Articles

This the part of the site where we upload, and encourage you to send and share lots of interesting stuff about planning and strategy.

APG

Oct 27, 2017
3 min

Leadership and the Amplified Self

It is perhaps appropriate that we end this series on ‘How To Get On’ with a few thoughts on leadership. I should say that great strategists do not necessarily make great leaders. While we may all aspire to being in charge, it’s not a path that I would encourage everyone to take! In the twilight of my Agency career I was asked to articulate my personal understanding of leadership. When I applied myself to the task I realized that, although I’d worked with many compelling CEOs,

APG

Oct 25, 2017
4 min

The Third Pearl (Positive Presence)

This is part of a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here A couple of years ago, I attended a session at the Soho Create Festival in London, where a successful actor – surely on his way to "National Treasure" status - was asked for the keys to success. His off-the-cuff pearls of wisdom were: i) turn up o

APG

Oct 23, 2017
4 min

How To Get On: Gen X Edition

This is part of a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here Career advice usually consists of gnarled industry veterans dispensing hindsight to starry-eyed millennials. But according to the IPA Census, the average agency staffer is 34 years old, and half of us expect to be in the creative industry at the a

Achievements, Assets, Advocacy: The AAA Approach to Career Progress

APG

Oct 20, 2017
4 min

Achievements, Assets, Advocacy: The AAA Approach to Career Progress

I confess I wasn’t the most comfortable Head of Planning. I found people’s ambitions often ran ahead of their delivery, and my capacity to reward them. This is a guide I developed to give people some means of judging their progress. I didn’t really enjoy being Planning Department Head. I’d call Planners’ Meetings to rally the troops and share experiences. A motley crew of the bashful, intense and sartorially challenged would file silently into the Indigo Room. They’d sit st

APG

Oct 18, 2017
4 min

A Suit’s Perspective

This is part of a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here My credentials for commenting on this topic are as follows: First - I know Jim. Second, I started at one company, BBH, as a graduate trainee and left that same company some time later as Global CEO. This could lead one to conclude that a fairly

APG

Oct 17, 2017
5 min

Why No Plan Is the Best Plan

This is part of a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here Throughout my career, one of the questions I have always dreaded is ‘where do you see yourself in ten years’ time?’ Early on, it used to make me feel slightly sweaty and nervous. Even though I knew it would be an inevitable topic of conversation i

The Unchanging Appraisal: Learning to Accentuate the Positives and Disregard the Negatives

APG

Oct 16, 2017
2 min

The Unchanging Appraisal: Learning to Accentuate the Positives and Disregard the Negatives

This is just a simple lesson in how to handle appraisals. It took me some years of frustration to arrive at this conclusion. Do you have the same appraisal every year? I did. Do you get the same set of gently positive observations about your core strengths, skills and achievements; the same slightly irritating list of shortcomings, flaws and failings; the same sense of disappointment that another year has passed and seemingly little or no progress has been made? I did. Do you

APG

Oct 11, 2017
4 min

When Can I Kneel?

This is the first in a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here “If you would rise above the throng And seek the crown of fame, You must do more than drift along And merely play the game. Whatever path your feet may tread, Whatever be your quest, The only way to get ahead Is striving for the best.”

APG

Oct 9, 2017
4 min

Lessons from the Jazz Age

This is part of a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here The test of a first rate intelligence, F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” The best planners, I believe, not only have a first rate intel

APG

Oct 6, 2017
3 min

Not Doctors, But Psychoanalysts

I wrote this piece a while ago. This broad approach to Client engagement has served me well over the years. Most Clients nowadays don’t want outsiders to march in and tell them all the answers to their problems. Rather they’re looking for people to help them articulate and express their vision and opinions. It is a melancholy truth that the more expert I have become, the less my expertise is valued. I recognise that this may be because my dusty tales of Levi’s watchpockets, s

APG

Oct 5, 2017
4 min

Game of Thrones Career Planning

This is one of the first in a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here On my first day in an ad agency I remember one particularly stroppy Account Director imparted some advice to me along the lines of: “If you want to get on, arse lick at least one person in each department and you might not get complete

From the Library to the Lobby: Making the Switch from Academia to Agency

APG

Oct 3, 2017
4 min

From the Library to the Lobby: Making the Switch from Academia to Agency

This is the first in a series of posts selected by Jim Carroll, our APG Guest Editor during October 2017, surrounding the theme of 'How To Get On: Advice on how to manage a strategist’s career in a creative business' Read more posts here Firstly, it gets better. Or at least it did for me. I was the almost certainly one of the worst graduate trainees ever. And I was relieved to hear, many years later, of a colleague (who now runs a successful start up) being described as a ‘te

Articles

Leadership and the Amplified Self

The Third Pearl (Positive Presence)

How To Get On: Gen X Edition

Achievements, Assets, Advocacy: The AAA Approach to Career Progress

A Suit’s Perspective

Why No Plan Is the Best Plan

The Unchanging Appraisal: Learning to Accentuate the Positives and Disregard the Negatives

When Can I Kneel?

Lessons from the Jazz Age

Not Doctors, But Psychoanalysts

Game of Thrones Career Planning

From the Library to the Lobby: Making the Switch from Academia to Agency

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