Business surgery: Mocean

Name of Business: Mocean Adventures Limited

Year Established: 2014

Where is the company based: Temple Quarter

Sector: Team building and leadership development

Key clients: Airbus, Morrison and HP.

Owner: Mick Lindsay

Number of staff: 3 full time, scaling up to 20 with a pre approved freelance crew when needed.

Company overview

Mocean is a team building and employee engagement company based in Bristol and London. It works with clients all over the UK helping them engage, motivate and develop their staff, providing exceptional team-building activities focused on key competencies that have a tangible and long-lasting impact on businesses.

“The old days of team building for the sake of it are long gone,” says owner Mick Lindsay. “We offer activities with real ROI (return-on-investment).”

Their corporate team building activities are frequently staged in outdoor environments – mountains, rivers, seas – where a lack of connectivity helps teams to focus. Adventure-based activities help build high performance teams that are united and raring to go when they return to work. 

Using a combination of behavioural theory and adventurous outdoor experiences they unite teams and develop leadership.

In addition, Mocean’s Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) accredited learning and development programme can cover all aspects of staff development and CPD requirements.

With over 60 per cent of employees in the UK declaring themselves unhappy in their work and productivity dropping by as much as 30 per cent among unhappy employees, it’s important to act quickly and efficiently to engage employees. Mocean prides itself on changing behaviours in a fun and engaging environment “because a happy team is much better for your business’”.

The challenge

“Our product has been validated and tested. We have traction with some great clients who return time and time again. However, one of our major issues concerns creating an effective and sustainable pathway into big businesses.

There are often lengthy procurement processes and changes to personnel to contend with on top of trying to find the right person to talk to.

So my question is: What are the key messages that would help open doors to large businesses? In particular, is there any crucial information that is simply ‘expected’ from your supply chain?”

FEEDBACK

Danny Gosling, Managing Director at Thinkography

“Business is waking up to the importance of employee engagement, but team building is still seen as ‘nice to have’ rather than essential. While you may pitch to an Employee Engagement Manager, who understands the value you bring, your challenge will be to convince senior management, so it’s vital to phrase this in terms that the boardroom will relate to: laser-focus on benefits, not features, and return on investment, not cost. In your line, ROI can be hard to quantify, but is fundamental to any decision to employ you.

With your engagement contact, prepare a joint presentation to make the case for your services. Use your independence here – you will bring a fresh perspective and tone of voice to the discussion. Together you’ll make a more powerful argument.

Long procurement processes are frustrating, but once you convince the company that your service is worth the investment, the wheels will turn more easily. Be proactive: as part of your sales pitch, prepare a document in advance that covers the fundamental information you will be asked, such as liability insurance. Make the decision to employ you as easy as possible. And prepare to be patient and persistent.”

Darren Hart, Head of Digital at T&S.

· Be provably consistent – large corporations tend to react badly to ever changing approaches

· Document your procedures – be ready to back them up, but also understand how they can be flexible depending on the way your target operates

· Case studies – having ready to hand examples of success stories for similar clients/challenges is great, but also show how you dealt with something that went wrong.

· Have a demonstrable backup plan – nothing goes 100 per cent to plan, provide a strategy for dealing with failure whether related to third parties or internal errors, own your mistakes and take responsibility

· Choose your friends – whilst it’s obviously key to win over the decision maker, if they aren’t going to be your day-to-day contact then make sure that relationship is in place