Whom does your Agency take care of?

Crises, the more sudden and unexpected they are, the more they expose the veiled features of the human being. Those features, that we usually try to disguise in normal settings, suddenly emerge during a crisis simply because there is no time to disguise them.

These are our politically incorrect features or traits that we prefer to ignore and which cannot be overlooked during a crisis when our emotions overflow irrepressibly. That is to say, whether it be because they are well concealed or because we do not want to see them, under crisis pressure the cover-up dissolves and reality emerges in all its glory. In short, under extreme circumstances we are what we really are and therefore so also do the organizations that are integrated and managed by people.

Frederic Laloux, in his book "Reinventing Organizations" says that organizations, as we understand them today, are a very recent phenomenon in the history of mankind; in fact, management has only sparked academic interest in the last 50 years.

Science has gradually brought to light some organizational aspects and today we can see that, within the company orbit, each organizational paradigm reflects each ones’ vision of the world.

In the advertising industry, which is my area of expertise, there are two well-differentiated organizational models, the Corporate Agencies and the Independent Agencies (or Indies), the latter being defined as such since they are not associated with any of the large international Holding Groups that have sought to concentrate global investment in the Advertising Industry over the past 30 years.

 Moreover, they almost succeeded, if it hadn’t been for the breakthrough of the global Digital Agencies (or Strategic Consulting and Technology Services Agencies). These are the contemporary evolution of the leading longstanding 2001 financial consultants that have now become large interactive Agencies, reaching global dimensions in recent years and that are now sitting at the VIP tables of large multinational players in the MKT communications industry.

Within these terms, the independent Agencies have become what would appear to be a virus sitting on a football ball as seen from outer space.

Although there are many styles of independent Agencies that deliver different regional or global coverage services, either through acquisitions, by launching their own Agencies in markets other than their own, or by association with international networks of independent companies, their dimensions are still incomparable except from the local perspective, market to market, where we do find independent operations in some countries that are large enough to rank in the top 10 or even top 5 of that specific market.

The global scale of these mega Holdings requires practices aimed almost exclusively at maximizing the efficiency of their return on investment since their basic incentive (their reason for doing things) is to increasingly generate greater profits for the shareholders who finance their expansion and existence.

The proliferation of organizational styles that hold this worldview, straddled on the financial expansion of globalization, has spread a culture that is marked by the loss of a sense of community, among other things. In fact, as Frederic Laloux says, what clearly casts a shadow on these organizations is their individual and collective greed.

This is where the culture of an independent Agency differs fundamentally because its worldview differs. We have heard many in our industry claim that the people are their most important asset within their organization and I understand that everyone wants to believe that this is true, including the managers of those multinational organizations. But, in fact, only when there is a crisis that shakes the very foundations of these organizations to the core does this claim take on a dimension of reality that is perceptibly evident, in that it becomes truly tangible for the first time.

We have heard multiple objections regarding the younger generations’ lack of commitment or loyalty to their firms. This apparent lack of commitment by young people regarding companies is only the result of the commitment or loyalty that companies as a whole have had towards their parents or relatives in previous crises in Argentina, although the example may well be true for other parts of the world also.  This was what they have learned from those corporate actions, not their words. The words are always the same but when the crisis emerges, actions are seldom consistent with words.

This is happening again today and there may also be future generations that will not commit to their companies simply because many companies do not commit to their people. And when these individuals grow up, with these early childhood experiences etched in their minds, they won’t discriminate between one type of company and another, which is why the loss of prestige ends up affecting all entrepreneurs equally and for generations to come.

An independent agency is not accountable to outside shareholders; its shareholders are right there, hands-on, day in and day out. We are accountable to our culture which includes our environmental and psychological variables, our reasons for doing things, and that culture is reflected through our people; in other words, we have to respond to our people, as well as to our Clients. That is why we do not replicate the “immediate crisis reaction” practices of these large organizations, thinking that they are the best simply because they are bigger than us, because we never lose sight of the fact that our worldview is radically different.

We not only incorporate coworkers simply because they are efficient professionals, we also need them to blend into the culture of our organization since we value relationships over results. And since this is not easy, when we find them we DO NOT want to let them go. And like a production company that must take care of its infrastructure in order to be able to start producing again once the crisis is over, we, as service companies, must take care of our people.

All of us who belong to this organization are our culture and we will all contribute to the healing powers required once this crisis is overcome, therefore we must take care of the team as a whole in order to survive and be ready to grow once again as soon as we have a window of opportunity.

Companies need to reclaim the people’s credibility, their loyalty, and this can only happen when we are once again credible, loyal and committed to our people.

If it is true that we can evolve from sudden transformations as is my belief, then the future may be more inspiring than it was prior this global crisis.