Well, after spending my entire adult life in the agency business and the last 11 years consulting exclusively with agency principals, I've come to a conclusion about the single biggest mistake agency CEOs make. I used to think it was lack of vision or values, hubristic client service, unaligned senior staff, episodic new business pushes, and all the other things written about as impediments to success. But I've changed my tune.
Because of a horse race.
The Funny Cide saga made it all come clear. You'll recall this was the gelding (ouch) which won the first two jewels of the Triple Crown and then didn't win the Belmont, but came close, and in a characteristically American way had many of us rooting for him (it?).
Forget the fact the animal didn't get the Crown; the ah-ha insight is that to win any race you've got to field the best horse you can.
Well that's obvious. But it applies directly to the agency world because in agency new business pitches for example, if you have the best people, you win. In Creative, if you have the best people, you win. In Account Service, if you have the best, you keep on winning. Have the best in your agency or on the track - and you win. It's as simple as that.
But it's also why so many agencies fail to finish in the money. What holds agencies back more than anything else is bad hiring. Not hiring 'mistakes,' BAD HIRING.
Though this appears to be a blinding glimpse of the obvious, I'd argue it isn't so obvious to agency CEOs and owners who often nudge hiring decisions downward to department heads with less-seasoned judgment, or to HR directors with little more training than they're a 'people person' who demonstrates an uncanny ability to remember birthdays. CEOs, especially as an agency grows, too often abdicate their single most critical responsibility affecting the agency's character and success: hiring the best.
Not so at an agency hovering around $50 million where the CEO will not sign off on a hire until he personally has taken the candidate to either lunch or dinner. Why a meal? Because there he can't escape what he knows can be an uncomfortable and often banal conversation wherein he will learn, often painfully, a lot about the candidate. He's written off many $75 dinners that halted a hire at the 11th hour and claims it's the best money he spends.
Sure, it can be awkward engaging in mindless chit-chat with someone up for a back office slot, but you're a good judge of values and character - will this person deliver sound judgment affecting hundreds of thousands of dollars of agency income? Will he or she forge lasting deep relations centered on trust and honesty - both in and outside the agency?
You know, community theaters spend more time auditioning amateur actors for roles they'll play for only a few weekends than most agencies do discovering if they're getting just the right person. Too often it's enough merely to "fill the position" when you should be putting the aspirant through as tough a grilling session as you'd give the 'dude' wanting to marry your daughter. Because it's at least as important.
Hey, and if money's in the way, veto those budget line items like buying faster computers. More sophisticated equipment in the hands of the less skilled will only make your agency look inadequate faster. Instead, invest and then reinvest in the one thing that will always move you ahead: the best people.
This is a great time to scout and enlist new talent. There's more available (and affordable) cream out there than there's been in a long while.
The biggest mistake agency presidents make is failing to actively participate in every hire decision. You can't name anything that has more impact on your agency's run for the roses than making your foremost priority hiring the very best.
