The old adage in the industry used to be -

Fast, Cheap, or Good... Pick two! 

• If you want it fast and cheap, it wont be of good quality.
• If you want it fast and good, it wont be cheap. 
• And if you want good quality and cheap, it wont be fast.

However, in this day and age, I find that not only are clients demanding all three, they are typically getting it. We serve a broad range of clients from global corporations to small businesses, from agencies to non-profits.  Not to mention municipal and government agencies.  In every one of these categories, the employees are asked to do more with less.  Budgets are tight and people are spread thin.  So it's no surprise to realize that they are looking for outside vendors to also do more for less.  And as indicated by the opening of this article, they expect it FAST!

Often, it seems, the time lines are indicative of the overworked employee trying to juggle multiple projects and growing responsibilities.  This causes projects to get lower attention until the deadline looms and it becomes urgent.  In other cases, the project comes as a last minute request needed for an upcoming meeting. Since this request often comes from the boss or higher level supervisor it appears to be unavoidable.

But is it all part of the same symptom - over worked work force?

Sure, we can say that in the last example the project didn't exist early enough to not be a rush job, but is that true?   Just because the front-liners responsible for doing the work didn't have the project on their radar, doesn't mean no one did.  Perhaps it just means that the supervisors/executives are also overworked, and as such didn't have the capacity to think through the meeting/project details sooner. But they often have some idea of what they want to do.

It used to be that every major meeting had months of planning and prep time.  In the past we had a month or so of production time set aside producing executives' videos prior to their annual meetings.  Today those requests are being reduces to a week or so of production.  We have had several recent meetings that had people delivering changes to videos and slides minutes before a show was going live.  Often the information isn't new and earth-shattering... it was just people not having the capacity to finalize elements sooner.  

So what is the solution to a problem that seems to unavoidable in this day and age?

We have attempted to incorporate a more proactive approach with our clients, knowing that meetings or repeat projects are approaching, we try to intervene early and help take the pressure off.  We found they tend to wait because the NEXT project is not as much a priority as the CURRENT issue at hand.  It wasn't typically because they had no idea of what they wanted, they just couldn't think about it sooner.  By being proactive, the clients that take us up on the offer have been able to setup a conference calls or a quick meeting - allowing us the time to get the project info required... they they can go about their business while we get the video or other content development underway.

In another situation, a client called us at the last minute 3 quarters in a row, for a last minute executive video shoot and edit.  It was at a time when we are spread thin with overlapping Investor Relations Webcasts and it was always a scramble to get the video done.  After two consecutive quarters of scrambling, I put my team on alert to expect the call again. We were ready and able to respond - but it turned out to still be a rush.  So the as the next quarter end approached, I decided to reach out to the client. I told them we didn't need the details yet, but if the shoot was going to happen, lets get it scheduled and book our resources.  It was like a lightbulb in the clients eyes.  They realized they knew the project was going to happen for the foreseeable future, but they always waited to call us until they solidified the executives calendar.  The next 5-6 quarters went much smoother, simply because they engaged us sooner and we had the resources booked and ready to go.  Drama averted.

This approach doesn't change deadlines, but it does make the experience a little less stressful and allows for the resources to be on the ready.  Buy eliminating the stress, we have been able to better manage costs and expectations, allowing us to accommodate the budgets and time constrains dictated by the current business practices.

I've had conversations about the business trend of time and money constraints with others in the industry.  We always joke that the clients keep operating on the compressed timeline, because we keep delivering. If we consistently missed deadlines, increased budgets for rush jobs, or simply told them we couldn't do it... perhaps the trends will change.  However, I contend that we need to change with the client. As they are being squeezed for access to resources so will we. If this is the new normal, then we are well trained to handle the industry demand but if things revert to the old normal, we will be in the right place as a valued partner to our clients.