In this week’s installment of Agency Advice , we turn our attention to business failures and ask what role agencies should play in bringing potential product, service or business model problems to their client’s attention before it’s too late. Agencies need to have those tricky conversations with clients With so many big brands going to the wall recently (think The Body Shop, Tupperware, Ted Baker, TGI Fridays and WeWork), it begs the question: surely somebody saw these disasters looming? Surely, somebody noticed that the product, service or entire business model wasn’t quite right and that the company would ultimately fail unless things changed quickly? We ask agencies whether the onus is on them to point out potential disasters to clients and how they can get those tricky conversations started. It’s good to talk Chris Woodward, CEO, CTI Digital: “As an agency operator, the moment you start properly understanding the business of the client’s business, you become invaluable to them.
Famously, in the 1980s, my old employer, Saatchi & Saatchi, made British Rail executives sit in a crappy waiting room when they came into the agency’s offices for a pitch. They left them waiting for 20 minutes. When they started the pitch, the Saatchi team said to the British Rail execs: ‘This is how you treat your customers every day – and this is how we are going to help you change that.
’ Always, always understand and care about your client’s business and have the courage.