Hey,
Last month we had our latest GOOD CEOs meet-up.
SO MUCH GOLD. And, I can't believe we're about to do it all over again in two days.
With Chatham House Rules in mind, I am about to reveal all...without, of course, revealing the identities in the room.
Let's go.
12 CEOs in a room over 4 hours.
Whilst I will never tell you their names, I will tell you what I've learnt.
- Firing clients is wonderful
- The DOs and DONTs replacing yourself as CEO with a managing director
- What Chuck Porter's 3 point how to run an agency
- Why in-house offerings aren't just in-house agencies
- Unsexy clients could lead to happier culture
- Client services has a problem, they're order takers and not brief makers
- Everyone is moving up the strategy ladder
- You can run a Global agency network with deep empathy and fierce commercials at the same time
- I hired my number 2 by writing my least favourite things about my job
- Don't join a business with a vague succession plan, your objective needs to be crystallising exactly what they mean
It's clear to me that we're seeing a lot of movement in the creative industry.
But, there's also stagnancy too.
The winners are borrowing the spirit of the good old times. Leaning into the future with sharp curiosity. They're finding clever ways to get discovered by clients for what they're good at. And they're seeking higher margin work that sells value over effort. They are setting simplistic visions with granular examples of what success looks like, making it paiiiinfully clear what progress looks like too. And, here's the hard part...
They're accepting what they don't do.
This is the hardest part and something I've wrestles with for a long time running UNKNOWN.
But, after 5 years of doing this, I can confidently say that saying no more means more focus. More focus means more clarity. And more clarity leads to progress.
So, if you take nothing else from this email... When was the last time you asked your business:
What are we sacrificing to become the only version of what we do in the industry?
3 Things Heard From 300 Conversations
Every week my team of recruiters (journalists/therapists) have a collective 300 conversations with the talent who are moving this industry forward.
Here's what we're hearing this week:
- Holding companies are letting go of digital businesses, and big tech are showing buying signals to acquire them.
- Roll ups are coming back, no not Golden Virginia - I'm talking about 3-5 agency roll ups, we're being asked who wants to be acquired or backed a lot right now. (We've been making lots of intros, let us know if you'd like one)
- 65% of employees are freelancing outside of work, 50% of them are keeping it a secret from their employers.
THANKS GUYS
I write these emails for 3 reasons:
- Because as a CEO, you might be having a tough time and this might just make you feel less alone.
- Because you might see something in here that helps you do your job 1% better.
- Because it might just remind you to brief my talent consultancy, UNKNOWN on a specific, tricky or straight down the line hire/team build that'll grow your business.
Last Good CEOs meet, an unnamed CEO asked "Is it good to have a low ebitda, minimise my corp tax before HMRC takes all my cash away?"
The answer from the room: Spend to grow, baby. Spend to grow.
What challenge are you faced with at the mo that you wanna hear from your peers on? It can be anything.
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