MP&Co

MP&Co are a purpose-driven marketing agency based in Manchester who wanted to solidify their business processes. They work with ambitious, seven-figure organizations that share their values. Their aim is to work with companies and people who prioritize issues like the environment, social mobility, and mental health. T

Whilst helping their clients to achieve their goals, they also give back by giving a share of their yearly earnings to charity. 

MP&Co are a member of the Better Business Network, which is where Optimo met Mike Pye, their Managing Director.  

The Better Business Network hosts an annual summit for its members who are committed to creating positive social and environmental impacts. At the end of the summit this year, they hosted a hike. Whilst at the hike, our co-directors, Danielle and Vicky, met Mike who straightaway realised that there was an opportunity for Optimo to help.

“It was really clear that the team could help us in developing and solidifying some business processes to help us scale what we do and help us drive efficiencies.” –Mike Pye

MP&Co wanted to grow the agency so this meant creating more consistency across these areas:

• The way they managed their client projects.
• The project management capabilities within the team.

Undoubtedly these improvements would improve service quality. They would also create clear roles and responsibilities for the team.

We worked with MP&Co as a one-off project over the course of around 3 months.  

We started with a kick-off call with Mike. It was to understand in more detail how the business was operating and what his goals and desired outcomes would be.

As we got to understand the company a bit more, we then conducted a face-to-face workshop in their offices in Manchester with some of his team members. This included: 

• Mapping out the processes and tools currently in use.  
• Identifying who or which roles were responsible for each step in the process. 
• Recording particular challenges or blockers that the staff were experiencing at different stages of the process.  

Afterwards, we then went away and tidied the process map and made procedure manuals based on the processes. Shortly after she mapped two versions: 

1. One which described the current process so it could be used straight away. 
2. One which incorporated a bunch of recommendations for improvements they could make to the process so as they worked through those recommendations they had a newer version to follow. 

“That audit and discovery process was really powerful as it enabled them to come back to us with some very bespoke and very specific advice and recommendations based on what would work for us, rather than templating something that’s worked for another business or trying to shoehorn in something that’s worked for other people.”- Mike Pye 

As part of the process mapping, we also found parts of project management that the team members thought would be valuable. 

After this, we checked that Mike was happy with the topics and that the training would be beneficial. Then, over the next couple of months, Danielle made 5 training modules about project management best practices. Additionally, we recorded these training modules to have versions to show other members of staff.

Finally, we created a template. This meant the company could use it in its project management processes therefore helping to improve the consistency of their work.