I caught up with Rebecca Caroe today. She’s just back from South by Southwest (SXSW) and shared a session she’d attended with Pete Lerma from Click Here on how traditional agencies are grappling with integrating digital skills.
It’s very relevant given what we’ve done at Speed. We’ve embedded digital expertise into each of the teams and are investing heavily in tools and training to bring up skills across the consultancy.
Caroe said that Lerma went a stage further in his session at SXSW suggesting that all client facing people within a traditional agency business should spend a couple of weeks shadowing digital experts in order to develop their skills.
Training – we’ve done creative, media and account handling. It is a 12 week programme meeting for 2 hours each week and explained every aspect of digital. […] We also started a shadowing programme for a couple of weeks so they can see the day to day reality.
Caroe is an energetic sort that constantly challenges conventional thinking and is one of the smartest thinkers in the UK on the use of digital networks to drive business. In the space of 30 minutes she came up with at least three recession beating business models. Look her up at Creative Agency Secrets.
Wow – Thanks for the lovely comments. I aspire to live up to your expectations!
But seriously, this “recession” is only partly real. AFAICS there are a load of strong businesses still trading well and doing good work – both client side and agency side.
Review and refocus your firm by all means – but don’t talk yourself into a recessionary mindset. Thereby comes lacklustre, energyless teams and poor work quality with no risk taking. That’s my prediction for today.
Rebecca