Ad Insider - August 2007

Simple stuff: good people equal good ideas; good ideas equal effective work, which equals ... well you can see where this is going.

What is the biggest issue facing our industry? You may have had one of these conversations lately.

Today, apparently unlike yesterday, clients are suffering as media costs go through the roof, few cool ideas that work across all mediums or markets are being presented by their agencies, and getting collaboration between different agencies is hard, sometimes impossible, to achieve.

Agencies, on the other hand, are squeezed as remuneration levels fall, they feel used by clients who can't always see the big picture, they have no time to deliver the big idea, there are such few cool briefs out there and they lack direction and feedback from clients.

All this, sadly, means that the man - or woman - on the street suffers as the work is dull and it doesn't engage him.

I don't believe all of the above, although I see some truth in them, but I have increasingly heard such arguments in one form or another. The funny thing is that if you take all of these they can all be traced back to the same root issue. And that is for us to remain relevant and profitable as an industry we have to consistently find and nurture the right talent.

A predictable comment? Maybe.

But very difficult to argue against.

Agencies in the simplest terms are just groups of people who come up with great ideas that can move brands from A to B, whatever that may be. If we don't deliver these ideas that work hard at growing our clients' business we will not be around in a few years - and it is only the best people that can do this. 

A good employee can transform us, our clients and our industry. But the thing is the best people have choices. Choices to go to more secure environments that pay better, reward loyalty, actively engage their employees, offer them fresh challenges and develop them into the next generation of leaders.

Not environments that let them go at the slightest grumble from the finance department or bend to clients' requests to change the teams because they may not see eye to eye. Worse still, environments that don't encourage training or personal development whilst treating the people like simple commodities.  

More than ever, and this I do think is different from yesterday, we have to listen to the market. Where is it going? Listen to our people, where do they want to go? How do they want to develop? Constantly praising and grooming and encouraging them to try stuff that may seem completely 'out there' but that will make a difference to our clients. 

And by we I mean not one agency or one holding company, but all agencies. 

By the way all this is not to say that there aren't some brilliantly talented people out there, but simply to say that to develop great work, grow our business, increase our profile and deliver our bottom lines we all depend on them more than we sometimes show.

Jean-Paul Burge

Managing Director

BBDO Singapore