What’s on for members this week: From hard hitting questions to expert advice on how to merge teams
10 months ago
Agency Hackers members have a lot of interesting topics to consider this week as they are asked ‘how transparent are you as an agency?’
Contents
Introduction
As we roll into a new week, Agency Hackers members are in for a treat with a number of sessions on intriguing topics lined up for you.
A burning question on our minds is: how transparent are you as an agency? The AH team are asking their members how transparent they are, or perhaps how transparent they should be.
The debate around agency transparency is gaining momentum, and it’s destined to be a highlight at the upcoming Good Agencies Summit.
Additionally, Jonny Tooze, the founder and CEO of LAB Group will be running an operation mastermind session later this week. He will delve into the merging process and how to harmonise your team- Jonny’s insights are not to be missed!
What’s On
Tuesday 29 August, 2pm- OPERATIONS MASTERMIND: How Should You Approach Merging Processes?
When you combine teams, or even acquire another agency, it can be difficult to get everyone singing from the exact same hymn sheet.
For Jonny Tooze, founder and CEO of LAB Group, to get people to follow the same processes, it starts with culture. He says: “When you merge teams, the reality is that particular disciplines need a particular sort of environment, and that environment is created by culture.
“At LAB, we hate the concept of cultural integration. It feels like some sort of totalitarian state trying to make things work. The most important thing is just respecting the culture that’s needed for what is being executed.”
Merging operations and ways of working can look different for every business. Running an agency group, this can be even more complex. Jonny went on to say: “When you’re integrating something, it’s almost like transplanting an organ. It’s never going to be a perfect fit. And if you’re not constantly monitoring it, then it’ll be rejected.
“There’s always going to be some legacy feeling that’s not quite right, or maybe a power struggle here and there. I think you’ve got to be constantly working on it.”
Whether you’re merging your team’s processes or going through the M&A process and figuring out how those bigger jigsaw pieces fit together, this is a session worth signing up for. Agency Hackers members are welcomed to come along and hear how Jonny merged his team’s processes and cultures, and why sometimes a one-size-fits-all approach might not be the right way forward.
More information can be found here.
Thursday 31 August, 2pm- How transparent should you be?
For some, it’s important to be clear with the entire team across everything, from processes and operations, to big plans the agency has on the horizon. For others, this can go even further, with transparent salaries and finances as part of the equation.
Zoe King, founder of Epix said: “We’ve always wanted to be quite transparent with people, but I think especially in our early days as a business, we made a lot of oversharing mistakes. We weren’t promising the team anything, we were just trying to be transparent. But oftentimes, things would be taken as gospel – and that probably made us mature a bit and look at things a bit differently.”
There’s always going to be things that make you afraid to share stuff. But as you mature as a business, you realise it’s not as straightforward
Zoe King
Sometimes it can be tough to work out how much to share, especially in a competitive market – what if someone leaves and shares all your deepest, darkest secrets? Zoe added: “There’s always going to be things that make you afraid to share stuff.
“But as you mature as a business, you realise it’s not as straightforward. They can go and tell them one or two things, but actually, without context and details, you can’t tell everybody everything.
“When we realised that, it removed a lot of fear. The benefit we get from sharing things with the team far outweighs the teeny, tiny change that they might go to a competitor with all our secrets.”
More information for members can be found here.
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