Agencies have one of the hardest jobs in business today. There’s the obvious of managing client accounts, but also uniquely building your own brand, not to mention pipeline, quick-turning proposals, staying on top of ever-expanding technology, and even your own employee experience and agency culture. But while the list keeps growing, budgets and resources keep shrinking.  We’re at a tipping point, where the skills of an agency owner and your staff are more about the ability to find opportunities, solve problems, drive change, and deliver growth than just tactical execution. Clients expect agencies to become more strategic in their partnerships. Unless you’re perfectly fine always competing on fees, it’s time to look at the bigger ecosystem of how to collaborate and introduce ideas that help your clients’ (and your own) business succeed, while expanding our influence. The Innovation Crisis According to McKinsey, 84% of executives say innovation is critical for their business, yet only 6% are satisfied with their company’s innovation performance. While the past decade has brought an undeniable focus on technology and processes when it comes to innovation, conversations grossly lack the third element that the savvy 6% of executives understand—people.  The demand on marketers for critical thinking and more creative work has spiked, but most are at a loss at what to do. So where do they turn? Their agency.  Corporate leaders often look at creativity and innovative thinking as a value to post on a wall, flexible ways to work, or a physical attribute of office space. A key indicator of the likelihood of organizational success is effective collaboration. It’s a skill that can and should be taught, yet few internal to a brand are capable of doing it.  Again, where [...]