Frank Jons: chromatic explosions!
He could have ended up as a partner in an auditing firm, but a job interview convinced him to follow his true calling: painting. Interview.
Jerome Bloch (360Crossmedia): 20 Years and Three crises Old
Two months after celebrating its 20th anniversary with a record year in 2019, 360Crossmedia found itself the Covid-19 lockdown like everyone else. What could have been an abrupt fall turned into a very exciting year. An interview with its CEO, Jerome Bloch.
How did you react when the lockdown was announced?
I did two things before heading home. The first was to gather my core team and tell them how great it was, after working so hard for so long, to be able to take a step back and prepare for the future decade. I also told them that with my experience of the 2001 and 2008 crises, I knew for sure that many opportunities would rapidly arise and that I was willing to invest a lot of money and effort in research and development. The second thing I did was to pay all invoices of companies working with us to clearly show them that we were financially healthy and willing to support them in these difficult times.
"Where there is risk, there is opportunity."
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What happened in the following weeks?
We had one month where we mostly worked on R&D: pushing the limits of the 360Box, coding, buying hardware, adding content to our 360DigitalHeroes training platform and new services to our communication agency, 360Crossmedia, which specialized in design sprints. For example, we released full training modules for Zoom and Webex, making both platforms compatible with the 360Box. To make a long story short, I think that the regular publication of our progress on LinkedIn and in our newsletter sent a clear signal that 360Crossmedia was riding the storm with a very active and positive mindset. This attracted like-minded people who gave us exciting missions. In May, we released our first digital conference in a virtual studio. People wondered how we did this in the lockdown! We were shipping green backgrounds all over the world and training each speaker so that they could appear in the best possible light. Fast forward to now and 40% of our turnover this year is related to services that we were not delivering last year and business coming from LinkedIn picked up from 11% to 23%.
What opportunities do you identify for the future?
Where there is risk, there is opportunity! In today’s world, people tend to avoid risks, which I believe is a huge mistake. Companies have come to 360Crossmedia for the last 20 years because they know that we work relentlessly to manage their risks and deliver great videos, magazines, training programs or events, on time. No nonsense. We live in very exciting times, and we feel totally ready for the next decade, thanks to the three-fold structure of our company: design sprints communication agency, training center and innovation center. These allow our clients not only to find a trusted partner in the same place who can solve their problems fast, but also to empower their teams straight through to the point where training modules can be recorded for €10 or less with our 360Box.