Provokeglobal: Embrace Risk To Build A Culture Of Growth

(MENAFN- PRovoke) Innovation requires“a little bit of fearlessness” to pitch new ideas and new approaches to clients, attendees at the Entrepreneurs Forum-part of the PRovoke Global Summit-heard this week as agency founders from around the world discussed their expansion and innovaion strategies at a session entitled“Scaling Up: Growth Strategies for Independent Agencies” and sponsored by the PROI network.

“I think innovation requires a little bit of fearlessness to try some things,” said
Jeff Lambert, US chairman of Lambert by LLYC.“Many of them won't work. But what I found is in having those conversations with clients, as you get into different areas of the organization, they're happy to give you feedback, which is really a sales opportunity. So we've used innovation as a door opener in those situations.”

The discussion brought together the founders of three PROI members from dramatically different markets-Germany, Argentina, and the US-but the common factor in all of their stories was the courage to take risks in order to grow, and to carve out a distinctive niche in the market.

For Andreas Fischer-Appelt, partner and founder of fischerAppelt in Germany, that was exemplified by a high-profile acquisition that came about after one of the firm's largest clients, Daimler-Chrysler, began to divest itself of some non-core businesses, including its own television production studio.

“They sold their television business, and we bought it,” he said.“And everybody thought we are crazy. But for me, that was content marketing. It's TV. And we turned it to an agency and it's very profitable and so that was a really good deal.”

For Patricia Santa Marina, CEO and founder of Minerba in Argentina, the first risky decision was launching her own firm in a market that was home to relatively few indigenous agencies. She told the audience ,“We started 11 years ago. I started in the media and I wanted to create a different kind of agency. At that that, there were only the big ones working throughout the continent, throughout the Latin American region and they were too expensive or they were not meeting the needs properly. So I saw there was a space.”

Both Lambert and fischer-Appelt have grown through acquisition as well as through organic innovation. Said Lambert,“We started in my basement in Michigan. We grew into a national, then an international agency, growing organically and then through acquisition and then transitioning from making acquisitions to being acquired. But we have also grown through innovation, launching different products and different services, one being a shareholder loyalty platform, the first rewards program for being a retail investor.”

In both cases, though, they acknowledged that a focus on people was a critical component of success.

Said Fischer-Appelt,“The first thing is, as a group, we have a financial management and discipline to buy and integrate agencies, otherwise it won't work. If you don't have that, no chance. You have to have a model of buying and integrating agencies. Beyond that, it's all about people. With us, when we are acquiring an agency, we are looking at the people, that's the most important thing, because we want them to stay and to run at another level, to level up, to grow their own thing.”

Lambert, meanwhile, talked about the importance of building a performance culture, and being honest about the kinds of behaviors he expected.

“I think it's important that we don't gve the impression that this isn't just about a culture of cappuccino makers and pool tables, ping pong tables. Be authentic when you recruit people. We have a performance-based culture. You can't trick people into joining and then say, oh, by the way, we really are driven and hard-charging in performance and we'll reward you for that. I think being authentic about who you are is important to retention. You'll attract people that want to be entrepreneurial, and you will push away people that aren't.”

And yet, as Santa Marina said, building a successful culture also means balancing experience and wisdom with youth and technology know-how:““It's an everyday challenge. You've got to keep giving people opportunities to grow, to teach them, to mentor them. That's something that I think people really value.”

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