Vodafone Shared Services Europe, based in Budapest, has one of the largest marketing agencies in all of Hungary, having started with a mere 13 people in 2014, and now reaching over 100 employees as of April 2018. How does such a rapidly growing, internal, B2B marketing agency of one of the largest telecommunications companies in Europe keep employees engaged and encourage innovation? It takes them on a two-day, offsite event designed to put their creative thinking to the test, and lets them design their own future at work.
The two-day session, hosted by Tamas Sztaricskai, Global Marketing Manager of Vodafone Shared Services, began with an interactive presentation that I led, after which participants were divided into several groups based on different topics – including key competitors, partners, and environment types. The goal was for each group to focus on their given topic and identify areas as well as creative solutions for innovation.
The results were better than expected. In 2016, following the event, 15 innovative ideas were brought to life. Fast-forward to 2018, and seven of those have come full circle, and to various extent have been implemented into the marketing team’s daily operations. Over this period, the marketing team doubled revenues and increased the volume of yearly savings for Vodafone by 2.5 times. And as a testament to the initiative’s cultural impact.
