Going fully remote has not only provided Flow with an opportunity to work with new clients but has opened up new ways of doing business.
During 2020, which was a really difficult year for the industry – and for many industries – Flow worked hard to retain clients and attract new clients, many of them from around the globe.
Some of the international clients Flow began working with last year, and continue to work with, include:
- The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation (a philanthropic organisation based in Nigeria)
- The Finnish and French embassies in South Africa
- Flexability (diversity consultants and specialised recruitment firm based in the United States)
- Grundfos (a pump manufacturer founded in Denmark)
- The German Development Cooperation (a public diplomacy initiative of the German government, which has a strong presence across Africa)
- The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit – GIZ (operates on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development)
- The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (an organisation that preserves places of memory such as historic sites)
- IsoMetrix (a mining software provider with numerous international offices)
- Norsad Finance (an impact investor based in Botswana)
- VirtualResource (a skills consultancy based in the Netherlands)
According to a Forbes magazine article on digital transformation in the age of Covid-19, “Those companies able to use technology well to keep going and rethink their business model for the future by fast-tracking digital transformation will be ones ahead of their competition.”
Says Flow managing director Tiffany Turkington-Palmer: “One of the huge benefits of having gone fully online is that we are able to connect immediately with clients, and our connections happen more regularly and are more focused.
“Very early on, when we had just gone into lockdown in 2020, we upscaled our offerings to include a number of revised products and services such as online events and webinars. And we’ve hosted some very successful online events, like the 10th Annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture and the GIZ-funded Climate Diplomacy Week online lectures that engaged participants from around the world.
“We have also worked hard to retain our old clients and are very happy that we still have some of our oldest clients, like the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Maropeng and Hollard, in our stable.”
For Tiffany one of the biggest achievements has been attracting a whole new client base that focuses on purpose-driven work.
“This speaks to our hearts and our purpose of wanting to make the world a better place.”
Roy Barford, one of Flow’s business developers, says, “Flow has been doing international work for many years, and we completed projects in more than 30 countries before 2020. Last year, however, we enjoyed a massive increase in international work. Many organisations have moved to remote working, and thanks to technology can work just as easily with service providers in South Africa as they can with service providers just down the road.
“Every day we are engaging with clients in countries such as the United States, Nigeria, the Netherlands and others, and it’s been great to increase our global network. I’m very excited about all the global opportunities coming in 2021.”