OF SAGACITY -- AND LEADERSHIP WORDS

Bookstores overflow with ‘how to be a leader’ tomes, often with conflicting advice.

Never a month passes when the likes of Harvard Business Review or Fortune magazine doesn’t opine on the best ways to manage a merger or what to do during the first 90 days as an executive.

And then the consultancies go forward to conquer … (how could we forget?).

Yet there’s one recently published, probably overlooked modest collection of memos, penned by one of the original Mad Men, that we heartily promote browsing.  And remembering.

It’s Keith Reinhard’s Any Wednesday, one pagers written almost weekly to his colleagues at DDB Worldwide (now part of Omnicom Group) for some 23 years, covering not just advertising topics, but also musings around careers, communications, and the truth. 

Like this:  “Our management priorities should be … people, product, profit … in that order.”

Or acquiring new skills:  “… because the marketplace of the future will be one where advertising alone is not the answer to every client’s problem.”

And delivered with humor:  “The greatest human drive is not food, water or shelter.  It’s the obsession to edit another person’s copy.”

It’s not often (okay, almost never) that we recommend a read.  But it’s one that will net you a true ROI, in Reinhard’s words:  Relevance.  Originality.  And Impact.

PITCHING (and we ain't talking baseball)

What does it take to win new business these days?

As outsiders (sorta) to the process now – though we participated in the thick of agency and consulting presentations for years – we wonder:  Has it gotten any better?  Any smarter?  Any more rewarding?

Talk to a new biz person about what it takes today and they’ll say:  Relationships.  Knowing the industry – and the client.  Smart differentiation.

Hmmm:  That’s the same old, same old.  With social media and big data and ROI top of mind, are the pitches any different?

We asked a few clients, since we’re impartial observers.  It’s “no difference” in no uncertain terms. 

“It’s all about them, not us.”

“The descriptions are interminable.”

“It’s words, words, words and no dreams.”

There’s more, but we’ll stop.  What’s missing, IOHO, is an emphasis on talent – and fit.  How will the agency or consultancy pick the right talent to fuel the business?  [Note we didn’t say ‘staff’ or make any promises.  We’ve all been in the room when profiles are submitted – and those individuals have one foot outta the agency.]  What’s the management philosophy for working together:  building teams, ensuring straight talk and appropriate accountabilities, driving results as a concerted whole?  Is there a process for ironing out issues and conflicts and challenges?

One rather savvy pro suggested, a few weeks ago, that HR could add a lot to the chase.  We’d second that and say:  So can communications and design.