Introduction
Here at Equator, we’re always looking to evolve with the times. During our 20+ years of growth and development, we’ve learned a thing or two about how to structure our workflows to get the very best out of our internal teams. More recently, we have discovered that a so-called tribe structure helps us work with greater efficiency and drives the best returns for our clients.
We concluded that our teams were at their most effective when they were at a size between 50 and 90, so we decided to split our full employee roster into tribes to manage various client groups. While structuring on this scale does require regular reviews and occasional adjustments, we’re more than happy with how it has rolled out. The subsequent benefits are enjoyed by both our clients and the internal team here at Equator!
We embrace change at Equator to drive the best value for our clients...
How Does It Work?
The Tribe structure in Equator aims to create mini “agencies” that are each headed up by a group account director and are managed by a team of client services executives and managers. Keeping clients grouped together and serviced by a dedicated group of employees helps to create consistency and better client relationships, particularly between the members of the marketing, development and design teams that work across them.
The Equator Umbrella
The advantage of working this way is that we can create support and share knowledge across each of the tribes, thanks to the fact that they’re all under the Equator umbrella. While we have employees grouped on specific clients, that doesn’t mean that we keep ourselves siloed from each other. We collaborate across the business to deliver effective solutions and drive the very best value for our clients. We have the reactivity of a small agency but the knowledge wealth of a large one at our advantage.
A View from the Team
Our Group Account Directors have all been able to enjoy the benefits of this way of working and were keen to share their own thoughts on how the process has come to define utilising talent within the business to effectively achieve our goals.
Cherisse Todd
“Our Tribe structure allows us to be autonomous while sharing knowledge and learning within the wider agency. We have created teams of experts who specialise on a group of clients and projects. This means we’re responsive and ensures we have the skillsets we need to deliver the best solutions for our clients.
Tribes also creates a sense of team and community which can be challenging in larger organisations. With a Tribe who work together regularly they can get to know each other and their working styles and therefore delivery of projects becomes easier. You don’t need the bedding-in time of assigning a new team every time. We see real benefits in people management, as we can respond to people’s needs easier.”
Kevin Scott
“Autonomy to focus the right expertise and skills, where and when they are needed, can be a challenge in larger organisations. I’m finding that operating within our tribes is helping overcome this. The smaller, close teams are helping get decisions made quickly. And I see more ideas being surfaced and considered without the shackles of big company bureaucracy. But all still within the scale of a big company and all that brings. It’s a win-win!”
Nicola Robertson
“The mix of expertise with our Tribes also means there can be cross-industry learnings e.g. we used our hotel booking engine expertise to completely overhaul a credit card application process, with great results (one of my clients saw a 13% CR increase in applications!)
People get used to working with each other in teams – we are a big agency so that smaller scale tribe is good at fostering teams who know each other well as opposed to always working with different people, plus you don’t get stuck in a rut as there is still a mix of clients!”
Fostering Innovative Thinking
While the tribe structure is a small part of what we do here it shows how Equator have had to deal and evolve with the times. Being in business for the best part of a quarter of a century requires you to think outside the box in terms of processes and how we do things. Creating a comfortable working structure that plays to the strengths and benefits of everyone across the team.
If this way of working interests you and you want to get involved in the exciting tribe structure we employ here at Equator, check out some of the latest job opportunities available...