8. What are the implications
of getting the balance
wrong?
9. - Quality of work
- Re-work/over service
- Loss of client faith
- Loss of client
- Negative people impact
- Cultural erosion
- Reputational loss
10.
11. WHAT WE DO BRILLIANTLY & FITS OUR PRUPOSE
WHAT
THE
CUSTOMER
WANTS
AND
VALUES
12. • Is the work something that we do well and fits
with our competence & capability
• Can we bring valuable outcomes to the client?
• Can we be proud of and showcase the work?
• Does the client fit with our purpose, beliefs,
personality and style?
• Can we delivery the work profitably as well as
ably?
• Will this work and this client contribute to the
long-term growth ambition and plan?
WHAT WE DO BRILLIANTLY & FITS OUR PRUPOSE
WHAT
THE
CUSTOMER
WANTS
AND
VALUES
14. Reason for being
Aim & Ambition
- Who you are
- Who you are for
- What you do (well)
How you do it
Realising growth ambition
Realising purpose ambition
Editor's Notes
In this session we’re going to explore ethics a little
And ask a slightly ethereal, slightly existential question
How do you balance purpose with profit and ultimately, growth?
How do you ensure that you stay true to your ethos whilst fuelling your ambition?
That’s kind of a biggie so let’s explore that a little further by asking a few questions and seeking experiences that you might have had within your agency
When we work with agency leaders as Agency Partner and as Waypoint we see a lot of leaders grasping with this:
To think about balance it’s sometimes helpful to think about ambition and purpose together.
Ambition:
What we want to do
What we want to achieve
Usually this is the commercial, monetary aspect – the logical and rational mind aspect of it
Purpose
What we want to be
How do we behave
How do we engage and approach the world. What’s our role in that world.
This of tends to be more emotive, values driven and in a lot of ways, less tangible that the ambition
But we need to think about both because they are symbiotic. They co-exist.
And so deriving balance to purpose can stem from this definition that happens atthe most macro level of our thinking as agency leaders
A better way to begin looking at this might be to ask
How does our agency purpose manifest itself?
How does it become real and tangible?
What things do we do to make that purpose live in our agency?
In which areas of the business does purpose come to life and be demonstrable?
So we can see from the examples shared
A few areas where our purpose comes to life.
EVP – pay and benefits, Long term incentive schemes, 4 day week / 9 day fortnight
A range of things that help us to become responsible, considerate employers taking into account the well being of our people
Reinvestment – service development, expansion to help the agency scale and perhaps provide the opportunity to pay back more through our purpose initiatives in the future
Doing good – charitable and philanthropic initiatives, community engagement that uses the money and / or time available to our agency to support and create positive change
What about within our decision around clients
Who we work with, who we don’t
The type of work we take on
What role does purpose play in that?
Have you ever taken on new business or new work that compromised your purpose?
Example
BMM rapid expansion – lots of clients, stacking delivery teams to high
Began, unconsciously at first to compromise the standards we had set and the expectations that we had of ourselves, our staff had of us – engrained within the culture and that the clients and market expected of us.
We were running hot – very profitably but not in a managed and progressive, sustainable way. The balance between our purpose – our ethos and reason for being enshrined in our quality of work, had diminished
By the time we reacted we had some implications:
We lost clients – good clients
Our standards and performance – the promise that we made to clients, was compromised in places
Dissatisfaction amongst our people – the promise we made to them about the type of organisation we were, the culture we had, had been eroded
We recognised it and we took action, we learned but we were chastened by it. We also knew that we had to change the way that were doing thigs in order to progress to the next stage of agency growth.
But as agency leaders, sometimes our desire to fuel the long-term ambition – growth through developing profitability
That takes me back to that earlier question of balance between purpose and profit
Is muddled with short-term decision making – quick wins versus the harder yards
So in my tale of woe we have a few implications of getting the balance wrong and consciously or otherwise, prioritizing growth and profit over purpose?
What other implications have you experienced?
What other outcomes of getting the balance wrong might there be?
What impact could it have on:
Clients
Business performance
People and culture
You might have…
All of which could lead you to a place whereby the thing you were trying to do in making compromises around your purpose
Fuel your growth ambition
Is the very thing that’s damaged
In your desire to get more quickly to realising the long-term ambition – attached to the purpose,
We move ever further away from the realisation of that ambition
Because we didn’t stay true to the purpose
And didn’t appreciate the link and connection between our purpose and profit, growth and ambition realisation
In my experience, where we compromise our purpose and our long-term ambition in favour of short-term boosts to our revenues.
Where we, consciously or unconsciously – and usually temporarily – place profit over prupose
Inadvertently, both purpose and profit become eroded.
And our path to growth, our long- term plan to deliver against our ambition. Unfortunately, becomes that bit longer.
But what can we do, practically, as agency leaders to help us stay on course with that balance between purpose and profit
But, it’s hard to directly connect agency purpose with profitability – they seem to exist at complete opposite ends of the spectrum of an agencies being
Consider this simple Boston Matrix
This describes, in simple terms how strong a fit a client or programme of work is for us:
It’s where the intersect of who are, what we do (we’ll) and who we are for come together
Therefore it’s important firstly,
In determining the types of clients that we *should be working with and the type of work we *should* be doing
But it also helps us to begin to align purpose and profit and close that seemingly lengthy distance between the 2
So how do we get good at that and begin to dive a more conscious and deliverable way of connecting our purpose with our profit
To ensure that we’re focused on the long-term, substantiable growth of the agency?
Ultimately we must ask ourselves a number of reaching questions as we assess and qualify opportunities?
Ultimately to assess;
Is this the right thing for us – in terms of purpose and growth? Is this aligned to who we are, we’re for and what we do best?
Scalable and sustainable growth – true growth will stem from aligning those two things
Why do clients engage with us?
They have needs – targets, requirements
They need to fill gaps with expertise
They have a belief you can meet those needs
You have demonstrable track record in addressing those needs
They believe that we can help them to enable change and progress
You share common goals and purposes – as a trusted and respected partner
Clients that engage with you on those terms are likely to be part of your growth journey
Those who don’t, are probably not
Agencies who can connect those things together are likely to drive profitable growth and meet their long-term plans and ambitions
That those can’t won’t
For that reason – purpose and profitability are symbiotic and need to be connected to ensure that agencies achieve scalable and sustainable growth
The connection between purpose and profitability for scalable and sustainable growth might seem distant.
In my experience, we need to shorten it!
But it’s really not.
If we think about purpose and what it drives. It’s our reason for being – why we go to hassle of setting up an agency, labouring blood sweat and tears to make or craft expertise mean something
That crystallizes a vision and mission. If wee take that purpose and turn it into a viable business – an employer, a service provide, a cultural entity. How do we do that, where are we going with that.
That becomes our aim and ambition
In turn, we then think about well, what does that mean – how does that form as an identity?
How does it define who we are, who we are for and what we do well?
If we think about components here such as our position to market and ‘the work that we do, have done, will do and the results that have created and will create.
As well as that identity, presented through our culture and ways of working – and our people. How you do it – how you present yourself to market, to prospects and how you engage and work with clients and delivery the great work that you do.
That is what clients are buying – that’s what they’re engaging you for. Because they can connect who you are what you do with themselves and their aims, targets, goals, desires – business and personal.
That’s where the winner box clients are.
And those winner box clients are:
Aligned with our purpose
Engage with us on partnership level
Have needs or problems that we can meet or solve through our services
That we have common, shared goals that we’re working to
Where we have a mutual understanding of the value that our agency brings and what outcomes that creates for the client
Those are the clients that and the projects that help us drive scalable, sustainable and profitable growth – true growth/ and so is more aligned our purpose and long-term plan.
And that helps us to drive decisions that balance our purpose with our profit considerations. Staying true to our purpose is that path likely to reap the best rewards.
This, in turn allows us to more with our purpose, expand purpose and make it ever more meaningful.
