Captura – that’s Latin for Capture if you dare

The team at bps Captura gets asked all the time “why Captura?”

People quickly understand the “bps” which is a play on both our founder’s initials and basis points. But “Captura” vexes even those with strong vocabularies . . . because it’s latin!

Say it in Latin

Captura is simply the latin phrase for Capture. The actual definition for the latin is:

1) taking or catching (in reference to animals)

2) gained by work, specifically gain, profit, takings, earnings, reward, pay, or wages

We particularly like the focus on gain and profit as we think about how we have been able to create value for our clients!

If Latin is dead, is Captura still relevant?

First, rather than thinking of Latin as dead, we prefer to think about it being the mother of all the languages that descended from it, including English. Many scholars agree. One of them eloquently states “Latin never died — it simply changed” into the romance languages.

The descendants of the Latin form are pretty wide spread. In English we of course use Capture. Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Romanian all still use Captura. The same for Spanish with Las Captura, or in verb form Capturar. In French, even though it’s pronounced differently, they use La Capture, or Capturer in verb form. And in Italian it’s the related Cattura.

Does it really apply to our work at bps Captura?

Yes! It’s never sufficient to just identify growth opportunities . . . our work is oriented around capturing those opportunities.

Sometimes that means digging in to the detail; budget line items, CPMs, partner matrix, model coefficients, etc. Other times our work moves into organizational design, to ensure the skills to implement are there. We identify any gaps, and put job specs in motion. The last type of work involves senior discussions with a board or an executive team to make sure there is broad buy-in and understanding of the capture opportunities.

Innovation, growth strategy, reinvention, digital transformation, and marketing effectiveness are all hard to do. As are efforts to drive tactical improvements in ecommerce conversion, product fulfillment efficiency, loyalty program adoption, promotion effectiveness, or consumer value proposition. Our approach to all of these efforts at bps Captura has translated into actual captured value for our clients, and that’s core to how we work.

What about those basis points

Basis points are an important unit of measure. They are particularly important when optimizing and driving every growth opportunity possible.

Just how small are basis points?

Early in my career when I was working in consumer banking, I would read American Banker regularly (yes it was dry, but it was a great way to stay current on the industry). I recall thinking at the time that basis points were so small . . . just 1/100 of a percent. That’s 0.0001 in decimal form.

I’ve always thought of business in terms of growth. I’m not a shave a penny here and there kind of leader . . . I look for scale opportunities for change. Forget even 1%, I want the 5% or 10% growth opportunities, and those are the ones I want to be able to invest time, energy, and money into. So where the sudden love of basis points?

Capturing the power of leverage

The bps come into play when we start talking about where the opportunities for growth typically are found . . . in conversion rates, in marketing expenditure rates, and in retention rates. Each of these has huge impact on the business as a whole, and are highly attuned to leverage. Small changes in the rate drives huge impact in terms of overall growth for the top and bottom line.

And remember, basis points are just a unit of measure, and there is nothing stopping us from finding 50, 100, 500, or 1,000 bps opportunities if the business supports it. Its happened before, and we would love to partner with your business to make it happen again. Please contact us if you would like to explore getting started.