thoughts from the indie agency meetup
Yesterday I attended the Indie Agency Meetup hosted by Worldwide Partners Inc., a global independent agency network. One that One Advertising is a part of.
The meetup discussion focused on a couple of key areas that it seems all the agencies were struggling with. The first was digital integration in traditional agency settings. It seems integrating digital into existing workflows has its issues for most. There was debate between who owns what part of the process, account people vs. project managers. Some shared that they have peer education systems that help educate and integrate different disciplines within the agency. We at One have a similar system of internal Lunch and Learns that help shed light into process and outputs of departments and disciplines. For me watching this in action it has torn down some walls and opened up the discussion around process and ownership. This problem is rooted in process and silos. Big agencies have the same issue, and from my personal experience it’s worse.
The other area that was a large focus of the conversation was staffing. How do you retain digital talent and keep the extra zeros from the big guys from poaching your talent? For me this comes down to two things, culture and ownership. The one advantage independent agencies have over the big multi-nationals is the ability to be nimble. This agility allows and indie shop to imbue ownership and freedom on to its employees. This creates a culture of entrepreneurship and motivates employees to go that extra mile with projects. Personally I've seen this first hand with my own team back at One. Empowerment is a huge motivator and stimulates agency culture.
And then there was the Millennial talk. Oh Millennials. So maligned and misunderstood. I’m so done with this. Being in or slightly removed from the demo depending on the study the entire topic irks me. I don’t relate or identify with any of the behaviours that are attributed to millennials. I came up in a time where you worked hard, earned your role and were rewarded accordingly. I didn’t want or need daily affirmations of my performance, and I had realistic expectations of when and how those affirmations came to me. I do believe in open and honest communication with my team. If you’re kicking ass you’ll know it and you should keep going. If you’ve screwed up I will tell you and you better fix it. I believe this is how we should all be treated no matter what generation you’re from. I’m done.
Ribs?
/Adam
