Despite the ongoing success of independent media specialist agency, Starcom, Gordon Patterson, Managing Director is not resting on his laurels. Instead of waiting for changes to be required in their thriving business, the Starcom Management Team, are re-engineering their structure.
Coinciding with the agency’s 2nd birthday, the management team identified Starcom’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and weighed and measured these against international benchmarks, with the view to maintaining Starcom’s cutting edge advantages and positioning. "Our launch positioning put us head and shoulders above the clutter and we are determined to maintain our strategic strength and our learning culture," says Patterson.
Several barriers to growth and proficiency were identified and three crucial ones addressed. Starcom had to develop processes to overcome the manacles of too little time, the hindrances facing skills transference, and insufficient application of new and innovative local and global tools.
The solutions which evolved indicated that a separate communication planning discipline within Starcom be formed - a unit able to deliver sustainable solutions addressing all three areas of concern and at the same time provide talented career minded professionals with additional clearly defined personal development opportunities.
The new structure required the appointment of a new team able to absorb and utilise in-depth knowledge of all existing industry, local and global tools and transfer these skills to the benefit of all Starcom employees and clients in day-to-day practical solutions across Starcom’s portfolio of clients. The new discipline is tasked to obtain and instil ongoing market insights to all Starcom strategists and planners allowing them to stimulate the effectiveness of existing strategies.
Heading up this new discipline will be Erica Gunning.
Patterson insists the impact within Starcom will be invaluable and underlines the innovative character of this young company.
"The best time to change is when you’re ahead of the pack," concludes Patterson.
