During my active sports days one of my coaches once said “you’ve got to reinvent yourself every day”. That certainly counts for the American Football field where weekly game planning and successful execution is conditional for success. I find it not different in business, it comes down to teamwork. However, any sports metaphor for business can be denied as the logic of competition and success is completely different, just as the dynamics of talent and teamwork is and not in the least the creation of economical value. But there are some similarities.
In 2023 I Heart Studios reinvented itself and early in the year made the choice for a focussed strategy starting with the decision to consolidate our UK and continental Europe operation in Amsterdam and to service the APAC region from our Hong Kong Studios. It led to the distinct mission statement that at I Heart we deliver consistent quality for the wholesale and eComm content needs for our clients. And we do so daily at a global scale for a growing client base that makes us grateful and stay humble. As in sports, you are only as good as your last game played.
At the same time as part of the game plan the decision was made to implement workflow management system Creative Force as the end-to-end solution for creating high-quality content on a large scale. Data management, sample management, production, quality control, retouching and delivery are consolidated in one platform and gives complete control. The addition of Bynder as a comprehensive Digital Asset Management system streamlines digital assets workflows, centralized asset storage and efficient search, version control and metadata tagging. ‘You never win the game on game day’ and all of our projects have a systems and technology backbone that allow for successful, flawless execution.
American football is a game of X’s and O’s, used to define defensive and offensive positions on the field in the different formations on both sides of the ball. Now you can design all these great plays and then the ball is snapped and no play exactly happens the way you planned it. At the end of the day day it is the athletes on the field that matter and their ability to run to ‘daylight’. In November we said goodbye to our friend, colleague, and founder of our organization, Sjors Bos, as he moves on from actively working with I Heart Studios and into the next phase of his career. At the same time I Heart could announce the addition of three fashion industry experts to ‘quarterback’ the teams. By appointing Jess Chung as General Manager in Hong Kong as well as Lauren Jansen as Head of Operations and Sureyya Gursoy as Head of Commerce in Amsterdam, I Heart hopes to benefit from their diverse backgrounds and extensive experience. The new additions to the ‘roster’ will play a vital role in driving growth, optimizing processes and providing industry insights to our clients.
Both in American Football and business, you need a good team to take on tough times. To quote one of my other coaches, “how great you are as a team or an athlete is shown in the way you handle adversity”. Critical is that in those situations you move with agility, adaptability and responsiveness. At I Heart the entire corporate philosophy is based on the team’s efficiency and productivity, where each of the ‘players’ have a specific role to play, a specific job to do, a specific must-act to perform as a part of something bigger. In that process ‘we play to the whistle’ if problems ask for a solution, if mistakes call for a repair and challenges seek results. Our Hong Kong and Amsterdam workforce bring that ‘can-do’ attitude to the Studios every day, which is a privilege and pleasure to lead.
American Football is a game where players are constantly under the pressure of being watched. Each move of theirs is a topic for future public discussion. So do our clients, so does our competition. We embrace that. In 2024 we’ll continue to raise the bar. To end with a final quote, “winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself”.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
