cash from chaos
Coming briefly back to the trad vs digital agency debate, of which I shared some views on last week.
There was some negative response from the digital community around my musing that 'brand agencies are best placed to win' in the winner-takes-all game for the digital communications future.
To recap, I said that brand agencies are best placed, should they choose to be.
At the moment, on the whole, they appear to be choosing not to.
So the game is wide open.
The agencies that win will be the ones who adhere to the following criteria, as described by Tom Peters in 1988 and still as valid today as they were back then.
Does your agency (of whatever flavour) provide...
• The best in quality and service
• Enhanced responsiveness and flexibility in its operations
• Continuous and rapid new product development and innovation,
• Diversification and new market exploration.
Tom adds "Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change. That is, excellent firms of tomorrow will cherish impermanence - and thrive on chaos."
Surprisingly aligned with Malcolm McLaren's worldview...
'I always feel more comfortable in chaotic surroundings. I don't know why that is. I think order is dull. There is something about this kind of desire for order...that drive out this ability for the [agencies: EP] to become a really exotic, amorphous, chaotic, organic place where ideas can, basically, develop.'
