This Is Not A Relay Race

Everyone has skills.

That skill set is usually broader than the typical ad agency structure can ever put to good use.  Instead, like veal calves, everybody gets put in a kind of box.  You are a copywriter.  You are a media planner.  You are a print producer.  You are a brand strategist.  You are an art director.  You are an account manager.  And that’s mostly all you ever get to be.

It’s a model that’s been around for north of 60 years.   (Think about that.)

But who is one thing and only one thing?  How much talent does this 60-some year old model squander because those who do the work are locked in those cages?

Every agency says team.  But most keep a structure that’s less about team and more about sequence.  A relay race (the baton goes from hand to hand) instead of a basketball game (everyone in motion at all times).

Let’s break down those walls.  Let’s free the veal calves.  Let’s understand instead what each member of the team is able to bring to the team . . . and use those skills to their fullest.

Otherwise, the thing they call human capital gets precious little return.

 The Accidental Agency