FOCUS: YEAR-END REVIEWS - Industry hopes dampened by talent dearth

While the year grinds and grunts to an end, it is interesting to reflect over past months that paradoxically, seem to have passed in the blink of an eye. And in many ways, I see this as the theme for the year - a paradox, oxymoron, call it what you will. For CIA Asia-Pacific across 2000, it could not have been a more successful year. But thank God its coming to an end! Market conditions, while improving in some ways, have become significantly more challenging in others and the year has been a tough one industry wide. Yet with CIA's billings up more than 65 per cent year-on-year, significant improvements in margins and no senior staff losses, we find ourselves at the end of 2000 in great shape with a world-class team and our new business books full of exciting and interested prospects. It's clear that CIA's core value delivered through our independence from the influences of advertising agencies and the resultant freedom to work directly for clients in their best interest is at the very heart of our competitive edge. If recent events are anything to go by, clients are putting an increasing value on the services our independence allows us to develop. We continue to benefit from the convergence of technologies and the simultaneous evolution of the intra-relationships between the brand, media channels and the consumer. The inevitable need that these circumstances create for radically different service models combined with our "challenger" business status, facilitates the constant re-defining of our service offer. And this is great fun! For the industry as a whole, 2000 was not an easy year. The near total lack of new blood into the industry during the 1997-1999 recession is now playing through and causing massive staffing problems across all marketing services sectors regionally. There is a dearth of talent at all levels and obviously, no more so than among those with two to three years' experience. As a result, salaries are spiraling up. In addition, in many cases individuals are being asked to take on responsibilities beyond their ability and experience. On a partially more positive note, the worldwide crash of dotcoms has made people think twice about jumping ship for a career in cyberspace. Yet at the same time and as a cause for grave concern, this is not because the ad industry has got its house in order, but rather because, the alternatives have crashed into oblivion. We have been given a second chance but, boy, the industry must grasp this serendipitous opportunity with both hands. But it probably won't.

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