The Ops Clinic
The world is changing at record speed. New technology and channels have revolutionised everything. This brings both challenges and great opportunities for agencies, along with a strong requirement to redefine and reinvent their processes, people and systems.
Only too often agencies concentrate on three areas – the strategy, the work and the Client. Understandably so, as this is what drives our vision and passions to produce the best creative product possible. However, there is an entirely separate entity that needs as much, if not, more attention to underpin those areas. Agency operations.
All too often agencies experience great growth without the structure or processes to support it or the right resources to deliver the work.
The Ops Clinic know that getting internal operations right is critical to the success of an agency.
Operational Consultancy
We work in partnership with companies to achieve best practice across their business processes.
Being in a creative business doesn’t mean you have to be disorganised. To make real magic, you need logic.
It’s proven that efficient processes lead to better work, contented clients, improved financial performance and an enthused work force. Strong processes cut out waste, control costs and do not ‘over engineer’ teams.
Every company has different operational issues. Culture is also very important in creative organisations. We understand the challenges in managing change, both on an operational and cultural level.
Companies need the right team to manage their operations. We work with you to develop a seem less process, identify the right people to implement and manage this and the necessary training to up-skill existing staff through our bespoke training to meet your organisation’s objectives.
Commercial Consultancy
We also offer commercial support for agencies looking to grow.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Today’s climate is complicated and businesses need to make tough decisions based on scarce resources available. We help agencies look at their strengths and weaknesses and help them prioritise on what gaps need to be filled to achieve their long term ambition. We call this the Business Plan.
A good Business Plan will help you make the right decisions that will deliver you successful commercial growth.
Pricing
Your price is the reward for the work that you do. If you are the very best at what you do, your price will reflect this and will be rightfully more expensive than the competition. If your strategy is to offer value for money, then equally your price will reflect this too. The link between perceived quality and price is perfectly correlated.
The difficulty we have is confusing price with cost. Cost is irrelevant when it comes to how much clients benefit from your services, although this is still the dominant methodology used in our sector.
Our training will help you understand your value proposition and how to defend it.
Our approach
Don't take our word for it...
The Ops Clinic consulted with Red Brick Road helping them reach their operational objectives for 2016.
Working closely with the senior management team, we future proofed the agency operations by evolving their existing
processes and re-structuring their project management function enabling the agency to meet their growth ambitions for the following 12 months.
Hear what they had to say about the Ops Clinic.
Chairman
The Industry Club worked as a partner with us to first of all fully understand the issues the business was facing, and the structural changes needed to address these constantly changing requirements. Their first hand agency experience has meant they were able to work swiftly with our management team in analyzing the issues and implementing realistic, workable solutions. Through this process The Industry Club have demonstrated their strategic approach to recruitment, supporting both the agency and candidate through the process ensuring all parties delivery to their maximum capabilities.
CEO
I was really impressed with The Ops Clinic, the way it enabled us to become very action focused off the back of it. It was a piece of consultancy, which we needed, which quickly led to some tangible outputs.
They have a great team of experts and there’s a genuine integrity to the advice that they give.
They really got our issues quickly. The fact that we had people in here for several days speaking to all sorts of people, from junior to senior, meant that the issues and the challenges that we were just facing were understood much more quickly than they would have been otherwise.
Global Chief Creative Officer
Following a period of rapid growth, we asked Melissa to come into iris to observe our processes, systems and behaviors. The result was an incredibly insightful analysis of our strengths – and the weakness that could hold us back in the future. By the end of the first week one she’d suggested a number of really effective “quick wins” and she subsequently outlined a long-term strategic solution to our creative services / project management
function – enabling us to deliver diverse solutions, at aped, with quality.
Better still, she managed o create consensus amongst a wide range of stakeholders, enabling the solution to be quickly adopted and implemented.
And to top it all off, she was a good laugh
to have around. I can’t recommend her highly enough. Don’t drink her tea though – it’s terrible.
ECD - Ogilvy Action
Melissa spent 2 weeks in our Ogilvy Action office analyzing and observing how our operations were working. Her insight into the process and people dynamics was fantastic and she made us clearly understand why things were not optimum and how to change them.
I wish I had hired Melissa much earlier as her experience and insight into agency
operations proved invaluable.
We worked with the Industry Club’s consulting arm to conduct a comprehensive review our internal production capability, process and hardware and deliver recommendation suitable for our business needs and future requirements. They produced a brilliantly comprehensive set of recommendations that build on elements of what we had and introduced new thinking and processes where necessary. We are in the process of implementing the plan in totality and initial feedback from the business and the management team is very positive.
CHRIS SPENCELEY
MANAGING PARTNER, TBWA LONDON
Talk to us
Melissa Smith
Managing Director
Melissa founded The Industry Club in 2011, having spent 20 years in creative agency operations - heading up Project Management and Production departments for some of London’s leading agencies at Board Level. Melissa leads The Industry Club on a day to day basis but is also passionate about building careers in the creative comms industry for Everyone. In 2020, she launched Marketing Debuts, a recruitment and training programme for young talent to drive diversity in the industry. Melissa is also one of our regular trainers at The Industry School sharing her knowledge and passion for Project Management with agencies and brands.
Jo Petroccia
Resource Management Consultant & Trainer
Jo has over 20 years agency experience in resource management and operational roles. Tired of seeing resource management treated nothing more than a game of human tetris, Jo developed resource management training that helps businesses get the most value from their resource management planning - from new business pipeline to final project delivery.
Chalice Croke
Creative Operations Consultant
Chalice has over 24 years’ integrated agency experience. She has worked at board level as Head of Operations for several leading advertising, digital and direct agencies in London
Her knowledge is underpinned by in-depth experience in agency process design and implementation, systems analysis, new business development, client relationship management, strategy, creative, design, project management, creative production, resource management, quality control, technology and innovation, leadership, staff training and development, procurement, finance forecasting, departmental budget management and revenue recognition.
Chalice has a proven track record in showing agencies how to operate like clockwork whilst protecting their bottom line.
Andrew Reeves
Commercial and pricing consultant
Andrew Reeves has more than 20 years experience in marketing services practicing commercial management. He is passionate about creativity and its value add and committed to helping agencies commercialise their unique capabilities for their clients. Over the years Andrew has led commercial strategies that have helped agency growth plans including value pricing, annual budgeting and client remuneration. In 2015 Andrew set up as a consultant advising independent agencies on growth plans and on realising their full value potential.
