Agency: Starting a Creative Firm in the Age of Digital Marketing (Advertising Age)

Our most effective company meeting format was exactly that: ten minutes for a brief update from management, then updates on departments or individual projects from various employees, ending with a series of answers to questions anonymously submitted from the employees.

Write out a list of things that you DON’T believe everyone should be allowed to know. I find that this list often includes things like the health conditions of employees, HR infractions, and the salaries of employees.

A culture that springs entirely from you will not scale. But you do need to set some examples and get the party started.

in the end, in the long run, among well-run shops, these all balance out, and by and large the shops get roughly the same amount of revenue for the same amount of work.

You must tell them about your vision, over and over. Unrelentingly. Forever.

I also believe that the environment in which we live—where marketing can take myriad forms rather than just a television spot or a magazine ad—dictates that we need to exhibit our expertise across multiple marketing platforms.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of answering anonymous questions from the employees.

You are the gardener, laying the seeds for a great culture. Your job is to foster a great culture, nourish it, and eliminate the troublesome weeds. You cannot fully control the culture of your company, nor should it be built around the cult of you.

Process is what separates the companies that maintain their quality while growing and those that turn mediocre.