What tech taught me about leadership
We all know that a change in leadership and marketing is needed.
But how?
After a few years on the client-side (in the tech world and helping apparel brands to transform to digital/tech-first), my approach to leading advertising and the ad business is now entirely different.
To be clear: while my creativity and strategy have evolved - and it's the core to who I am - it's my business approach that I've changed dramatically.
From a business pov, let's talk about what industries have fared better than most during this heartbreaking and tough period. Tech. (Nike and a few other powerful and robust brands have also done well). Need proof, read Scott Galloway's recent No Mercy/No Malice email. I love Scott's pull-no-punches style of thinking and writing. https://www.profgalloway.com/bats-and-amazon
But how does FAANG (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google - stolen from Scott), continue to rise? What are the lessons I learned? How do I lead now?
Focus on inputs. Report on results
I have participated in agency leadership meetings for over a decade. The usual agenda: i. Finances. ii. New business iii. News and updates. iv. E-Sat, C-Sat, etc. iv. Staff loses/hires vs. other random topics (creative, media, strategy).
From my experience, financials (revenue, sales numbers) are a result and are reported upon, but are not a business driver. In the apparel world, product design, manufacturing, distribution/sales appointments, seasonal trends, and showings (inc. online/offline store traffic) drive the business. In advertising, especially creative shops (whatever the medium), creative is the leading business driver - you can't bill for the work until the work is delivered. So we need to measure inputs (drivers) to the work. Don't get wrong, you need to know the COGS, etc., and financial reporting is a way of ensuring margins and profits.
Think about it from an athlete's point of view. If you wanted to sprint 100m under 10 seconds. You don't measure your finish time. You break the 100m into sections. 1) Pre-race heart rate and warm-up. 2) Response time out of the starting blocks. 3) Time to full velocity 4) Optimal stride length. 5) Time to vertical running. You get the idea.
(And advice to new creative leaders, make friendly with the CFO.)
Short term versus long term
Advertising has backed itself it a corner where the long-term doesn't matter. Amazon sacrifices the short-term over the long-term and has built-in mechanisms for long-term success.
Have you ever wondered how Amazon invents and creates at a phenomenal pace? At the heart of the company is a process called "working backward." It is sublimely simple. The innovation owner writes their idea into a narrative form (quick brief) that highlights the problem/solution, the value proposition, and customer scenarios via faux testimonials. The document takes the shape of a future-based (12-18 months), one-page Press Release, with a series of FAQs following (a total 6-page PRFAQ). The builds a mechanism of how the product/idea will be launched and forces the team to deliver a clear narrative of the objective, describe it without ambiguity, and align everyone. This WSJ blog says it best. https://blog.usejournal.com/why-amazon-continues-to-redefine-landscapes-at-an-unmatched-pace-the-prfaq-2cf0d03bef1c
Roadmaps, Business Plans and Goals
As mentioned, technology companies are great at building mechanisms. And for all my years in the ad business, I've never seen a roadmap as I saw in tech. Every team builds a yearly roadmap (business plan) in narrative form, as well as outline input goals, and a P&L (based on inputs). The rigor is staggering, and an exacting level of importance and structure is placed on these plans and the monthly reporting on goals (green, yellow, red). It's a living document. Roadmaps and Business Plans in advertising tend to be lacking in substance from my experience, and are revenue-based. (See above for goal setting and leadership agendas.)
Organizational structure - built for fast fails
Sadly, advertising is not good at failure. While we talk about giving people room to fail, we seldom do. Tech companies are built for fast fails. Amazon talks about the difference between "two-way doors" and "one-way doors." Committing resources to an invention (an idea) into some new space can be tricky and an opportunity to fail. It's similar to going through a doorway and uncovering that you don't like what's on the other side. With two-way doors, you can quickly retreat, and you have learnings (failings) you can takeaway.
Organizational structures are incredibly flat in tech. Advertising, on the other hand, is traditionally hierarchical by nature. Flat organizations in the creative business have several key benefits.
Employees have an elevated level of responsibility in the organization (they are making big business decisions for their clients after all).
The excess layers of management are removed, therefore improving the coordination and speed of communication.
And fewer levels of management allows faster and easier decision-making process - importantly, a flat organization will enable ideas to rise to the surface and be approved quickly.
I remember years and years ago, I was working inside a large agency, and we thought we had a cracker idea. So we showed our CD, who showed their Group Creative Director, who showed their Executive Creative Director, who showed their Global Chief Creative Officer. And along the way, through rounds, versions, and presentations, the idea lost its meaning, timing, and energy. The reason start-ups and independent agencies can be so creative is that they don't have the layers. https://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2017/08/08/how-does-amazon-stay-at-day-one/#d71755c7e4da
An agile approach to creating and tweaking
Advertising systems, finances, media, and creative (outside of CRM and dynamic creative), is generally built around a legacy approach. And a linear/waterfall system: you make something, walk away and move on to the next shiny object. Yet, my Mac software is version 10.15.4, Catalina (an improvement upon improvement upon improvement). We need to find new ways to engage customers. And even media needs a refresh: while 2020 may be different, the Up Front and New Front media negotiations are constructed under the same premise.
The End
Advertising and marketing are not dead. We just need to alter. Ideas are still ideas. But we need to look outside of our realm to see how others succeeded. Even look at the rise of consulting firms. They are serviced based like advertising - why have they risen?