I thought it was a good opportunity to tell you about the Rokker Network and how it came about for Marshall Wolfe.
I [Jim Marshall] was presenting to Essex University MBA school a few years ago and I had the privilege to listen to the previous speaker Andy Rogers. His content was about ‘Business Design’ and how Rokker supports companies to deliver new propositions and new services. I was impressed and bizarrely he liked what I had to say about how to grow effective teams. We met for a coffee afterwards and then for a beer. Instant rapport and a significant bank of shared values (not ‘Designer’ values). Andy’s team is largely based in Tunbridge Wells and when the satellite office in Woodbridge had some space we took advantage of some hot-desking (great environment – at The Boatyard).
It was not long before we were sharing ideas, collaborating on projects and developing some new services. The collaboration was not Designed, but it was working! We stood up a Joint Venture – MegaTeamOne and Andy brought a couple of other businesses into the fold: Skull Mountain and Random Colour Animal (RCA). Two of our Directors were so impressed with RCA that they were early investors in the business.
Now known as The Rokker Network we are a group of wholly owned professional service businesses. Founded in 2015, it has been built from the ground up to create opportunity to address the growing market need for independent, value-focused subject matter experts across a range of design-related service industries.
We are a modern matrix organisation with wide network reach + deep subject matter expertise. Most of our clients start with one of our companies and naturally expand to others where appropriate; however, no matter which business you engage with you can expect human-centred, fast-moving, value-driven contextual output across the board.
Why does the Rokker Network work for us (Marshall Wolfe):
- It is fun being part of something! It is about belonging; to love and to be loved
- We share a focus on Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Delight
- Referring feels good
- Design and Empathy
- We have benefitted hugely from testing ideas, canvassing opinion across the network and learning from our experienced colleagues in different disciplines
- Both in terms of clients and people to deliver projects we have an awesome Network reach
- There are very tangible ‘bottom line’ benefits – over 28% of our turnover is from Rokker Network referred business
- We Collaborate with confidence!
It Reminds me of a terrible joke [probably for those of you born before 1980]
BOSS: quit listening to Vanilla Ice, participate in the meeting, and pay attention!!!
ME: so… stop, collaborate, and listen?
BOSS: you’re fired
… but seriously Stop! COLLABORATE and listen…
For our customers, stopping, collaborating and listening has meant we have had the chance to design meaningful talent attraction solutions; rather than simply tactical ‘plugging holes’. It has allowed us to challenge the ‘status quo’ of industry where we feel the value exchange is often sub-optimal; an industry which is crying out for innovation and change.
Please contact me if you want to get a view on ways to revolutionise the way you attract talent, but what I would really like to do is tell you about our friends across The Rokker Network.
