The theme for this year’s Web 2.0 Expo New York is the Power of Less. The Power of Less doesn’t just mean making do with fewer staff and a smaller budget. It means that constraints drive creativity, whether in business models, design paradigms, or platforms. It means the power of the small screen, the thin client, the streamlined interface. It might mean the power of small teams, or even going solo.

We asked companies who employ this power to drop us a line so we could share their strategies with you. It’s been a tough year for many of us, and hopefully these answers will help you and your business move forward and grow. If you think your company harnesses the Power of Less - and you have good examples - drop us a line here or on Twitter @w2e.

Today’s interview is with Gabriel Shaoolian - the founder and Creative Director of Blue Fountain Media. A brief description from their About Us page:

Gabriel Shaoolian

Blue Fountain Media is a boutique website development & online marketing firm located in New York City, at Union Square. We specialize in creating custom solutions that bring clients tangible and measurable results to help grow their business and enhance their brand.

Below is the abbreviated conversation we had with Gabriel:

Kaitlin: You say that you use a different process than most to get “to the heart of a client’s business strategies.” How is this different than companies who you consider more wasteful with resources?

Gabriel: All of our projects at Blue Fountain Media are “team” based. When you have an account manager, a designer, a developer and a marketer at the table at the very first client meeting, you are far more likely to emerge with a comprehensive and integrated plan of attack. This not only streamlines the entire requirements process, it allows us to proceed quickly and efficiently with the delivery of the project.

At many companies, the account manager is the only person to meet with the client. This creates terrible inefficiencies:

• The account manager has to take the time to get the team up to speed
• He’s failed to take advantage of the expertise of his team at the planning stage
• There are always communications issues when messages are passed along and not received first hand.

Kaitlin: Previously, you mentioned having an “office designed for efficiency” that lacks individual offices. Why would you want an open office space versus privacy for employees? And are your cubicle walls any different than other offices? What exactly is the difference?

Gabriel: Not only don’t we have individual offices, we don’t have cubicles. A web project is a collaborative project. Since we assign teams to a project, you want the quickest lines of communications between the team members. Working shoulder to shoulder, our designers can communicate instantaneously with our marketers, our developers can build sites with the functionality matching the design, and our account managers can stay on top of any issues arising out of their projects.

When people are hidden behind walls or even cubicles, communication can come to a standstill. Our system allows us not only to create great work, but to deliver projects in some of the fastest turnarounds in the industry.

Kaitlin: I hear many companies say they value their employees and “empower” them. How do you actually put this in to practice and how can you maintain this culture if you’re growing? Isn’t there a point where you get to be a big fish and micromanaging fully capable employees becomes the norm?

Gabriel: As I said earlier, we assign a team to each project and give them full responsibility to deliver. If you have terrific team members, which we do, it gives you the luxury of not having to micromanage. As long as you structure projects with “teams” to doesn’t matter how large the company gets. If I felt I had to micromanage an individual or a team, I wouldn’t want them working for me.

The other side of the formula is, if you have great teams and they deliver great results, then they should be rewarded for those results. Most every project we do comes with specific and quantifiable goals. When milestones (i.e. increased traffic, sales, and revenue for the client) are met and exceeded, team members get bonuses. This gives everyone who works on a project a feeling of ownership.

Kaitlin: You mention that financial discipline is a major part of your company philosophy, but isn’t it your job to consider ways to expand and grow the company rather than being a gate keeper of cash? How do you balance your desire to be penny wise with your role of looking for bigger things in the future?

Gabriel: “Financial discipline” and being “a gate keeper of the cash,” are two very different things. There are a lot of businesses are no longer in business because they failed to invest in things like technology, marketing and personnel. Financial discipline means budgeting wisely. If you throw money at things not designed to enhance your bottom line, you are throwing it away. Similarly, if you fail to spend when great opportunities are presented (i.e. a perfect advertising vehicle), you are committing financial suicide.

I like to believe that we have made the right choices on both ends of the spectrum.

Kaitlin: Please list in brief some of the resources you use to manage or grow your business that keep costs down. By resources I mean anything from cheaper or free software to filing your own papers instead of hiring a clerk.

Gabriel: We are in the fortunate position of having an extremely talented development team, one that has created for us a variety of cost and time-saving tools. In particular, they have built for us an intranet that gives us sophisticated project management tracking tools.

These tools allow us to track, ticket and monitor every step of the project lifecycle. If someone will be sick or out of the office for any reason, we not only are able to create an alert, we automate the process of replacing that person’s skills on the project.

Another “resource” we rely on is company morale. Our employees work closely together and they play closely together. I have strived to create a working environment that brings out the best in every employee.

Kaitlin: You mentioned that you attend many free events such as the ones offered by Web 2.0 Expo New York to network. How does such a strategy work year round? Many people have the idea that you have to wine and dine clients at expensive restaurants to get a deal – the “Mad Men” way of doing things. In this economy are clients expected to be cheap dates?

Gabriel: The Mad Men era is ancient history.

What clients look for today are results. In every client agreement we make, we set out specific milestones and we have a terrific record of exceeding those milestones. We focus all of our attention on the client’s bottom line… essentially putting ourselves in our client’s shoes.

Similarly, we look for a return on investment for every dollar we spend. When there are “free” opportunities to gain valuable knowledge and network with industry leaders (as we will at Web 2.0 Expo New York), we take advantage of them. When it makes sense to spend money (i.e. on great technologies, marketing and great talent), we’re happy to do it, because there are many times when it is prudent to spend money to make money.

Just look at our client list (NFL, OppenheimerFunds, the United Nations, Procter & Gamble, e.g.). We got their business not by taking them out to dinner, but by demonstrating that the work we perform for them will give them terrific bottom-line results.

Whether it’s hosting an annual Halloween Party for employees and clients or fielding a company kickball team, I’ve made a concerted effort to create an environment where everybody thrives.

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Gabriel Shaoolian is the Founder and Creative Director of Blue Fountain Media.

Kaitlin Pike is the Community Manager of Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @w2e.

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