Local matters

The pandemic has made us all work in new ways and has made me think about how we will organise ourselves in the future.

For me, two contradictory thoughts have occurred:

1. We’ve shown we can successfully work from home/anywhere with our clients – in theory, we need never see anyone face-to-face again;
2. Yet location seems to matter more than ever!

We are proud of the great, longstanding relationships we have with clients who are based around the UK (and beyond) that we have never (or only rarely) met in person. Until the pandemic, I saw these as evidence that there were no advantages in being geographically close to a client.

However, I have now changed my tune; I DO think locality can matter – for three main reasons:

• We are part of a community that is based in a physical place. We can all find common ground in the places and people around us, and when those places and people are in good shape, we flourish too. Adactus is a ‘people first’ company, and this must include contributing to our community, doing our bit to make our area thrive. We know this works, because we’ve helped companies on our doorstep successfully deploy technology which grows their business and, in turn, provides opportunity and employment in the area. We’ve also got a kick out of and learned loads from initiatives such as sponsoring community amenities and offering work experience programmes for local schools.

• The digital work we do sits alongside real-world operations and interactions that need to be provided locally. If we have an extensive network of local clients, suppliers and contacts, we can help with referrals and recommendations. We know this works, because we’ve introduced several of our clients and suppliers to each other and they’ve gone on to do great work together.

• For some situations and certain people, face-to-face meetings are just better. People do business with people. Being local makes this easier and better for the environment. We know this works because a number of our clients ARE within easy reach so we used to see them all the time, which was super-productive. We’ve really missed seeing them this last year and can’t wait for our next messy creative whiteboard session.

So – starting today – we will be actively seeking ways that Adactus can work on technology challenges with businesses in and around Thame, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

If you’d like to start that conversation, contact me on 01844 269090.

Scott Muncaster
MD
Adactus