As with every company (loved or despised) changes happen. What is also true with Interactive agencies is that clients are either won, lost, or let go. In the case of Skittles, this was a sad lost. We’ve had the client for 5+ years and have executed great work. The account was in review and unfortunately the client wanted a different vision so we lost that account – but don’t rule out the great site work we’ve done. Many, many awards were won on the Skittles account – something I’m sure the creature above has no clue about. With that in mind, Bright Ideas was the complete opposite. What we’ve done for Bright Ideas is something great. We created a great platform for them, and then we took that same foundation we created and made it even better. At some point someone has to assess the situation and determine if there’s a great opportunity outside another redesign. There was not. We cut ties with Bright Ideas and we will now focus on establishing what we established for Bright Ideas with another company. Yes, we lost great people in the shuffle, but we also got rid of a lot of the poison that pigeon-held our agency development, growth, and maturity. Call it War Games, but it’s part of the business. You win some and then you lose some.

As the “abandon ship” phase seems to continue with losing more and more talent, the major turnover, lack of resources and solid leadership seems to be key to the brand looking elsewhere.

It’s been a few years since I left G2/Grey Interactive. And I can’t believe that the same problems still exist. Clearly there is a culture there that needs to be dismantled and built from the ground up. Smaller agencies are eating G2’s lunch and the reason for that is that they made a commitment to focus on the dollar instead of building a sustainable business that can compete with the evolving digital arena. It was an issue of positioning and priorities.

Lack of foresight, lack of vision, lack of spirit doomed G2 many years ago. I am just not sure why it hasn’t turned back around. Everyone that could have left has left, but there is apparently something still there stinking up the joint.

All I can say is that there is some great work happening in this space, too bad Grey isn’t creating it. A piece of advice, if they haven’t, they need to re-evaluate their business model. What do they want people to think about when the think of G2. Though this may seem simple…we all heard of KISS…for the slow ones, Keep It Simple Stupid….Dueces

Sad as it is, members of the managment team did it to themselves and deserve to fail.

Leadership isn’t easy, but it’s often simple; stay true to your vision, loose the dead weight, execute per plan. Those with talent worth keeping usually stick around.