Everyone has a goal for 2009. Mine is to stay employed. What’s your goal? Does your agency have any ready for tacking to your cube walls? Let us know. Wieden + Kennedy London has loftier planning ambitions. You can see them below and after the jump. They are all the usual suspects: do good work, keep clients, etc. and blah. Number 6 caught my eye as good business rather than mantra lip service – “maintain a healthy 20% profit margin.” Hell, someone has to be looking at the bottom line. In fact, everyone should. Maybe that’s why W+K hasn’t had a round of serious layoffs yet.
1. Continue to try to do the best work of our lives, across all clients
Still job number one. Partly because great ideas are what businesses need in tough times. Partly because to build our own business we to be seen to do work that is talked about in our industry and in the wider culture. Partly because it what we choose to do.
2. Make ourselves indispensable to our current clients.
We have a roster of fantastic clients. Some of the most admired companies and brands in the world. We shouldn’t forget that we’re lucky to have them. That means we need to focus on retaining all of them, deepening our relationships with them where possible, understanding their business issues and helping them to succeed in this extraordinarily tough climate.
3. Attract and develop the world’s best talent
That means finding some new stars, motivating and training our own people. It means training people from just thinking to ‘thinking and doing’. Also means providing diversity and fluidity of work to people – making sure they are’t consumed by one client. Though money will be tight this year, we are committed to investing in our people to help them become more useful and more valuable to us and to our clients.
4. Win high quality new business on our own terms
New biz criteria and goals to include:
Good companies, with which we are proud to be associated
People who are passionate about what they do
People we admire and want to spend time with
Opportunities to learn
Opportunities to do things we’ve never done before
Things that our people will love to work on
Business on which we can make a fair return.
5. Innovate in what we do and how we do it
We have some specific plans in this area to be announced later. And beyond this we want / need to continue to push to be at the cutting edge of what an agency can create and become. Partly because that will differentiate us vs our competitors, partly because it will benefit our clients and partly because we find the edge a more interesting place to be than the middle of the road.
6. Maintain a healthy profit margin at 20%
Profitability isn’t our primary goal. But without it, it becomes very hard to have the freedom and independence that we enjoy. (And profit helps when it comes to discussing pay reviews.)
7. Do more good in our community
Continue to do stuff like Broadway, Spitalfields Music, working with Old Spitalfields Market, TIE, etc.
8. Re-invigorate the office environment to provide a stimulating and inspirational work place
Our new space across the road will be part of that. But for all our space, we mustn’t forget that the culture and environment of this place is what makes it (according to Campaign) the best agency in town to work at.
That’s the plan. Now we just have to get on and do it.