Lately several people have called me out as advocating an antiquated methodology for the management of Advertising Agencies. I just now reread the article I wrote in 2009 -- it has been several years since it was written but after reviewing what I had written, I still maintain that the MBO Method Management System is the most practical for a creative services marketing communication consulting business.
Advertising Agencies exit for the clients they serve, not for themselves. These are service organizations that must respond to their client's needs and beckon call.
Once, media companies honored the 'business and agency' commission system. But that is now all gone. Business organizations are able to produce, place, and monitor promotional activities better then any agency ever could or can. Businesses maintain records of a medium's effectiveness and ability to impact their brands dating back to the company's inception. They continue to try new things but also have a quantifiable record of what, when, where, that affects their brands and what doesn't.
It is the Marketing arm of the business organization that defines the need for outside creative services and how they will be assessed as well as the services that they will supply to them.
Creative awards seem to be considered as some sort of recommendation that agencies use to attract clients. But in truth, creative awards are little more then window dressing for agencies and are really personnel tools used by larger agencies to recruit, attract, and showcase their talent -- in hopes of attracting like personnel that they tout to clients and potential clients.
Businesses are more apt to determine an agency's suitability to work on their brand's marketing strategy based upon their success with like brands and businesses.
I am still a strong believer in MBO for Advertising Agencies and for other associated marketing communication businesses. The MBO structure identifies the organization's mission, quantifiable objectives and goals that can be measured and evaluated to maintain and grow these types of creative client service businesses -- that every member of an organization can understand and relate to. Management is all about organizing, motivating and assessing people -- what better then giving your employees identifiable mission, objectives, and goals as a foundation for them to assess themselves and their fellow employees as well as the organization itself and their place in it. Using the MBO Management System the managers can evaluate individuals, teams, departments, effectiveness, and assess and determine weaknesses to improve the part or all of the organization all while giving individuals parameters that identify their responsibilities and assessment for their individual improvement.
When organizations have identifiable mission, objectives, and goals that they understand and strive to attain, the entire organization benefits. This is not to suggest that everything that the agency does is lockstep -- the MBO system can account for and generate creativity in determining its system - how they assess their effectiveness, and how they can remain creative. When done by creative managers MBO can encourage and ensure creativity, not stifle it. Agencies that maintain that they are talented individuals who have come together and just work using their creative skills, are destined to just fail. Having a firm management system that is understood by everyone improves everyone's performance and effectiveness -- where they understand their responsibilities and know that all creative service organizations are a team sport. Teams work better when they have written rules and a system for accomplishing its mission, objectives and goals. Organizations are human organisms that provide a system for people to successfully work together. They are dynamic and ever changing as is the environment that they operate in. MBO provides an ideal management system to optimize creative services businesses' effectiveness, especially creative advertising agencies.
So, MBO is the best management system for creative service consulting organizations.
