messaging so that it can boldly take you where no one has been before. It’s vital that you know who you are as a company, what you stand for, who you are serving and why – and ever-evolving ways of putting that imagination into action. This blog focuses on our own promise to walk our talk, and use the gift in the garbage that is Covid to grow and develop in new, innovative and always exciting ways.

At Marble, we have a vision that is Covid proofed. It defines the future of our company. It’s not constrained by a timeline; it’s enduring and captures the soul of the organisation, and is our heartfelt reason to exist. It is perfect for the ever-changing culture that is the Covid revolution; to put human experience at our very centre in all we do; to always stay on brief to counteract the unbelievable challenges that Covid has presented to our industry and our clients; and To seek and accomplish, a purpose, and the ultimate result of its work – its destiny, could only be limited by imagination.

We create new meaning through our commitment to honour our purpose. Our vision is not only to put human experience at our very centre, but to amplify it, to challenge it, to influence and innovate. We understand that connection is the new currency and this has inspired and motivated us even more determinedly, to unleash the power within all of us; to go beyond our joint imaginations, and take our creativity to levels previously unthought of. To provide content, communication, identity, and sound to human experience is what we at Marble strive to offer, to each and every person we work with and is our infinite ethos.

I wanted to make our vision distinct from our mission. Which I hope as the reader, in whatever context you are reading this, is clear on our focus on results and outcomes rather than methods to achieve it. The methods to achieve it, our mission in action, lies within our values structure. My next blog will look at how our mission aligns our people with our purpose and values and the values of our clients. 

For me, the vision statement that never ceases to inspire me is the very simple statement from Walt Disney: it is “to bring happiness to millions”. This has never actually changed – and nor has the core ideology which underpins it. Never limited by imagination, the results can be experienced in theme parks, films, every kind of animation and digital media and new avenues designed to bring happiness to millions continues to evolve. The values at the core are how Disney advocates ‘act out’ bringing happiness to everyone on a daily basis. And that’s where my next blog is headed.