Madison Avenue Makeover: The transformation of Huge and the redefinition of the ad agency business

If you’ve been thinking about the next round of your strategic planning process, this book will get your juices going again. Read “Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business,” by Michael Farmer.“Huge” is the corporate name of a digital creative agency. Their first client was IKEA. With 12 independent offices worldwide in 2021, the owners had just named their fifth CEO in four years. (That definitely calls for a YIKES!) IPG, “one of the big five global marketing communications holding companies,” somehow cajoled Mat Baxter (who immigrated with his family to Australia at age 12), to take a swing at this huge challenge (no pun intended).Remember—this was during COVID, so when Baxter agreed to become Huge’s Global CEO, he began meeting with small segments of their 1,200 employees over Zoom. Across their 12 offices (London, Singapore, Bogotá, Toronto, Brooklyn, Chicago, and other cities), each led by an “office president,” he discovered more than 100 job titles in the agency! There was no uniform “Huge Way,” or common approach with clients. Just 12 fiefdoms. Growth had stalled. (Does this sound like a fun job to you?)Stunningly, Baxter invited the author, consultant, and prof, Michael Farmer, to shadow the hoped-for transformation process as a “fly on the wall.” Gratefully, readers can soak up all the learnings (and the missteps) as Farmer chronicles the 17-month process in 2021-2022. (He includes his notes in the book.)And yes, they wore COVID masks during the first of three executive leadership team retreats. And get this: at their first retreat in Maine with 20 global execs (plus the author), Baxter intentionally did not provide an agenda in advance! Think about that! The retreat began with an ice-breaker dinner then focused on seven key questions for the next two days.• If you’re a consultant (or a consultant wanna-be), you’ll love this book.• If you’re a CEO or senior team member—facing no growth or slow growth—Madison Avenue Makeover is a must-read.Fascinating. Enlightening. Templates. Replicable Ideas. Cartoons! And a promising exercise for your next senior leaders retreat.HERE ARE 5 TAKEAWAYS:#1. GUTSY SELF-ASSESSMENT REQUIRED! If you’re in need of a transformation, this book will give you courage—watching how the team at Huge pulled it off. To calm the obvious fears of major changes coming, the executive leadership team prepared and distributed an extensive “Frequently Asked Questions” document for every employee. (It runs 22 pages in the book’s appendix.) The FAQs includes this quote from Andy Grove, former Chairman and CEO of Intel, “To understand a company’s strategy, look at what they actually do rather than what they say they will do.”Farmer writes, "To use a tired analogy, Baxter would have to rebuild the plan while it was flying." And they needed to keep the team informed and productive, which reminded me of “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change,” by William Bridges who writes, “It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.”#2. MARKET RESEARCH SAYS: “FASTER HORSES!” Mat Baxter immediately retained a consulting firm to give guidance to the transformation process. (Warning: Strong opinions. Deep-seated cultures.) What will prompt revitalization and growth: Plan A or Plan B—and how will we know? The author notes, “Huge’s product approach was similar to what was carried out at Apple under Steve Jobs, who is reported to have said:‘Some people say, “Give the customers what they want.” But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. Henry Ford once said, “If I’d ask customers what they wanted, they would have told me, a faster horse!” People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.’”#3. GIVE THE PROCESS A MEMORABLE CODE NAME! “Within the ELT [executive leadership team], the transformation program was codenamed 'Project Polpo'—polpo being the Italian word for octopus, the complicated sea creature with eight arms, a soft and adaptable body for squeezing in and out of tight spaces, and a high brain-to-body weight ration.”Words matter—and I imagine this creative code name brought chuckles and motivation to the ELT. The author (in his fly-on-the-wall role) had full access to meetings and documents. The book includes the unedited snippet of a “Polpo Playbook Review,” led by the recently promoted Chief Product Officer.#4. TRUST YOUR CONSULTANT! Baxter retained TBMC, a consulting firm with a unique process. Michael Farmer notes that “TBMC uses a unique, stylized vocabulary when describing advertising industry practices and the content of the consultancy’s transformation program.” Another gut check: what if the CEO or ELT doesn’t trust the process?This reminded me of the wisdom from a consulting colleague, who told me, “Your strategic planning consultant, facilitator, or volunteer will use different tools to get you to the top of Mount Everest (a completed plan). But it’s important to let your facilitator use his or her own tools.” In other words—trust your consultant!#5. YOUR NEXT CEO: WHAT COMPETENCIES? When Mat Baxter agreed to become the fifth CEO of Huge in four years (!), he brought a critical competency with him: Turn-Around guy (see the book, “The First 90 Days” and the four kinds of organizations). The challenges (did I mention this?) were huge: silos, no growth, global, new guy in town. The author quotes Baxter extensively—and you’re reminded that, as Peter Drucker urged, leaders must lead from their strengths. Drucker: “Effective leadership is not about being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.”Farmer notes that Baxter engineered a paradigm shift—with a new approach: “a results paradigm” focusing on seven outcomes (see pages 136-137 in the last chapter). One critical outcome: “a corporate mission to improve client results.” This reminded me of Peter Drucker’s observation to Bob Buford in the book, “Drucker & Me.” Drucker told him, “The fruit of your work grows on other people’s trees.”There’s more—so I urge you to read and learn from this fascinating book:• The “Fears, Gaps, Challenges” pre-retreat assignment for all senior leaders.• “GOAT”—the firm’s “Go Away Time” 30-day sabbatical when a team member reaches 10 years of service.• Metaphors: Huge landed on three unique “front doors” (learn about doorbells also) and what they first labeled “drawers.”• Categorization (the 3-page template for the 3 front doors): Experience Transformation, Technology Realization, and Growth Creation (plus: 45 new "products" for helping clients grow).• History, context, and pricing for creative agencies today: fascinating.• The work from home dilemma for a global firm: read where Huge landed.• More Metaphors: Conversion from being a “light bulb” for the clients to a “laser.”• And this:“Each employee needs to be an ambassador for results-driven work. This will require a major communications and cultural-development effort.”Did the transformation work? Read the book!

Having worked at IPG for over a decade, I'm very familiar with the cast of characters mentioned in the book and especially Mat. He is undoubtedly one of the most creative and entrepreneurial minds in the ad industry and what he has accomplished is amazing, especially his most recent turnaround of Initiative.So, in short, I was really keen to read the book and learn more about the Huge story - what led to its decline, how it planned to change, adoption of a new way and ultimately, the results.For me, the book was interesting (and can be read in 3 hours) but it lacked any coverage of the conflict along the way in deciding a new direction (the juicy stuff) - and I've no doubt there were supporters, and antagonists, and plenty of drama along the way... which wasn't captured and would have been colorful.And it left things as somewhat of a cliffhanger. We're not sure if the plan worked... if it attracted more clients, if the P&L grew, if attracted greater talent etc.In summary, as an agency owner I found some of the methodology and processes from the consultants of interest but was left wanting more from this book. Hopefully there is an epilogue being penned and added in the subsequent months and years.

Rereading this Kindle edition so many months after writing the manuscript, I remain excited for Huge, and I hope that readers will become equally excited. If they work for ad agencies, I hope that they will encourage their leaders to consider what Huge has done…and follow Huge’s example by changing their own paradigm.