culture and your agency

The past couple days I wrote about my experience with reinvention, corporate culture and managing the changes triggered by mergers, acquisitions and the market’s love/hate relationship with your product.

Lengthy, but I had a point to make: Your company culture, that you so enthusiastically cite as the reason you are awe-inspiring, can define or destroy creativity, innovation, and your agency.

The companies I wrote about made and sold stuff. Computers, cars and clothes – tangible things.

But advertising is different. Or so we ad folks think. At the end of the day, we can proudly say that we created a fabulous idea so the guys mentioned above can sell more of their stuff – better.

We struggle to find ways to actually measure what we do, and lately, clients are demanding it.  

Ad agencies have a hard time working within those strict limits, because it interferes with their culture.

After working in and with many agencies, I have found that culture is all too often defined by work hours, office layout, foosball tables, wacky parties and beer Fridays. That is not culture. But neither are rules.

A good, strong culture doesn’t create an atmosphere of exclusivity, punish the outliers or stifle creativity. It also is not a free-pass to be different, just for the sake of being different.

Traditions, camaraderie, the inside joke (or stories of our past escapades, most of which we’d rather forget), the ability to rely on one-another – and ability to call-out each other if something goes haywire – these are things that create culture. We know what to expect from our colleagues and management. We know we can create and innovate and still be okay.

Having the word Advertising on the front door doesn’t automatically mean you have an amazing culture. It starts from the top – down.

Can you define your agency’s culture without using the words engage, brand or beer?

reinventing: culture and managing change part two

After reading the 10 most-hated companies in America in MarketWatch a couple days ago another company totally entrenched in culture stood out – that being HP.

Way back in the olden days, I worked in the marketing department of an HP competitor. At the time, Tektronix was the largest employer in the state of Oregon. Like HP, Tek had a story of a couple founders, of which legend – and cultural identity – was formed. The company grew and eventually moved to a beautiful campus on 313 acres, a stone’s throw from what is now the Nike World Headquarters.

Tek had a very strong and friendly culture (the company of first names) that moved in a methodical, deliberate fashion. As I was frequently told, ‘that’s the way we do things here.’ My boss told me that we didn’t rush projects through – they had to go into the ‘queue’ first. It seemed contrary to what marketing should be.

I was young then, saw areas I wanted to improve upon, and wanted to make everything happen – fast. I learned quickly how a strong culture defined process. And that it could effectively stifle improvements – no matter how small they may be.

But at that time, profits were great, Tek was global, and who needed change? But technology was evolving quickly. Driven by the desire for growth, they started acquiring companies that appeared promising, but in hind-sight, were at the end of their lifecycle. It seemed to me that once they made an acquisition, something more revolutionary replaced it – immediately.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps they forgot who they were (unglamorous, but excellent products) and were fighting to stay relevant. But buying safety seemed…well, safe. And maybe, culturally, they weren’t up to cutting-edge technology. The ‘Silicon Forest’ is full of successful companies spun from ex-Tek employee’s talents.

Tek eventually got out of those businesses and went back to their core – test and measurement equipment. Tek was acquired by another company in 2007. Makes me sad because they made the Northwest a tech haven.

One area where Tek was light-years ahead was benefits – for women. Imagine that. In the ‘70’s they offered paid maternity benefits – plus held the employee’s position open. We had our babies, had excellent health plans, got paid during maternity leave, and got our jobs back. Methodical company, and they took care of their employees. Forty years later and we’re still fighting for this as a norm? Oy.

HP and Invent.
HP is big on re-Invent-ion. They’ve made some huge misguided acquisitions. They buy ready-to-wear and hope it makes them the hit of the prom. One has to wonder if it’s culture that keeps them looking outward for innovation. Because certainly, they cannot change from within.

I’ll bet that if they asked their thousands of engineers, there would be an ocean of ideas. The talent pool in HP could rival PARC (gasp or maybe Apple?). It’s hard to innovate when you’ve been culturally driven to comply.

The founding families have a lot to say about all things HP, and just don’t seem to get leading edge technology…That is the problem. Culturally, leading edge is scary. But they want it.

So, to get cool stuff, they hire someone, from outside the company (telling isn’t it?) and send them out to innovate – grow the business – because they are always on the Most Hated List.

New CEOs trying to be innovative, stay in the safe-zone and instead buy stuff that has out-lived its lifecycle, but may still have a little profit left, and then pay top dollar. Or are duped into buying truly worthless crap. And then take and $8.8 billion hit. Who makes that kind of mistake? If their books are showing a remarkable profit, then it must be safe – right?

HP’s Invent campaign was powerful – they hired a woman (gasp) CEO – and put her in front of the garage in an ad. A new company, a new way, a new bunch of crap. Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. Ask your culturally entrenched board.

At the end of the day, the CEO, Carly Fiorina, was fired (another hired/fired/so on) and they went about business the way the culturally stagnant board dictated. The old way. The HP way.

It’s just plain sad. Because this involves people’s livelihoods. Stockholders don’t live on their dividends (if there are any), if your stock goes down, or you are the Most Hated, they sell. But your employees do depend on you and are relying on your execs to make good decisions.

I have worked in several large corporations. Just a worker who actually cared about her job and the company she worked for.

I have had the privilege to have colleagues who soldered circuit boards, cleaned new cars at the end of the assembly line, and spent hours sending ads out via FedEx – and they loved their jobs. They had pride in their work and shook their heads daily when they heard about the latest hair-brained things the C-suite was doing.

It isn’t what I believe to be true, but the Absolute Truth when I tell you to, ‘ask the people doing the work.’ They will tell you exactly what needs to be done to make your company better. And much more profitably - they know your product really, really well.

And don’t give me any of that crap about your awesome culture. It’s killing innovation.

the rules of the NCAA

This blog is about managing the day-to-day in an agency; however I actually do think and read about other things, and will provide my opinion. And sometimes I can even tie it in to managing that daily grind.

I wasn’t really interested in football until oh, the 2011 season. The Oregon Ducks were on TV and doing really well. Since I had spent most of my life in Oregon, and my husband is an alum, we decided to watch what turned out to be awesome football. I got hooked, and followed the Ducks since.

So I got an email other day with a link to this story, An Oregon Football Player Faked An Injury In The Fiesta Bowl So A Walk-On With $70,000 In Student Loans Could Play. Then I clicked through to this article in the Oregonian by John Canzano about Oregon Ducks Football player Dan Ebanez. (And a follow-up article here.)

The Oregonian article says:

“In fact, the NCAA is so strict with regulations during the academic year that the non-scholarship players aren't allowed to dine alongside those receiving financial aid for playing sports.

"We get out of our football meetings at night, and we're hungry and tired, and the scholarship players go off to the dining hall to eat together and us walk-ons all sort of just walk away and have to fend for ourselves," Ebanez said. "It's like a final little slap in the face."

Now I’m sure the NCAA must have some sort of really good reason for this rule, but it just seems totally B.S. to me.  Why? Because they are a team. Meritocracy is cited as the reason, but in a team, segregating them seems like a huge contradiction to me. How can you really congeal a team when there are separate spaces for dining?

Am I totally out of line here? I just don’t get it.

If you haven’t had to pay for college lately, it’s expensive. Loans are the only way most of us can get an education which leads to that ever-important degree. And I’m sure you’ve read all about how new graduates can’t get jobs – or if they do, the wages don’t come close to covering a living wage AND student loan payments.

Here’s the deal: awesome guy, hard worker, well respected = deserves a break. His teammates thought so. They made sure he got some on-field time in the bowl game.

If you have interest in helping Dan Ebanez, who is highly regarded by coaches and teammates (and the press); or perhaps offer up a good job so he can pay off his student loans – shoot me an email charlotte@charlotteblauer.com.  Or you can contact John Canzano through the Oregonian. Or you can probably get in contact with Mr. Ebanez through the University of Oregon.

And here’s your tie-in with management:

Look around your agency or department – meritocracy creates a huge divide that prevents passing along valuable insight and skills – and it works both ways. Do you even know what the employees in your agency are capable of? Have you asked them or given them a chance?

 Your veteran staff has earned the right to take on the juiciest creative assignments. But give those on the support team the opportunity to show you their talent occasionally. I’ll bet they will amaze you.

Ambassador to the Agency

As a project or traffic manager, you have most likely been placed in the middle of an argument between (usually) creative and account. Or my personal favorite, a writer and a proofreader.

It usually goes like this:

A proof is ready for the client. You check it, it fits the brief, log it in and send it to account for client approval.

Account reviews it, and it doesn't  in their opinion, match the brief... or perhaps their vision. They send it back and tell you it’s not acceptable.

Creative says, no changes, it does follow the brief, it is fantastic and we are not changing anything.

And so it goes, back and forth. You are running interference between the two (or three, or more) because they’re all way too busy to get together – or perhaps they really don’t like confrontation.

Stop where you are. Pull them in one room to debate, argue and blame one another for failing to follow the brief / changing what they meant / being too creative.

Go for speed. As soon as a victor is declared – and they actually articulate exactly what they want – get direction in writing, a date and time you’ll see it, and then hold them to it.

It is not your job to run back and forth to mediate border wars. Your time is too valuable ensuring everything else GETS DONE.

So, next time you get a proof for the gazillionth time, save everyone a lot of time, money and grief. Get your awesome colleagues into a room and do not let them out until they compromise. (They may never agree – so show them the budget and actuals).

Tough love is efficient.

organization - adjustments during implementation

So in my last post I stated it takes 40 days to create a habit. With respect to organizing your agency, you’re dealing with a lot of people in diverse roles. When you introduce process with structure and new tools (e.g. software) into the mix there’s a lot to evaluate and learn prior to rolling out the systems, not to mention gaining compliance.

Do your homework, get help (a staffer from each discipline is good) and get complete commitment from management.

Once you have trained – yes you must train and it can be painless – then roll-out and the 40 days begin. Be available to help. Few remember the details during training sessions, so prepare a simple step-by-step guide (specific to role) for people to reference later. When I say simple, I mean simple. Step 1 click here, Step 2 enter data here (pictures, lines and arrows do work).

Follow up continuously during roll-out. Be available to hold hands, stem the tears, deflect anger…and make adjustments.

The best laid plans get derailed if you’re inflexible during roll-out. However, this requires an objective review of issues before flexing. Keep in mind that when you’re implementing change in an agency or marketing department, you’re managing three distinct areas: process, tools (software / hardware), and people. The last is often the most difficult.

So, by day 20, invite an in-depth review of the issues, develop a plan to mitigate them, and review revisions with the entire team affected to assure a change is necessary. This will pave the path to a solid system for everyone by including the team in the process.  

Try not to make changes too early. Some people adapt easily and quickly and others do not. Determining whether it’s the learning curve, a procedure or a format (I had forms that just didn’t work for some – made an adjustment and everyone was happy) helps determine how soon you need to make those adjustments.

Something to watch out for: workarounds. Never accept them. Workarounds are the evil un-doing of a good process that consist of: still using old systems or forms – because everyone is used to them; deciding the new system ‘takes too long, is too hard’ and not entering essential data such as estimates, schedules or client updates; or just walking-over-and-begging-a-colleague-to-make-this-one-little-change-because-I-need-it-done-for-the-client, skipping every process in between.

I will never tell you that the process of organizing your agency is easy. You’re working with people who are busy, stressed, and may just put up a little attitude. But with good planning, engagement, training, review and adjustments, you can successfully organize your agency or marketing department.

In 40 days you should see improvement. If not, email me. I want to hear what's going on because that time was a real investment and I want you to succeed.

Listen to Complaints

We know the adage that if you listen to a complaint you become part of the problem. The problem with that thinking is that complainers still complain. And make life difficult for those around them. And hold up progress.

But on the flip-side, they may have a valid complaint. Maybe there is something wrong, we’re not looking at it the right way (their way), or they actually have a suggestion for an improvement but no one is listening.

And then again, there are chronic complainers. That’s for another post.

When I work with a client, I like to get right into the complaint department. The fastest way to solve a problem is to find out what is wrong. Listen without preconceived ideas (such as – this person is NEVER happy), and get all that stuff out of the way. If there is something wrong, assess it and address it. It may be one of the Trifecta of Issues: process, tools or people.

Process can be modified (do get everyone compliant on the program). Most issues are with those who skirt process and cause others to have to either cover the gap or run around trying to figure out what’s going on.

Tools you use can be a huge issue. Just like process, get everyone using the same tools – the same way. Consistency is key to ensure everyone has access to ALL the information.  There could be issues with tools like software that isn’t configured right or hard to use – or staff was never properly trained to use it. (My pet peeve).

People is often the tough one. Once expectations are clear, training is done, and everyone understands what and how they should work – those who don’t want to work with the program will surface quickly. Those who don’t understand will surface as well. Not everyone is cut out to be a PM or producer. And as I truly believe, this is not a job for beginners.

In the end, experienced staff should be able to manage work without complaints (other than the minor daily crap). If complainers continue, check the top two items (process and tools), then address the third item. Hear them out, and provide them with an opportunity to fix their attitude.  Without the fix, they demoralize everyone around them. Keep in mind, there are a lot of great, experienced people who would love to work for you – without complaint.