DIARY: Rant

<p>The next time I read an agency boss saying that they're </p><p>"re-allocating resources" or some such rubbish, I'll scream. Come on, </p><p>guys. You're not reallocating anything - you're firing people. People </p><p>know when they've been fired, and telling them that they haven't been </p><p>isn't going to fool anyone. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Why doesn't anyone have the guts to admit that it's really bad out there </p><p>at the moment. Everyone is having to make unpleasant staffing decisions, </p><p>and get rid of people they'd rather keep. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The reason? Whisper it: no one's making much money at the moment. There </p><p>are hardly any half-decent accounts up for pitch, and every agency is </p><p>finding itself forced to chase after nasty little bits of business that </p><p>frankly it'd rather not have. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The popular solution is to get rid of staff. Fair enough, you'd think - </p><p>basic economics dictate that if your revenues go down, you want your </p><p>costs to go down as well. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But what worries me is when an agency loses an account - sometimes not </p><p>even a particularly big one - and immediately kicks 10 of its staff </p><p>out. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>That can only mean one thing: that agency isn't confident that it can </p><p>win other accounts, at least not quickly enough to justify the extra </p><p>staff costs in the meantime. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Every global agency network will tell you that it expects Asia to </p><p>massively grow its contribution to its global revenue over the next few </p><p>years, and they're all more than happy to claim that the region is going </p><p>to become an increasingly important part of their global operations. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But it's hard to see how that's going to happen if agencies continue to </p><p>slash resources at the slightest provocation - they won't have the </p><p>resources left to grow quickly, and there won't be enough talented, </p><p>experienced people in the market to hire. It's all very well to be </p><p>reactive to market conditions, but there's more than a whiff of </p><p>short-termism about knee-jerk staff cuts. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>You could call agencies' strictness over the financial performance of </p><p>their Asian operations prudence - or you could call it cowardice. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Whoever you are, and whatever you want to get off your chest, send your </p><p>rants to rant@media.com.hk, and we'll print them anonymously. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>