As the CEO of an independent advertising agency, the toughest corporate malady I fight every year is the organization’s hairball. It just seems that no matter what we do, the agency body starts to sputter and cough if we don’t apply some preventative medicine. It has to be done. Because as any cat owner will tell you, if the hairball gets big enough the cat will suffer.
By “hairball” I mean structural tangle—all the balled-up process confusion that can occur naturally in the course of a year or sometimes during a phase the company is going through.
In our agency, the problem, as I’ve observed it, usually occurs because of growth. We, like most businesses, outgrow our structure and then get bogged down in trying to live in the past—something I believe is unhealthy and downright detrimental.
Someone once put the need to manage healthy growth this way: “How big do you have to be before you get bad?” I’ve asked myself that many times about our place; but for 2006 I think the following question is more appropriate: “If we’re so good how come we’re not growing?”
I think it’s a hairball problem.
About nine years ago we were at a plateau and coughing. Our hairball was growing and we weren’t. So we completely blew up the old agency business model, eliminated our departments, and reconstructed our agency into client-centered teams. Each team had the staff, resources, revenue, and creative and client service leadership of a small independent agency. The idea was to deliver entrepreneurial, quick-response service and better, more creative results. When needed, we were also able to marshal the corporate muscle and creative resources of the total agency.
It worked. We virtually eliminated the hairball and steady yearly growth ensued.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve developed a few hiccups in the system, and for 2006 we’re making some changes. We’re rededicating ourselves to the team concept, only with more guidance and coaching. Our charge for next year is Structure, Accountability, and Talent. We’re moving some deserving people up the ladder, focusing our resources into new alignments of talent, and encouraging everyone to all get on the same page with the same unity of purpose.
Our 2006 model will be refined, streamlined, and ready to roll in January. I don’t want that hiccup to turn into a cough.
That’s it, from the edge of the world.
Bob
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