Helping Leaders Make Better Decisions

Originally Published on LinkedIn on October 20, 2017

Agency. Consultancy. Something Else?

Some of us find it bloody hard to say what we do. I know I do. Many businesses are hard to categorise and many of us don't like the categories we get associated with. Especially 'agency' or 'consultancy'. I usually deflect the question in some way.

Recently I started saying that I'm where street art meets consulting.

That sets up a suitably jarring image. That pleases me and people seem to get it. I think the idea also sums up what's wrong with the traditional models of 'agency' and consulting'. And because of the way of the world I've already moved it on. I now say where street art 'meets decision making' rather than 'meets consulting' — because that's really what clients want and need.

A Particular View

I'm making some sweeping statements here.

There are many great people in both industries — seriously good people. But there's much that needs to just die. Both industries need to change beyond recognition. The business models have gone past their 'sell-by' date and most sensible people know it. To be really kind the models are complacent, bloated and borderline corrupt.

Street art as a metaphor tells the truth; reflects reality and is unvarnished. Decision making is a team sport and consulting often isn't. Much of the time it's sold as a dark art played remotely. It's designed to maintain the mystery, cloaked in language and suffocating the client with boatloads of chargeable assets who aren't assets.

It's Time

Unless you've been a Trappist Monk for the last few years then you will know the creative and consulting industries have been living through turbulent times. Acquisitions, mergers and consolidations. And we ain't seen nothing yet. The genie is out of the bottle — these opaque business models and inflated costs have been busted — they do nothing to endear intelligent clients to the model.

Many clients nowadays were previously in the agency or consulting industries anyway. They know where the bodies are buried.

I Used To Be A Client

I hated the fact that I was being taken. I didn't have much choice because back then we needed the capability. I never knew just how far I was being taken in those days. The lack of transparency was breathtaking. The variability in the quality of advice and service was extensive. It was noticeably poorer than any other industry and to a large extent, it remains so to this day.

Stating The Obvious

But like all industries, they are defined by their customers.

1. The customers of agencies want great work that works — no matter what the media. They want it to work hard and deliver to their business goals with measurable value and impact.
2. The customers of consultancies want the answers to their challenges. High-quality decisions. And they want them without bias towards solutions that are more advantageous to the consultancy than to them.

If the industry doesn't do this it rightly disappears.

Disappearing. Act

Well, there's a new beginning anyway.

It's interesting to me how this all plays out. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are witnessing the end of the great Ad campaign or marketing strategy. Just how and where it may be made in the future. Computers are already and happily convincing consumers that the Ads are still being done by humans. Decision making at a global scale requires data hungry algorithms making the scale of calculation that only computers can do. That's going to be the strategic path anyway as the digital world invades everything.

Yes, I know this will take time but it's going to happen.

And Now The End Is Near — Do The Math

In a high proportion of cases, the creation of ideas, copy, imagery, stories and collateral are increasingly becoming generated by mathematical calculation. The big challenge for strategy is to decide — given these circumstances, competitors, contexts — how and where and with what activities do we achieve these goals over what time period?

Human Kind

When these core tasks are being handled far more smartly by machines then the question is what happens to those consultancies and agencies that cling on to an outdated model. The survivors will have figured out that it's their unsurpassable creative talent, emotional skills and integrity that clients will still buy. It's going to be a massive challenge for many.

"In my experience, there's only a small minority of great creatives and sufficiently sensitive client caring people in each business — across these two industries…"

And I'm An Optimist.

My belief is that technology will quickly eat the bulk of the tasks which are the rump of these two industries. As the rate at which that happens speeds, they will be better, far leaner organisations. They will be markedly different in their behaviours/attitudes as they seek to cling onto their increasingly automation savvy customers.

Where Next?

We need a name for these new businesses. A new category even.

Not agencies, not consultancies — even those that are buying up the agencies — but a name for a new breed. A name for those who combine the requirement — to intelligently understand how to market and grow their client's businesses. They will be disruptors, innovators, visionaries and in every way bring art to decision making.

We are starting to see the rise of new entrants in this sector. They will quickly own the space where creativity and decision making meets. That place where clients can get access to great ideas and execution as well as meaningful support for their thinking.

The place where the art of the street meets the smartest decisions we can make.