This recession has been the catalyst for many a new trend. You can’t open a paper without reading about something that has been spawned as a result of the economic downturn (although to be fair, the PR industry is certainly partly responsible for this!)
One trend we’ve noticed at Eulogy! is the movement of public relations from agency to in-house, particularly in the B2B space, and drilling down even further – most noticeably within the marketing services and media sectors. Having spent over a decade agency-side and with no in-house experience to my name, I’m definitely not the person to write a well balanced appraisal of the pros and cons of each – I suspect if I did, agency would win. Yet, with a number of friends opting to move in-house over the last few years, and having worked very closely with in-house comms teams at organisations such as Royal Mail, GyroHSR and JWT I am not blind to the advantages that having dedicated resource affords a business (although would obviously argue voraciously against).
That said over the last few weeks I have noticed a series of articles within both the national and trade media focusing on the phenomenon that is groupthink – such as this one in The Telegraph, which blames groupthink for the financial crisis and this one in Money Marketing, which talks about the dangers of groupthink on policy.
Stepping down a bit from the recession and financial policy it is widely recognised that groupthink can also be a destructive force and a real issue for businesses. At its worst it stifles creativity and independent thinking often stilting development, which can ultimately impact the bottom line of an organisation. Typically, however, it manifests itself by championing a status quo and all too often businesses find themselves getting on with the day to day jobs without looking at the bigger picture and creating regular challenges. This I believe is where outsourcing (irrespective of discipline) can really add its value. Working with teams that know you well, but ultimately sit outside of the business, can help inspire and ignite ideas and forward thinking. This is precisely why we work with people such as the (marvellous) Amber Group, to challenge our thinking and assist us with our own direction. The fact that consultancies, such as PR, have this ability is what I enjoy most about agency life.
