Industry churn – Enero style
Industry churn is usually associated with a procession of Gen Y juniors coming in and leaving agencies with alarming regularity.
However Australian based holding group Enero seems to have rather the opposite problem – losing the heads of its agencies on an all too frequent basis.
Since Matthew Melhuish took over as CEO of the group in January 2012 (Photon as it was then) all but one of the eight agencies with an Australian operation have had at least one change in management, five of them in the last two months.
Dr Mumbo has compiled a timeline of the recent movements:
Naked Communications – creative agency
Carl Ratcliff (Oct 2013 – present)
Yesterday Mumbrella revealed Ratcliff is heading to take on the new role of CEO of One Green Bean later in the year. No replacement has yet been named for him at the agency.
Ratcliff took over after the sudden departure of Mike Wilson in 2013. He was one of the founders along with Adam Ferrier back in 2004.
BMF – creative agency
Dominic Stinton (August 2013 – February 2015)
Last week we also revealed that Stinton was leaving that role after 18 months, to be replaced by Steve McArdle in the role of managing director.
Stinton took over from agency stalwart Jeremy Nicholas who was in the role from August 2010 to May 2013.
The Leading Edge – market research and strategy agency
Nigel Marsh (October 2013 – February 2015)
At the end of January it was confirmed Nigel Marsh was set to leave the agency after just over a year at the helm to join Simon Corahat his consultancy Growth Mantra.
Marsh took the reins after Andy Bateman (April 2010 – October 2013).
While those are the tree most high-profile and recent moves, there have been a lot of others in the group of late which had gone unreported until now.
Jigsaw – strategic research agency
Jonny Mackrill (November 2009 – January 2015)
Mackrill was one of the longest serving executives at Enero before quietly departing in January from the research group, and is currently listed as “on a short sabbatical” on his LinkedIn profile after leaving his role as managing director last month.
He has been replaced by John Matthews who came to the agency as managing director after three years with Loop Brands, and a long career in the research space.
Precinct – B2B creative business communications agency
Julie Burke (June 2012 – January 2015)
Another relatively long-serving Enero boss parting ways with her agency in January was Julie Burke, who had been CEO of Precinct for two and a half years after joining from Havas Worldwide in 2012.
She has been replaced by the agency’s head of production of five years Jaime Nelson as managing director.
Hotwire – technology PR agency
Suzanne Hewitt (August 2012 – September 2014)
Hewitt departed the agency mid last year as it undertook something of a rebrand, with the experienced Alexis Wilson coming in to take over as managing director there.
There are three agencies which have had heads in place for 18-months and longer, with the current incumbents listed first below.
CPR – corporate public relations
Michelle Edmunds (August 2013 – present)
The information trail on the leadership of CPR is a little more sketchy, however Edmunds has been at the helm of the agency after holding roles in Melbourne with CPR since 2001.
The last head of the agency Dr Mumbo could trace before her was Jayne Dullard who was CEO from March 2011 to September 2012, and also enjoyed a stint as head of Hotwire in that time.
Frank PR – consumer PR agency
Polly Atherton (June 2013 – present)
Atherton is something of a veteran in the hallways of Enero having headed the consumer PR agency for more than 18 months now.
He took over from Myfanwy McGregor who spent five years at Frank.
The Digital Edge – online market research solutions
Roger Neyland (April 2002 – present)
Neyland sets the bar not just at Enero but probably throughout the industry in terms of reliability, having been director of operations at The Digital Edge since 2002.
Dark Blue Sea – digital marketing
The most mysterious of all of the group’s agencies appears to be the aptly named Dark Blue Sea, which describes itself as “the leading supplier of online direct navigation traffic” but has a surprisingly limited web presence.
Whilst it is listed on the Enero website as having an office in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, the phone number associated with it goes through to the main Enero switchboard, and a thorough search of LinkedIn has turned up just a few former coders and developers.
All this of course comes after the group – listed on the ASX as EGG – posted a 9 per cent drop in its revenues during its half yearly results earlier this month, although “settled teams” in the Australian businesses were credited with increasing the local operation’s contribution to the global revenues.
Fish. Head. Rot.
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Not to mention Chrissie Blackburn going from The Leading Edge.
Their one true talent.
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Enero was not a nice company to work for. That is putting it as mildly as I can.
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Ricci Meldrum out as BMF Melb MD in 2013
Chris Kay out BMF Syd MD in late 2012
Enero actually has a highly paid HR Director, very closely aligned to the CEO, involved in all of the hires
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Along the way there has been a huge churn factor in agency brands within Photon/Enero that have effectively disappeared too. Of course this has resulted in bonuses for management who have been incredibly rewarded for reducing costs by shutting down agency brands.
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See other topic about loyalty…
If your chosen brand doesnt fulfill your needs, you find an alternative.
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Marlborough Man nailed it.
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“Churning”. Also the sound my stomach makes when I sail my yacht on the harbour and count my bonus.
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No wonder BWM wanted out so badly – Enero hasn’t got a good track record in growing its brands to say the least.
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How do you start a small business? Sell a big one to Enero.
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Reading this reminded me of Geekdom
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how does this article add any benefit to the world we live in? dr mumbo you must be so proud of this piece.
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So many talented people, so many departures.
Enero lost touch on what makes an Agency great.
It’s people. Not the dollars.
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Dark Blue Sea sound amazing
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so…some execs have been there a short time (but not that short really by today’s standards) and some of them have been there a while. Not that different to most agency groups really. Wow! Great journalism
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Ennnnnneeeerrrrrooo-Ka-Ka-ka! (Vic reeves stylie)
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Last 3 years…BMF…shrunk. Naked…shrunk. Precint…shrunk. TLE…shrunk. digital edge…shrunk. Jigsaw…shrunk. Deep Blue sea…probably grew!
Great business model.
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Come on Gobber 7:58 its not some executives – its ALL the leaders of Enero’s main brands. The current CEO/HR director hired each of them and in a short space of time they have all chosen elsewhere to make their living. Photon had to change its name to Enero because its brand was irreparably damaged , in two short years under current management Enero has now got an even worse reputation.
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@Good Journalism “the current CEO/HR director hired each of them” not sure of your point? who else would have hired them?
“worse reputation” based on what evidence?
be a lover not a hater. you’ll enjoy it more.
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Hi Gobber 10:59 the previous management could have hired them. My point is that these senior leaders were hired by the current management and have subsequently left – suggesting either that the current CEO/HR director aren’t very good at choosing senior hires or alternatively not very good at motivating and retaining top talent.
The industry wide feedback I get about Enero’s reputation is overwhelmingly consistent: ‘a small, shrinking, poorly lead, disparate collection of unhappy companies’ just about covers it. Happy to be proved wrong based on your evidence about Enero’s positive reputation and future prospects.
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The previous management could have hired them. Sharp as a tack.
Industry wide feedback? You must be really important.
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As someone who used to work for Enero I could not agree more with the sentiments expressed here on Enero, the CEO, and HR.
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After 18 months of oblivious management and championing competitors products on all-staff communications, Stinton has earned a break.
“Brilliant”
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“How do you start a small business? Sell a big one to Enero.”
Inside Adland joke of the year.
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