How is business continuing for the industry now working from home is the new normal? Source talks to Phil Moore, md, about how Beacon Creative has adapted.
With the licensing industry now working from home due to COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns, Source talks to key licensors, licensees and agents to find out how they are keeping business going.
Today: Phil Moore, managing director, Beacon Creative.
How is the team’s day now structured, with everyone working from home?
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to work remotely as we’re out and about with clients all around the world that means sometimes we’re in different time zones, so currently it’s like a normal day in the office. We all log on at the same time and use Skype for our meetings and communicate through Slack.
Could you provide a rough timeline of your day?
Wake up, get dressed and rush to my desk so I’m not late! Then pretty much a normal day, log on and say our hellos to the team, chat over our daily list and breakdown what we are working on that day and plan ahead for upcoming projects. It’s nice to get a bit of human contact to start your day. An upside is that I only have to make my own coffee on a morning now.
Then just work through my list, prioritising workload. We are also currently hiring a new member, so we have interviews to conduct, which is working well doing remote online interviews.
We break at 12 for a daily meeting to catch up socially and play a game. It helps to keep up morale and feel connected. We don’t know what it is until we get the call! We have regular social events playing mini-golf or going bowling and it gets pretty competitive, so there is a trophy in the studio that we all try and win, so that is currently on the line with all of our pre-lunch activities. We’re posting everything we do on social media (mainly our Instagram). We take our lunch breaks whenever we get hungry and finish up our day at 6ish.
How is communication with licensees and partners continuing? How important is it to continue keeping these lines of communication open during this time?
As far as we are concerned it is business as usual. We are very fortunate in these times. As this isn’t, a huge change in how we currently work we’re in contact with our clients most days via email/Zoom/Teams. It’s really important that we stay connected to our clients and people we collaborate with. It fostered a real deep feeling of working together as a larger team which I hope will be one thing that will continue after this is over.
Which projects are you able to move forward on right now?
Most projects are un-affected, only seasonal projects seem to be affected as production deadlines can’t be hit, so a bit of reorganising and prioritising has to be done. Our colleagues in China are coming back online which is great news and encouraging for us all that there will be an end to this current crisis.
What piece of advice would you give about how best to continue to feel like a team while WFH?
Skype/Zoom/Teams calls are great to either chat through ideas with the team or just catch up on what they have going on. Keeping in touch with the team is key and makes it feel like a normal day in the office. Just seeing everyone’s faces on the screen makes it feel like everyone not quite so far away.
How are you keeping up morale?
Each week a member of the team is promoted to Task or Quizmaster which is a lot of fun and breaks up our days nicely. Midday challenges, posting memes through Slack, Skype/Zoom meetings, plenty of pet pictures, keeping in touch (even if it is just a Skype call to get some gossip), try and do things together still even if it’s a daily meeting or an activity or even eat lunch together. We have a team lunch on Wednesday which is usually food delivered to the office in normal times… we are keeping that up with the members who can receive a Deliveroo at home!
The best thing about WFH?
Easy access to the fridge, dressing from the waist up, being able to pat our various pets (cats, dogs, horses, chickens) at any time and no commute!
What’s the one thing you’ve discovered about each team member since WFH that you didn’t know before?
Lots of things, too many to list but here are some. Shaun really likes Drake. He claims he doesn’t, but whenever we are connected on Skype you can hear him playing in the background. Sam’s study has no furniture and his dog Penny doesn’t like it when he puts her dog bed on his head. Sarah is a secret TikTok influencer after being dragged into dancing with her daughter on the app. Phil can balance a heavy office chair on his head for 15 seconds (it’s a long story) and his house looks a lot like the office.
If you have children, how are you managing keeping them entertained/educated while you work?
That is a difficult one! With teenage children it’s business as usual, occasionally seeing them venture from their bedrooms (sometimes before midday). The team members who don’t have children have various pets including a one year old pup called Penny who is just as high maintenance. Keeping as normal a routine as possible seems to be working well for us all.
What advice would you give to people in the business who are worried about the future?
Try to look for all the positives. We are discovering and exploring how feasible it is to work remotely and the many benefits that brings. It’s a great way to test our resilience and explore new ways of working. Remember we are all in this together and we will get through it together. Each individual company will have their own challenges, but if we work together and ask for help and advice we will get through this.
If you or your team would like to take part in this feature, simply email Samantha Loveday on saml@max-publishing.co.uk.
