At the end of September we had the pleasure of welcoming founders, principals and executives from our sister agencies across the Magnet Global Network to Eat’s home city of Tokyo.
This was the first time for many of us to meet in person. Eat joined MAGNET during the pandemic when full travel restrictions were still in place. The impact on connections and multi-market collaboration was one of the key drivers for us to join MAGNET in the first place. With over 40 independent agencies across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, we can tap into a tremendous range of global and local market capabilities, insights and expertise, supporting our clients as they experience growth, complexity and change.
The summit brought us all together under the theme of ‘Agents of Change’. Over the course of three days, we had presentations, workshops and discussions that all endeavoured to reveal new opportunities on where we can drive positive, tangible and impactful change for our clients, for our businesses and for our people.
So what did we learn? Here are 3 of the most critical learnings and insights I took away from our time together:
1. Succession planning – Don’t leave it too late!
As an agency owner or operator, the long term plan may be to get your business into a position to sell up or sell out eventually. In our session with alyssiah tsui a Partner at SI Partners in Hong Kong, we heard three key points to always have front and centre:
– If your exit strategy is to find a buyer, start to identify suitors when you and your business is at the top of the game. Not when you’re tired and looking for a way out. A successful transaction will probably require 3 years to complete so you need to ensure you have the energy and drive until that deal is fully closed. Your mentality needs to be “How can I grow this business in the next 3 years?”.
– For partnerships, ensure there’s a clear clause in your operating agreements on what happens should one of you retire before the others and how the value of the business is calculated. There is no shortage of examples where a lack of transparency on desires and motives amongst founders or leadership has resulted in a rapid decline in the relationship, souring the succession plan before it’s even started.
– If you’re part of a multi-generational family firm and your children are interested in stepping up, make sure everyone is clear about their path and it’s communicated to all stakeholders. Additionally, family ownership discussions can become very difficult and emotionally charged. Bringing in external expert facilitation can really help you through this process.
2. The pitch process – Change the dynamics
The pitch process is always a contentious one for agencies. Frustrations abound – from the prospective client demanding free creative, ghosting following a submission, or not telling you who you’re going up against or what budget is being allocated.
There have been growing calls for years to overhaul the pitch process – focus more on chemistry and provide a fewer number of agencies the opportunity to workshop the challenge and land on a scope that is truly fit for purpose. Some corporations are embracing this, but others continue to make the whole ordeal a pain.
Our session during the summit did offer some powerful reminders for agencies as they qualify the opportunity and go through the beats to winning the work:
a. Diagnose before you prescribe: While it can be too much to provide a creative or design solution in a pitch situation, it’s still always worth doing some upfront lifting. Demonstrate your expertise and insight by looking into the client’s industry, their company culture, their peers and competitors and any audience research you can get hold of. Asking the smart questions can be a real differentiator.
b. Do not wait until pitch day without the stakeholders knowing anything about your company. Find a way to spend time together, be that a Q&A session in-person (ideally) or online, or invite them to visit your offices. It’s critical early on to establish if a partnership is likely to work. Are the client’s decision-making structures clear? Have they defined a clear scope of work that addresses a clear need? Do they want to be involved in the development of the work itself or do they just want an agency that does it in a silo and hands over? There is a wide range of questions you should be asking of the client. Too often agencies are desperate to appease and appeal to the client in the desire to win the work. Is it too much to ask the client ‘Why do you think you’re right for us?’.
c. Client tenure is a strong story for new clients looking for a new agency. We often focus on team tenure but can overlook the importance of emphasising how long we’ve partnered with a particular client. Long tenure obviously means trust, collaboration and consistency which is what many brand leaders want from their agency teams.
d. Ensure the client understands the review is a two-way process: If there’s a client who you can already tell is treating the agencies they are meeting with in a dismissive or superior manner (this happens A LOT), that might already be the moment to say “Thank you for the opportunity, but we’re not right for you”.
Thank you to Tim Kidman at The Fuel in Melbourne for these great reminders on rebalancing the client – agency relationship.
3. Engaging your people – The unsaid asks
Scott Foreman CEO at Copacino Fujikado in Seattle, ran a great session exploring the unspoken expectations between a principal or agency leader and an employee, and how these expectations can quickly destroy the emotional contract, making it difficult to nurture and retain talent moving forward. Both sides need to be more explicit on these unspoken expectations from the start in order to find the right balance that works for everyone.
One of the exercises in the session looked at what a principal wants from an employee that’s not typically listed in the job description; be passionate, take responsibility, lean in, proactivity, able to work in ambiguity. And on the flip side what your employees want from you; respect for work/life balance, be trusted, be invested in their development, challenges and priorities, and provide them with new opportunities to stretch but with a safety net.
There was also a stark reminder that not everyone is financially motivated (the financials are table stakes, not differentiators) and there are other ways to show team members how important they are to your business, from tickets to favourite sport team games, concerts and spa treats, to giving more flexibility when it comes to time-off as well as providing days for employees to take part in a cause or movement they are passion about – be it the climate, equality or other societal issue.
Addressing this in a deliberate way can result in higher performing teams. After all, people don’t usually leave companies, they leave bosses.
Beyond these key takeaways, we look forward to sharing the bespoke research we conducted into how agencies see their role in driving greater action or urgency in sustainability and the climate crisis for their clients and for themselves. Keep an eye out for that piece from Eat’s Head of Growth Robert Costelloe coming soon!
