5-point framework will help you create a highly-performing marketing agency //

Did you know that the majority of creative and marketing companies still use organizational structures, management philosophies and strategies that date back to 1911?

Fredrick Winslow and Taylor published Principles of Scientific Management during the Second Industrial Revolution. His groundbreaking work provided new methods for mass production that were efficient.

Unfortunately, many companies don’t know how to apply his thinking 100 years later when scaling their operations. Why? We’ve done it this way since the beginning.

Taylor created his manufacturing processes in a predictable, stable, and slow-moving world. They were not intended for marketing or creative services. He certainly didn’t create them to be used in a world that is exploding with complexity due to online marketing channels, disruptive technology and unpredictable consumer behavior.

Marketing and creative professionals who support today’s brands need to be able make quick decisions and react quickly to market opportunities and crises. Technology makes it easier to collaborate and share information in real time.

The traditional ways of working no longer work as well as they used to. The opposite is true. If these ways of working are too slow or siloed, it can work against you.

When you see…

These types of indicators are often used by creative marketing firms or internal teams with outdated operating models.

• Concerns of clients about turnaround time.
• Siloed disciplines and poorly integrated work.
• Too many people at too many meetings.
• High costs, late delivery, or significant rework.
• Unclear roles and responsibilities
• Quality and consistency are not the same.
• Low team morale, lack of accountability.

It is time to abandon legacy thinking and move toward new ways of restructuring your agency or creative marketing firm.

Don’t leave ‘business as usual” and ‘best practice’ behind.

We won’t be able to reach the goals we all want as creative marketing agencies or in-house companies that are modern and high-performing. It’s difficult to decide where to start when everyone has been working in the same way for more than a century.

You are missing out on the best practices and opportunities that exist. Your operating model must be competitive with other service providers that your clients and in-house customers might use. Copying other people’s best practices, or a standard “best practice”, won’t give you a distinct advantage.

In today’s marketing environment, the idea of a “best practice” — a method or technique that is superior to all others — is foolish. Best practices are the repetition of an approach that addresses a problem or opens up a new opportunity using a particular set influencing factors at a given moment.

It is assumed that every situation is the same and that there are no unique solutions or templates. We know that there is no one-size-fits all solution to many of the most common problems in today’s complex environment. This approach often leads to mediocrity.

Instead, we should create our own “next” practices based on a process that continuously improves how we work. Although organizations will still require guidance to align their efforts, it is possible to create a set operating principles for high-performing agencies.

We can move away from rigid best practices by adopting a principles-based approach. This will allow us to achieve alignment that is both flexible and adaptable. We will be discussing this in detail shortly.

Get deeper: Scaling marketing: People, processes and platforms

Recognize the talent needs of today

Our growth and competitive advantage are fueled by our talent and our teams. Our workforce has seen a dramatic change from just a few years ago.

Today’s talent expects an entirely new type of work experience. Many creative and marketing companies find it difficult to retain and attract top talent because they don’t have the same management processes, structures, and principles. We need to find new ways to collaborate and drive these changes across our hybrid and remote teams.

Managers and leaders today need support in supporting their employees in remote or hybrid environments. To be “liberating leaders”, they need to have practical, human-centric leadership tools that unlock the potential of their employees and ultimately their entire organization.

How a creative marketing agency or agency in-house can perform well

In-house agencies and creative marketing firms that perform well focus on the client’s needs. They:

• Create unique solutions and innovative products that are based on core competencies (what they excel at).
• They should not spend resources on services that they might be able to do but aren’t central to their service strategy.
• Align your people with the operating model in order to produce consistent and predictable results.
• Make sure people feel fulfilled and passionate about their work.
• Eliminate siloed structures, traditional workflows, and adopt new operating principles. Value-driven teams, lightweight processes and operating principles will improve quality and reduce costs.

Leaders and managers provide the psychological safety and time for employees to explore and debate new methods of working in order to create the best work of the life.

Client and employee satisfaction are high, and the agency or creative marketing firm can adapt to modern marketing and grow.

How to create a highly-performing operating model in creative marketing agencies and in-house agencies

By carefully aligning your needs with your customers and employees, we can create a high-performing operational model for creative marketing agencies and in-house team members.

Your operating model is five interconnected points on a map. These are the five points:

• Proposition – How can you focus and consolidate your creative marketing agency’s or in house agency’s services using a focused vision and positioning strategy?
• Principles – How can you unite your team with a set of operating principles that guides them in how to collaborate, communicate, lead, and make decisions about their work?
• People – How can you align your organization, staffing, and professional development opportunities in order to realize your vision, strategy, and value proposition?
• Process – How can you use lightweight processes and tools to create nimble ways to work?
• Performance – How can you measure, analyze, and improve the performance of your company or agency?

These questions will help us map your path to a high-performing operating model .

A flexible, but not linear, path forward

As an adaptable framework, I offer The Path To a High-Performing Operational Model . Because every organization is unique, this is why I offer The Path to a High-Performing Operating Model.

You will have a unique operating environment depending on your business type, size, location and talent. Your organization’s goals and challenges will determine the areas you invest in, and how deep.

Although the framework can’t be used in a linear fashion, it is crucial to understand how each point impacts and informs the next. You will also find that optimizing one point of the map can often lead to other points being lost. It is important to weigh the impact and tradeoffs when you introduce change to your agency or firm.

Last but not least, optimizing our operating model should continue. As your business grows, your market changes, you should review the various points of the map.

How to adopt the Path towards a High-Performing Operating Model

I will be sharing more information about each point of the Path to High-Performing Operating Model over the next few months and how to implement the framework in your organization. If you need help quickly, the Agency Wayfinder Program – integrated strategy and organizational design for marketing and creative firms — may be of interest to you.

MarTech first published the post A 5-point Framework for Building a High-Performing Marketing Organization.