Your culture is your competitive advantage
Without a strong culture, advertisers can’t hope to do good work. But without communicating that culture in the first place, you might as well go back to the drawing board, writes Emma Bannister.
Marketing and advertising companies are in strife. They’re restructuring, offshoring and battling to stay ever present in consumers’ minds in an effort to stay ahead. The result? Battle scars that get left on teams and team members that if not fixed, continue to eat away at your company’s culture, not to mention, your productivity and profits.
More and more organisations are awake to the fact that their performance is driven by an engaged team and culture. As Gallup states on its website: “A strong culture makes employees want to perform better and makes customers want to spread the word about you.”
But building a strong culture isn’t easy, and it doesn’t mean having ping-pong tables and bean bags. It does mean making sure that everyone in the company is aligned and eager to work towards the same values and vision, that’s where your communication can help.
Good thoughts on culture, but hard to execute when too many marketing agencies are run by people who are only a decade from their childhood. They haven’t the emotional intelligence nor life maturity to bring wisdom to the table, and wisdom is what most people seek from leaders. People with a few ‘battle scars’, who’ve learned from mistakes are the people needed. One agency in Sydney, led by a 30 something, has a staff turnover rate of over 70% for the third year in a row. When it’s like that you know something is seriously wrong.
This kind of thinking is exactly what holds back ad agencies.
We need more thinking around how to build genuine scale, process and thinking around talent for our clients and our people.
Agencies structurally still look the same as they did in the 80s. That’s a big indicator that we’re not a creative industry and quite the opposite.
Great piece Emma. You are ‘spot on’. In fact, I would contend that most businesses in most sectors, including the marketing and communication field, are struggling with these sorts of problems. Leadership is sadly lacking in so many parts of our society. As a result, most teams in most companies are fearful, confused and lack any sense of purpose. The end result is change, churn and demotivation! Your thoughts remind me of the philosophy shared by one of the great thinkers of modern times – Simon Sinek. His latest book, entitled ‘Leaders Eat Last’, is a must-read for those who want to inspire and motivate their teams – and to take them on a journey that offers a vision and a purpose. As Sinek says: “To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together”. Keep up the good work.
do it
Good info.. and good topic, it doesn’t need to apply to just add Agencies. But someone else hit on the notion, “its the ones not even a decade in the business” , in my 2nd job,, we have lots of 20 something punks who think that because they just got a degree, they know it all, and the old guard is just that.. old.. and guarding the past.. well us old dogs have seen the notions come n go. Just cause its new to you.. doesn’t mean it’s new.. There might be more than “one way to skin a cat” , but there is no new way….