Random Thoughts from the Back of the Room

I attended a breakfast seminar to launch my friend’s new book – Creative Strategy. If the strong style and substance of the discussion reflects the content of the book, then it should be a good read. It explores the relationship between creativity in business and vice versa, The contributions to the discussion yesterday by Sir George Cox, ex Chair of The Design Council and Vikki Heywood, the Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company were particularly impressive.

Two thoughts occurred to me while listening to both the panel and the audience who were made up of academics, those from arts and business quangos, business people etc.

One was that these guys knew how to express and talk richly about an idea.

And in stark contrast, in agencyland we pay lipservice to the idea of the “idea” but not only some of the ideas are not that rich in content but there are a lot of people who cannot communicate an idea adequately enough to convince a client of its relevance. Maybe we should be looking outside the industry in the arts, education and philosophy to be able to do this better. You'll see some good examples in recent TED vids.

And the other thought was around recession and recruitment - what other less obvious characteristics define a recessionary time?

It is acknowledged that good emerging companies take risks and seize opportunities in a recessionary marketplace which can be quite nervous otherwise; small companies can become big and strong through sharpening their teeth in a recession. Nothing new there - think of all the successful agency start-ups that thrived in previous such times to become recognised brands: Rainey Kelly, Partners Andrews Aldridge, Naked are just three examples that spring to mind. This is true of clients as well - it's all about the confidence and about the desire to build a better moustrap for customers and the excitement around doing so.

What was touched on in the breakfast seminar was the difficulty of recruiting the right skills for the emerging companies. And I got to thinking of this phenomenon may be a characteristic of a recession. And this is what I am hearing throughout our industry - those agencies that are doing well are looking to fill important roles but there is a lot of nervousness among those who would be potentially be looking so there are fewer candidates out there. In the meantime, the roles are not being filled and the agencies are not doing as well as they could be. The really good companies still manage to attract new recruits as well they do new clients. But those a level down - not so maybe high-profile - are suffering through lack of high quality candidates. So maybe recruitment consultants hold the key to our short term success if they concentrated their efforts on the harder briefs?

Just a thought ..or two.