The Answer is No. Now what's the question?

It's been a year, to the day, since I joined my current network agency.

Before I began, I was asked by some of my ex-colleagues what could I expect to change, I mean, all big agency networks are the same, right?

Well no, and let me explain why...

As a business leader, whether of a region, country, or even a team of two, you need to be given the opportunity to act suitably, and the authority to hire, promote and move your team effectively to manage your business is probably right up there, next to generating revenue. However, this 'right' has slowly been eroded by the requirements of reporting at the larger networks, so everyone has to kept 'in the loop'.

However, the world we live in is very, very different, and changing at lightning speed. We find it hard to finish a novel and one tweet can change fortunes. So it really starts to matters if a company can hire a specialist in under a week rather than over 3 months, and a pitch team can be converted into a core servicing team immediately, rather than wait idle and sit for approvals.

So, in my humble opinion, the decisions of a local office should be managed at the local level and supported and guided by regional and global. Not the other way round. Leaders need to be empowered to make business decisions which progressively makes them better managers, and given the nature of the industry, allowing them to be more entrepreneurial and therefore grow to become better managers.

So for me, the biggest difference was the speed of decision making, and it makes a world of difference. The early bird (really) catches the worm.

For more about my executive coaching, I’m currently offering a free 45-minute consultation, which can be booked here