SOME SERIOUS AND SOME NOT-TOO-SERIOUS REFLECTIONS, A YEAR ON AFTER LEAVING CLIENT-SIDE

Move from Client side to Agency side and the in between)

There will be no hashtags and this is to make it intimate too.

These are not Kantar’s opinions nor anyone else, but it has been over a year since I left the client side and I have spent some quality time at the “agency” I would like to share a couple of reflections. The client side here means the FMCGs, Telecoms, and manufacturing side, while the agency side is the consulting, advisory, or technical services provider like advertising and media agencies.

AGENCY SIDE:

a) Cultural Renaissance at the Agency: My first delightful discovery is that the agency side is pulsating with an invigorating work ethic and culture. This is a far cry from what I remember it being years ago. While we were strong researchers then, the organization always felt a little panel beaten. The level of international collaboration is nothing short of spectacular. If you have a penchant for diving deep into the technical aspects of your field—be it law, software engineering, or advertising—the agency side world is a gold mine. Still, some romanticize the client side, believing the grass is perpetually greener there. Maybe it is. Different folks -different strokes.

b) Diminished Politics and Skirting: With the smaller nature of teams on the agency side, organizational politics and pussy-footing seem to fade, albeit slightly. The atmosphere is more straightforward, perhaps because everyone is too busy being productive and the tasks are more direct/linear.

(YES- Of course, you miss the solutioning and the creation, but sometimes it is great observing other people from the technical bench)

c) The Weight of People Management on the Client Side: On the client side, especially in sectors like FMCG, Telecoms, and manufacturing, the scale tips in favor of people management (No wonder statements like culture eating strategy are more commonly told). The people kilo outweighs the actual work—though, admittedly, this might be a broad brushstroke and different folk- different responsibilities.

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CLIENT SIDE:

d) Questions Left Unasked: A perplexing observation is that clients aren't asking the kind of hard-hitting questions that would generate valuable insights. Instead of asking, "What's stymieing my business growth?" “What important levers should I pull to appeal to new segments?” they are fixated on lower-level tasks like brand tracking, ad tracking, and NPS tracking, which we all agree are important tools, but which limit the scope of understanding the real issues at hand. (Did I underestimate this on the client side- YES, will someone bash me for this statement- YES, the tools help in getting the answers, they are not the answers in themselves)

e) The Illusion of 'Simplifying' Procurement: Supply chain departments, under the guise of 'simplicity' and 'stellar negotiation,' have eviscerated the value that could have been extracted from agency relationships/partnerships. By atomizing work into sub-tasks without adequately evaluating the agency's expertise, they've reduced the agency side to mere checkbox tickers for legal compliance. Whether an insight takes 10 minutes or a month to generate, trying to squeeze these into rigid time slots is patently unrealistic.The value of old “retainers” that gave general advice and ensured the availability of top agency leadership has diminished and so have general relationships, competence, and insights.

(Did I underestimate this on the client side- NO but it was a large wave- With one of my past employers, we only had one agency for each expertise area, and boy wasn’t it fun! The consistent relationships give more insights in the long run!

Am I shocked by how absurd the whole thing is - YES)

f) The Eroding Power of Marketing: Marketing teams are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their worth to skeptical CFOs, causing a slow (or is it quick?) erosion of their influence. The problem will become worse, if agencies persist in responding to briefs that ask for surface-level metrics rather than ROI-focused insights.

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g) The Tyranny of Immediate Results: In this era of instant gratification, patience for building long-term assets is astonishingly scarce. Customer Experience (CX) is often viewed as a quick fix, a Band-Aid solution that should miraculously yield results by the next business cycle (next week). The drive for instant outcomes cripples the potential for enduring value creation, relegating strategic vision to the back burner. It's as if everyone wants to harvest the “nsenene” insect in March and in November without taking the time to light a bright light. I remember in my younger days at Research International, working to support a large brewer who sensed the evolution of the social drinker in East, West, and Central Africa to spirits and gently nudged these customers through premixed drinks/RTDs as a handholding step, brands that allowed people to gently evolve from beer to spirits…It took a decade. Now everyone seems to have bought the wonder drug of ZERO to ONE (Thank you Thiel), Yet there is so much going for continuous improvement.

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h) Universal Inquiries, Global Echoes: One sobering revelation is that the questions you're grappling with in your sector aren't exclusive to you or your market. Across the globe, professionals in similar roles and industries are wrestling with parallel challenges, operating within comparable market structures and serving like-minded customer bases. Issues have a universal ring to them, providing both a comforting sense of friendship and a potent reminder that solutions may exist beyond our immediate horizons. It's a vast world out there, and yet, our queries echo each other.

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i) The Double-Edged Sword of Shared Value: Tread cautiously when offering groundbreaking ideas or valuable insights to the client side. In a paradoxical twist, your innovative solutions may be thrown into the competitive cauldron of the tendering process. This not only dilutes the exclusivity of your expertise but also saps your enthusiasm for future sharing. It's like handing over a precious gemstone, only to see it auctioned to the lowest bidder. This practice further erodes the collaborative spirit and the desire to bring forth genuinely transformative solutions.

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THE IN BETWEEN

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j) The Digital Renaissance of Tools: The technological landscape is experiencing seismic shifts. With avant-garde platforms like Flutter Flow and Firebase entering the scene, "No code" isn't just a buzzword—it's revolutionizing the way we build and create. My journey back into the world of GIS, diving deep into GRASS GIS and QGIS and thinking about my scripting in Mapbasic. Whatever happened to MapInfo? It built loads of telephone towers globally. And talk about generational tool shifts: Canva vs. PowerPoint – Miro, Notion, and Webflow- remembering the tough old days when I built websites for Scrabble Kenya and others using HTML and CSS codes.

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And in my biodiversity quests- preparing timelines through Da Vinci resolve and exploring color correction and audio analysis, and it’s a whole world on its own.

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I won't even mention the AI that has edited this text.

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The world isn't just moving; it's sprinting.

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So, after a year or so- I think that there should be a strong oscillation between working for the Client side and working for the Agency side. That’s for those who choose to be employed in a corporate setting. And maybe even a do-nothing scenario in between.

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Maybe my next stop should be 5 years in government and another 5 years in a startup- with a follow-on review in 10 years- and a probable declaration in the future that I would have led a complete life!

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Dr. Victor Ikawa

Nairobi