Innovation the Key to Growth for Design Company

Media Release                                                                                                30 June 2010

Innovation the Key to Growth for Christchurch Design Company

Results in Statistics New Zealand’s 2009 Business Operations Survey, which collects information on innovation have been backed up by a Christchurch based design company.

Plato Design has had a hugely successful last 12-18 months after using innovative strategies to sustainably grow, while supported by good business advice. In the 2009 to 2010 financial year, Plato Design:
·         grew their client base by 351%

·         grew staff numbers from 3 to 8 (5 new staff in 2009, plans to increase to eleven in 2010)

·         grew turnover by 181%

·         grew the online/website arm of their business from 1% of revenue to 10% of revenue

Managing director John Plato says these increases are related to innovation, including investing time and money in the professional development of staff, employing staff rather than contracting, and smart marketing of their “affordable and added value design service”.

“We employ rather than contract so that we can train, develop, nurture and show a commitment to our staff, for the long term,” John Plato says.

Other examples of successful innovative strategies include diversifying the client base in 2009 to strengthen the company and around the same time they relocated to an energy efficient office in Victoria Street. Plato Design also brought their website development in-house and that is now handled by a team of specialised employees. Also, every week, each team member spends 2 hours developing and researching their own ideas, with the aim of further benefiting clients. Additionally staff complete a “Happiness Report”, once a month.

“This encourages and fosters good communication between team members and reminds us how important it is to be happy, and how easy it can be to lose sight of this sometimes,” says John Plato.

John Plato believes that keeping prices down while still providing a wide range of quality design services seems to have been an innovation in itself and a successful one at that.

“Providing affordable marketing services for our clients means they can continue to effectively promote themselves during a recession. This has meant a growth in the number of clients and loyalty from those clients. We aren’t a charity but we are realistic with pricing which obviously has its appeal!” he says.

ENDS     

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