Creating an Innovative Interactive Agency in Philadelphia

Sitting with one of the studio dogs, Connor, and coffee this morning, I was reading Tom Kelley's "The Art of Innovation". Written in 2001 it still creates a compelling vision for an innovative company.

His book misses something though.

The message of innovation CAN NOT be introduced to the client after the fact. This is a law. If your clients don't already value innovation and are as passionate about innovation as your staff is - forget about it.

I have seen many companies since 1996 where staffs have tried to create a work life that is defined by innovation. They have wanted interesting work, glamorously shambled office interiors, and real challenges on their skill sets in order to create a vibrant and meaningful place to work.

Interior of vivid studios - 1999. Michelle Waldo, Brian Biggs and Nathan Shedroff worked with me to design this interactive agency's interior.
We were supported by Fred Pollack at VMWP who created the
construction documents and oversaw the build out in 1999.
By and large, vivid was very successful at being truly innovative.

Many failed. A culture of innovation can not be built from the inside out. Most companies were not broadcasting out to their clients that Innovation (with a capital 'I') was a core offering. So these clients weren't coming to the door.

Most often innovation was seen by interactive agency and studio owners as an aesthetic that makes the workers happy. So teams striving for the meaningful work life that innovation promised were given innovation-lite instead; cool colors, a relaxed dress code and unlimited bad-ass coffee. But their work looked suspiciously routine.

For example I once worked in the local office of a national interactive agency that serviced one of the largest financial institutions in the world. Unfortunately for the teams, this client was not being sold on the office's ability to innovate. They were sold on the office's ability to do what was needed. But this is what the client wanted and paid for! They were sold this exact offering. They weren't looking for out of the box innovative thinking. They wanted creative problem solving at the project level but not barn door exploding innovation.

Doing what is needed for a client is important, but if innovation is what you want to be doing, it needs a separate sell at the start of the client engagement. It needs its own line in business development pitches, it needs to be spelled out as clear as day on the company website, and a passion for selling it has to be in the sales team.

This is because: Clients who ALREADY understand innovation's value to them have to be attracted.

In the office that I worked at innovation was not core to the sale. The president of the office did not really see it as necessary nor did the C-Level staff. They had other things (and good things) to sell. And from the C-Level view on both sides, everyone was making a profit so all was good.

Ultimately though, the staff lost hope that their work life could be defined by innovation. When the economy in San Francisco began to pick up after the dot-com crash, this office lost the majority of it's Design, Editorial and UX departments to other companies in the area such as Google.