Guest Speaker: Steve Grant, Head of Strategy, MODEA

Steve Grant is a Brand and Digital Strategist. He has been in the industry for over 15 years and has experience working with many different types of companies. Grant has lived in places all around the world and has a lot of knowledge to offer. He specializes in new product development and thrives on working with complicated brands. Modea hired Grant as Head of Strategy to help define their strategic vision. Modea is a fast- growing independent digital agency that defines themselves as brand builders, who love technology. They offer strategy services (like consumer research), user research, creative services, technology services, and much more.

I think clients view Modea is a young and exciting new company. Because they are based in Blacksburg, Modea hires many recent Virginia Tech graduates. Because many of their employees are younger, they are able to offer an innovative and fresh point of view. I think having a youthful staff attracts clients to Modea because they are interested in their unique perspective on things.

Modea is a very small company that is also very young. A strategic issue that could be very threatening to them is being able to stay competitive in the industry. They are competing against a lot of big-name competition that could potentially pose a threat to them. Larger companies tend to have more resources available to them, such as, man-power and hefty amounts of funning available. In addition to competing against larger sized companies, Modea also has to worry about older companies that have been established and are experienced. Newer companies have to build up relationships and make a name for themselves. It’s hard to enter into an aggressive industry and compete with companies that have been around for years. Companies like Modea, who are both young and small, don’t have as much leverage as other larger and more established companies. A loss of a big client or employee could be detrimental to them because they do not have that “safety net” built up yet.

Question: Modea is a very fast-growing company, how do you keep up with the expanding business? Are you hiring on more employees?