I had the pleasure of attending the 2017 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium at Sacramento in late January. The trade show exhibitors numbered around 700 booths representing companies and organizations of all kinds within the wine and grape industry.
While spending two days walking the trade show floor I was struck with the incredible synergy within the industry, once you step back and look at the totality of it. An immense amount of specialization exists amongst the participating companies. There are so many companies involved in the journey to make wine, all the way from the the rootstock to the bottle that sits on the table at the restaurant. Each step of the process is critical and needs to be handled with precision and care to create the experience the wine aficionado craves. For example, there are companies devoted to supplying the valves and control systems that fill the bottles that are branded and designed with an evocative label, then capped, corked or sealed with a stopper.
All of this diversity of action and ingenuity comes together to create a tight-knit whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. I saw an industry that works well together to create something that, at the end of the day, is magical.
The importance of specialization and teamwork
I’ve always been someone that believes that individual specialization is critical in producing the best output. Throughout my many years in creating marketing solutions for companies, I’ve sought to find the people and partners that have an individual mastery of key marketing components, yet can come together as a team to produce projects and campaigns that take on a life of their own.
This trade show reinforced in me how very important this balance of specialization and teamwork is, and how important it is that it remains a cornerstone of how we work at Harvest91.
Download our free eBook:
How to survive the radical changes in marketing and thrive in 2018