Each week we interview one of our members to find out a bit more about them and their work in the Greater Manchester digital sphere. This week we're speaking with the internationally-focused digital agency, Dept.
What does your organisation do?
Dept is an international digital agency, employing 1,100 people across Europe and the US. Together, we help our clients to reinvent and accelerate their digital reality by combining creativity, data and technology.
Dept was created by the merging of leading agencies, including Manchester-based design and build agency Building Blocks. The agency was founded in 2007 and was acquired by Dept in 2016. It re-branded to Dept in May 2018.
What do you think is currently the biggest issue facing the digital and tech industry?
The commoditisation of digital services has impacted the industry hard, and agencies are continually needing to reinvent and expand their service offerings to combat this. As businesses increasingly bring digital skills in-house, the pressure is on for agencies to focus on expertise, innovation and aspiration. Technology moves fast, and so do we – it’s imperative that we remain ahead of the game in order to provide solutions that will give our clients a competitive advantage.
What is your organisation’s biggest achievement?
In 2016, Dept set itself a three year ‘1/10/100’ target – one combined agency, in ten markets with €100M revenue. We achieved that target in just two years. We’re very proud that so many leading European agencies have joined the group; it demonstrates that we have a winning formula that the industry’s greatest want to be part of. Now we’re focused on obtaining a leading global position…watch this space!
What would you consider to be your organisation’s biggest challenge?
Scaling a business so rapidly across various markets can be a challenge. As a company expands, having the right people, systems and processes in place to manage the growth is really important. Internally, we need to be as fluid and agile as possible; we’re focused on continual improvement, so that with every agency we onboard, we learn new lessons to iterate the process until it’s seamless.
What do you think the future looks like for Manchester’s digital and tech sector?
Manchester has big plans for the future of digital. Its vision is to be recognised as being a Top 5 European Digital City by 2020 and, well, with Dept’s UK headquarters being here, it’ll definitely be heading that way! Dept shares something really important with Manchester; we’re both are big enough to cope but small enough to care, and are equally hungry to drive things forward.
Tell us something we might not know about your company
We’re made up of 17 agencies spread across ten countries. We won’t be stopping there, and have big plans for global growth.
