It's not every day that we hear clients say they have to turn business away, but that's the truth for Mark Terry-Lush of Renegade Media. His question to Pembridge:
"How do I capitalise on that, while keeping the personal space to stay in touch with my creativity?" Too much potential work may not be everyone's challenge, but achieving a balance between creativity and commerce certainly is for many fast-growing companies, writes Hugh Mason
When Mark Terry-Lush left the security of established top ten London Public Relations agencies, he thought he was heading for a creative life built around his passion for photography. That's still his long-term ambition but, meanwhile, old clients have tracked him down and won't let him go. Mark's steadily growing client portfolio of international advertising and media agencies, publishers, consumer technology brand owners and trade associations has spawned the nucleus for a new PR agency that he's called Renegade Media. The dilemma facing him now is whether to grow the business independently or to team up with others.
Mark and I met through a programme called Creative Value Builder, which I delivered recently for the Gloucestershire Media Group (GMG). The group is an unexpectedly vibrant cluster of small businesses located on the border between England's Midlands and South West regions that brings together around 50 small- and medium-sized businesses. Generous funding from the Learning and Skills Council made it possible for us to work with three of those companies in a pilot project that we hope will expand in future.
Sensibly, the GMG takes a broad interpretation of the word 'Media' which recognises the convergence happening between traditionally separate industries like content production and Marketing communications. And sure enough, when we brought together three similar-sized companies in the same room from very different sectors (defence simulation, content production and PR), they shared more in common than they could have imagined.
Grow the business independently or team up with others?
"I realise now that my desire to run a business which will support the lifestyle I want to lead is very common," says Mark. "As I look around all the creative companies I know, there's a clear element of that in every one. Maybe that shouldn't be a surprise - after all - why go through the hassle of setting up and running your own business if it's not going to give you what you want in life?"
Fair comment. But what do you do when a business starts to take on a life of its own and seems to want to grow beyond its original founder's ambitions? Going with that opportunity and accepting the consequences of growth can feel like letting the tail wag the dog. The trick is to find a way to step back from what the business is now and to take a strategic and lateral look at the future. There are always more options than you'd imagine, and certainly more than carrying on with 'business as usual'.
In Mark's case, we kicked off on just that mental journey by mapping out exactly what he wants from the business. As Mark says: "It's fine to state a personal goal in broad terms, but as soon you start to pin it down in terms of the money required and the timescale you want it to happen over, things start coming into focus. It helps immensely to have an independent facilitator with you to see the wood for the trees"
Why go through the hassle of setting up and running your own business if it's not going to give you what you want in life?
Most small business owners find it very difficult to separate their personal goals from those of the business. That's especially true in a creative company where the very essence of the business seems to be the founder's "brain-fruit". Surely a creative company is only as good as the past projects it’s piled up, many would argue.
It can be viewed that way - but that's a picture with a past and no future. The approach Pembridge takes is to help business owners visualise their company as a vehicle going places in order to deliver creative projects to clients. The management team are the drivers and they are separate from the vehicle and the staff/projects in the back. Eventually you might even change the driver – but the behicle and the staff/projects/clients might stay the same. Critically, the members of the team needn't only own one vehicle. Just as many of us own a car AND a bicycle, it's possible to found a commercial business and a charity, for example. You wouldn't try to drive a car in some of the places you take your mountain bike, and likewise there's no reason why one company should have to fulfil all the ambitions for every member of its management team. My colleagues and I at Pembridge see that achieving this separation between owner-managers and their companies is a key to growth.
"It really helped me to start thinking of Renegade Media as a means to an end," says Mark. "Sounds so simple when you say it like that but it's actually a significant mental step. I don't mean in saying this that my heart's not in the company - just that I can understand now that it's only part of what I want to achieve and that in turn makes it possible to imagine sharing the work required to build Renegade with others."
Like many creative people, Mark is fiercely independent, and it's that genuine sense of uniqueness which makes him uniquely valuable to his clients. But as we worked together to map out what Renegade Media is today, we could see that elements of it weren't totally dependent on Mark. In fact, there was a lot of 'process' involved in running the business that stopped him doing what he does best. If he could find someone whose talent lies in that direction, he could focus on his strengths, accommodate the clients he's currently turning away, and feel better about his working day. A path to growth was possible.
In fact when we really looked at the options it needn't just be a person that takes on board the work Mark does effectively but where he doesn't add most value. It could even be another business. Having a clear picture that his independent creativity need not necessarily be compromised by a relationship with another business opened up a vision of at least three different potential partners to make Renegade all it can be.
The next step was to think through the implications of teaming up with those partners, ranging from a small local agency where resources could be shared in a co-habitation arrangement, through to a sale of Renegade to a growing London-based group. Each option could plausibly give Mark what he's looking for from Renegade over time, but with different amounts of focus and risk to get there.
It helps immensely to have an independent faciliator with you to see the wood for the trees
"I found the process of talking through the issues with Pembridge stimulating and enlightening," said Mark. "The goal of building a specialist international PR agency may seem daunting but with the right plan and people – plus external support – I can see the road ahead," he added.
Richard Tierney, board member at the Gloucester Media Group, sees that the approach that helped Mark and Renegade Media has potential to help many of his group's members.
"GMG’s association with the LSC has enabled us to start a number of initiatives delivering what local media business really need to survive and thrive," said Richard. "As this funding draws to a close we hope to find other ways to deliver the same value. The advances made by companies on the Value Builder programme were all different, but all significant, and this convinced me that our initial decision to run the sessions with Pembridge provided vital support to employers in the media sector in the county."
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