Dear Clients, Partners, Friends,
I hope you’re doing well.
Mäd has just turned 4 years old, and I wanted to take some time to reflect and share some lessons that we’ve learned along the way, and give a thanks to everyone for the continuous support.
We are now at a stage where our business flywheel is accelerating, and investment and bets that were made years ago are starting to show: we’ve had almost 200 RFPs in the last 18 months and this year is set to be a record-profit year, despite COVID-19.
We are placing a significant amount of effort on research, guides, and insights, publishing on average three times a week on a variety of topics. We think this is useful for our clients as well as the public and fellow professionals at large, and the traffic numbers seem to agree:
Mäd.co is now in the top 500 websites by traffic and visits in the Kingdom of Wonder.
The Next Four Years.
We plan to keep heavily investing in the things that we know will not change:
- Hiring the best talent possible. We have been actively hiring this year, bringing in new head counts on management, design, research, communications, and development. We’re constantly raising the hiring bar and raising expectations for both existing and new team members.
- Building client relationships for the long term. We will always favor relationships over transactions, and work in our client’s best interest for the long term.
- Constantly challenging the notion of “business as usual”. By utilizing First Principles thinking, we’re continually going back to explore the basics of how things work and ensure that that we are constantly innovating.
- Making meaningful reinvestments back into the business. Optimizing for the long-term means making investments that do not have an obvious short-term gain.
Recent Insights.
I’d like to share some of our most recent insights into a variety of topics:
- On Starting Up. Creating something that’s completely new is difficult. Let’s explore how to make it easier.
- Accelerating Sales. Selling more and selling better is (almost) universally favored, as long as the business has the capacity to meet growing demand
- Building Cross-Functional Teams. A cross-functional team brings together people with different kinds of expertise or from different departments in your organization - with huge benefits.
Recent Work.
Additionally, we’ve recently completed launched some notable projects on behalf of our clients:
- Fastex. We’ve branded a new innovative courier service based in Phnom Penh, that’s poised to disrupt industry norms.
- Canadia Bank. Introducing the recently redesigned website for Cambodia’s largest bank.
- JLC. To support their recent rebrand, Mäd developed and launched a supporting website.
- Rose Apple Square. A stunningly beautiful and functional space now has an equally impressive virtual space.
Recommended Reading.
As always, I’d like to close off by recommending some books that we’ve been enjoying recently, and you’re welcome to drop by and browse our ever-growing library (~300 books on design, business, and technology):
- The Art of Clear Thinking. This book details key mental models that are useful in combatting intellectual laziness and being able to understand complex situations.
- The 80/20 Manager. This is an interesting read because it provides a significant amount of counter-intuitive management practices that actually help managers build and grow high-performance teams.
- The Invincible Company. This book beautifully illustrates common business models, dissecting strategy in a fascinating and easy-to-digest manner.
In closing, I hope that the upcoming Q4 is fruitful, and as always, Mäd is on standby to help with your most pressing business problems and strategies.
Kind regards,
Manny.
