Packaging
Work Becomes the Pitch
OPEN Strategy & Design talks about building a belief-led practice where strong work and long-term partnerships reduce the need for pitching.
Some studios chase work, others let it find them. What shaped your belief-led approach where work becomes the strongest introduction, and how has it influenced your growth?
We have always believed that good work leads to more opportunities. After 15 years in the business, our experience supports this belief. Our client repeat rate is extremely high, and we often receive recommendations. For those who share our approach to brand building, we become long-term partners in their growth.
Our track record demonstrates the long-term value of our services. This creates a different kind of conversation and dynamic with our clients. Additionally, since we primarily work with founders and promoters, it allows us to effectively showcase the value we bring.
What does being “open” look like in your daily work, and how does it impact your team culture and collaboration?
Names can significantly influence behaviour, and in our case, our name often serves as a reminder. It’s easy to lose perspective and confuse rigidity with belief or narrow thinking with maturity. The key to overcoming this is being honest about our actions. When you embrace a new challenge driven solely by the desire to solve it, you are being OPEN. We have come to realise that one of the rarest qualities in business today is ownership, the genuine care for the brand or the job you are doing. We continually remind each other that this is what being OPEN is all about.
You talk about sharing tools and ideas openly. How do you balance openness with ownership in a competitive creative industry?
We’ve come to realise that tools and ideas don’t have much value by themselves. It’s how seriously we take them, and what we do with them, that makes the difference. So it doesn’t really matter. You can have the entire toolkit and playbook of the best in the world, and still not become them.
