why big is bad.
Talking with friends Ben and Jess recently who head up Josephmark, I was struck by the joy they spoke of working on a startup concept when briefed by a small team, as opposed to working on a typical campaign briefed by a large company.
For the simple instance that the startup has no marketing managers, brand managers or account managers, it seems that not only is a pile of $ saved (by the client) but that a pile of $ is saved due to how quickly everyone can move and work together.
In lubricated chats lasting the majority of a Tuesday night sponsored by Darlinghurst’s Pocket Bar, we spoke of the common observed ‘achilles heel’ of large corps, which prevent them from being;
- cool*
- decisive*
- impactful*
*with the exception being Apple
Death by committee is a term we’re all familiar with and there’s a reason why. Large orgs seem to take the act of enforcing its congenial values to a point which tolerates incompetence and encourages professional creep (opinions given when they shouldn’t be) (i just made the term up!) And this is especially prevalent where subjective opinions are required as in design, branding, marketing ideas etc
I’ve had two major professional experiences that have shaped me. I started Josephmark with Ben and worked on and in it for 3.5 years before taking up a job with Taronga Zoo as its Design Manager and working in it for 3 years. At the latter, I saw several small and large creative agencies pitch their ideas to Taronga, and observed both the differences between how creative teams pitch, and how a large business like Taronga, reviews and steps through its decision making process.
What is extremely obvious in today’s world of ideas, business and digital memes, is that small and agile teams are killing it and old, large, “dinosaur” companies and models are, well becoming more and more threatened.
In what is a very common complaint amongst creative teams the world over, is that the good ideas never, ever see the light, because clients say No. A big sweeping generalization is that if they cut the layers of ‘subjective roles’ they, and the creative agency, might just get what they need.
Ofcourse, returning to the asterix above regarding Steve Jobs, having a CEO with a vision also helps. And one who believes in design :)
