>> Two different management styles. Which works best?
This will only interest you if you are a manager or want to be one.
I hope so because if you can’t manage it’s almost impossible to build a business of any size.
“What the hell has the Algonquin to do with that?” you may ask.
Well, as you may have gathered, I am inquisitive and I love words.
If you’re not inquisitive you won’t spot opportunities others miss – which is how you beat your competitors.
And if you don’t love words, you can’t write well.
That means you can’t persuade people to do what you want – or succeed at any serious level in anything.
That’s because you can’t always motivate everyone face to face.
Two types of people
Where does the Algonquin come into this?
Well, it’s a New York hotel where some of the wittiest writers in America used to meet in the 1930s.
Dorothy Parker was one. My favourite quote from her?
“One more drink and I’ll be under the the table; two more drinks and I’ll be under the host.”
But another I love was from Robert Benchley – “The world is divided into two types of people. Those who believe the world is divided into two types of people and those who don’t.”
Well, the business world is divided into two types of people.
Those who succeed and those who fail.
To succeed you must know how to get the best out of people. And this brings me to the day I sold my agency, then the biggest of its kind in the UK, to Ogilvy & Mather.
(I was approached by eight of the world’s top 20 agencies. Never been as popular since)
I chose Ogilvy because I liked their values more than those of the rest.
But at the time Ogilvy & Mather Direct, London was performing very badly.
So badly that their biggest client, American Express, wanted some money back.
Not all of it, but a lot.
Why were they doing so badly?
Well, it all came down to management.
Their boss, nicknamed The Man In The Empty Suit knew nothing about direct marketing as far as I could see..
And in the engine room, the creative department, the man in charge was the opposite of a good manager.
Let me explain…
How to spot good managers
There are two sure-fire ways to assess your managers.
First, do they have fancy titles?
I suggest you regard those with suspicion.
Anybody who’s impressed by titles is an idiot. Anybody who thinks a title impresses intelligent people is a bigger idiot, hopelessly marooned up his or her own arse.
You should only judge by what people do and achieve.
That creative director, who was not a bad copywriter, used to work in his office with the door closed.
People had to come to him for advice rather than him going to them.
If you want to get the best from people go to them.
In those days, there was a popular business fad called management by walking around.
Business fads come and go but the big problems never change. But I discovered I was managing by walking around.
I recall David Ogilvy coming into our offices in Soho and asking if we could sit down and talk about a prospective client.
And I said, “Unfortunately, David, I don’t have an office. The only person here with an office is the financial director for reasons of security.”
So we sat down in a meeting room and he told me about a new client he had found for me.
By chance, there is a video of him talking about that very meeting and what happened as a result; here’s the clip.
In the end he gave me the job of flying, not walking around, so I used to visit our offices around the world, looking for good people, encouraging them, helping the clients.
Here I am many years after he made that video, still at it, still walking around – but online.
And nobody in our business has a fancy title.
Actually, nobody in our business has a title at all unless you count me as being the chairman, but we get results.
We get results because despite the fact that we live in scattered offices we know what we’re doing.
Here are some comments about those results.
“We require all new copywriters to study Drayton’s work for one reason: it’s unbelievably effective. With him you get a lifetime of experience in creating control campaigns. Every interaction has paid for itself many times over. If you’re serious about writing a world-class copy that converts you should get in touch and listen to what he says.”
– Rory Fryer, Chief Executive, Malaberg
“Guys……I’M ECSTATIC! 42% open rate and climbing My sales team literally can’t call them quick enough from landing page and replies.”
– Nick Boddington, Managing Director, mib Data Solutions Ltd
“The response was 5 times higher than the TV ads, with 60% less cost, but the most interesting part was that the visitors to our website were DOUBLE and we had phone calls to our office. This never happened before … and all from 5 minutes advice.”
– Jaime Montesinos, Principal, IPM Business School, Lima, Peru
“We needed a direct marketing agency that was capable of directing and strengthening the strategic and creative work of local agencies around the globe. In my experience, few other agencies know as much about direct marketing.”
– Alida Catcheside International Direct Marketing Manager, Novartis
“Drayton Bird were extremely reliable to work with, always delivering work on time and within budget, usually hitting the mark within the first round of concepts presented. Their experience in direct marketing particularly shone through with impactful copy that got our customers to take action. I’d highly recommend them for any of your direct marketing needs. Gerald was a pleasure to work with, very responsive to our needs, and always going above and beyond.”
– Donna Ede, Marketing Manager, GLL
Like the sound of all that?
Need better results – without paying more money?
Actually, usually by paying less because we don’t have any offices at all.
But we are small in number and only work for a limited number of clients.
Why not get in touch now right now?
Best,
Drayton
