There has been a depressing wave of news of agencies in trouble round my way over the last couple of weeks, which reminded of this post I wrote about how the people who run an agency actually need to know how to run a business.
I’m not suggesting that every agency that fails does so because their MD didn’t know one end of a balance sheet from the other and/or skirted the moral grey areas of life – I just think that as an industry we don’t really consider the skills and knowledge outside the marketing world an agency head honcho needs up their sleeve. And in these tough times when cash and clients are in equally short supply, only the smartest will survive.
It might be a bit late to re-educate the current crop but since agency MDs tend to come up the ranks rather than be recruited from outside industries – and since I’m pretty sure the average agency star-in-the-making hasn’t got the time or inclination to fit in a part time MBA, perhaps this is a gap the IPA needs to plug? How about:
Business Basics for the Boardroom
Balance Sheets for Beginners
Keeping Clients Happy – Where the Law Draws the Line
What Not to Say to Campaign Magazine when they Call
Saw your comment in last week’s Campaign. The IPA do loads of courses that are all about just this: we run an excellent MBA in a Day which has proved massively popular, we run courses in understanding client’s business, how your agency makes money, how to deal with procurement and many more. We also do intense residential courses for agency leaders. If you want to know more let me know.
We don’t cover the last one though!