Find out how a B2B Marketing as a Service firm transformed its organisational culture into a competitive advantage
A high-performance culture is what most companies aspire to, but very few can achieve. Indeed, it takes great investment in thought, time, and money, but as some of the world’s most successful companies know, the returns make it worth the while.
Since its inception, 2X, a B2B-focused Marketing as a Service (MaaS) firm headquartered in Philadelphia, USA with delivery operations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has had culture as its priority. They adopted a flat organizational structure, which to this day enables easy access to the executive leadership and other seniors. It encourages more employee input, allows for easier dissemination of information and higher productivity, and provides transparency so employees understand how their job functions contribute to the overall business.
“Show your employees respect and invest in them, and they will be driven to create and deliver value internally and externally. We’ve made it our mission to ensure our employees have the resources they need to meet and exceed their goals. The idea is to build high-performing teams that are collaborative, innovative, and goal-oriented,” says Siew Mee Yong, 2X Managing Director and Chief People Officer, who oversees the company’s operations at the Kuala Lumpur office.
“In order to systematically support our people, we established a Centre of Excellence (COE) for each function. Each function COE is led by a Principal or Lead, who oversees the design and implementation of training and mentorship programs,” adds Siew Mee. “We also have an internal consultancy arm that collates the latest and greatest from 2X and the industry, to form the 2X best practices that we then deploy across different clients. The intel gathered generates new knowledge and know-how, which in turn creates new materials for training and the improvement of our people. This is to ensure our people continue to grow and our clients get the best ideas from 2X.”
Positive company culture: action speaks louder than words
2X’s services today comprise of high-performing client teams that support close to 60 different B2B companies in the US. Its flat organizational model enables the speed and agility to anticipate and respond to change. This means being able to keep pace with new marketing technology, trends, and tactics, and continuously develop new service innovations. It also means being able to respond to the pandemic quickly and without disruption to the business.
“As an offshore B2B digital marketing agency, remote working is second nature to us. Our clients are all based in the US, so we’ve always had the communications tools and productivity platforms in place to work virtually. So really, it was business as usual for us, even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” explains Siew Mee.
In response to the stay-at-home orders by the government (known as the Movement Control Order in Malaysia), 2X sponsored home office furniture and introduced the 2X Paid Mental Health Resources Program, complete with mental wellness leave days and a special allowance for therapy. And even though 2X employees have started returning to the office, these benefits remain.
These initiatives and many more are the result of 2X’s ongoing effort to monitor employee productivity and wellness—employee surveys that let us know how they work at home and at the office, their general and mental wellbeing, and if they are equipped with the right tools to do the work. There are even simple tools like a daily smiley face survey that pops up at the end of the workday for employees to click on and express themselves (options are the green smiley face, yellow “meh” face, and the red angry mad face). It is what enables the leadership team to get proper feedback and gauge workloads and stress levels so that they’re able to get ahead of and resolve these issues.
Of course, the key isn’t in just running the surveys but also action. Survey results are often announced at the next monthly town hall meeting, complete with an action plan or a new initiative that addresses the core topic of the survey.
Cultural fit is just as important as job function suitability
Fostering a strong, positive work culture involves considerable time and investment. At 2X, efforts include providing an avenue for growth and learning, facilitating positive team building, and prioritizing employee wellbeing. In fact, so protective is 2X of its culture that hiring managers give cultural fit the same weightage as job function suitability.
“We are a world-class, diverse team of marketing strategists, developers, analysts, designers, and writers who work together to get things done the smart way. We are also learning-oriented, tech-savvy, outcome-driven, and believe strongly in work-life balance and a fun working environment. Our collaborative nature enables us to quickly share the best practices among our teams and recommend new ideas to our clients that are ready to implement,” says Siew Mee.
“Our clients are industry leaders and multimillion-dollar companies who have trusted 2X to deliver tens of millions in pipeline and thousands of qualified leads. This is why we focus on cultivating thought leaders, not order-takers, who are proactive and adaptive. We’ve created an environment that allows for transparency and open communication, so our employees understand the company’s focus and purpose even during times of great change.
“And we’re all about growth. Putting our people first has been one of our most effective business strategies. Our revenue, employees, and client base are expanding rapidly—doubling every four to six months—with the biggest growth documented at the height of the pandemic. We’re currently 300 strong, but we’d like to achieve a headcount of 500 by the end of this year, and double that to 1,000 by the end of 2023 to support new business.”
In addition to its big ambitions, 2X boasts several notable accolades. Winner of Startup Weekly’s 2021 Diverse & Inclusive Employer Award and the 2022 Best Employer Brand Award, 2X made an impressive debut at #633 on Inc. magazine’s list of 5000 fastest-growing private companies.
For more information about 2X, visit www.2x.marketing.
