Words of Wisdom from John Adams.

At the Brandcenter we get the pleasure to hear a myriad of people in the creative industries talk, theorize and hand off advice. 

The other day we had the pleasure of hearing John Adams (see below), CEO of The Martin Agency, talk about what does and doesn't keep him up at night when it comes to this ever changing industry of advertising.

I won't go through what doesn't keep him up but I will go through what does keep him up. His speech was delivered masterfully and was incredibly compelling and provocative. Please know this is a gross summarization. Anyways, here's what he said:

1. We don't know enough about creativity. We don't know how to identify or how to teach it. With the industry changing we need it more than ever.

2. We need to be better relationship builders. We need to understand that there are no business relationships, only people relationships. The basis of all relationship breakdowns in business and between people are resultant from poor communication (ironic given we are in a communications industry), changes in priorities, and lack of commitment. We need to find a way to bring to the forefront of these relationships that awards and results are not separate or competing.

3. We need to realize we have a bigger job to do. We are focusing on the trees when we should be focusing on the forest. We work as a service for corporations which are the dominant part of our civilization. People don't trust them and we tend to not like them. We have a responsibility as to help shape the corporate social responsibility endeavors of our nation.