TBWA to focus on creativity

TBWA Singapore has reorganised its business operations in a bid to enhance its creative potential. The reorganisation is being undertaken under the "break the rules" banner and a new operating model. The key to this process will be to discard the outmoded and increasingly irrelevant convention of rigidly enforced departmental demarcations. TBWA has long believed "that Asia works in its own special way, quite differently from Europe, Australia and the United States in its universal hierarchical structure", said Johan Fourie, TBWA Singapore chief executive officer. "Our rule is simple. At TBWA, we should all be made to feel like creative people. That said, some of our team are conceptual specialists, some are strategic specialists while others have specialist management skills and each team member will play to their strengths," he told MEDIA. Under the reorganisation, creative director Mark Bamfield also takes on the newly-created role as head of art, while John Sheterline is promoted to creative group head (copy). Justin Barry is promoted to chief operating officer, Robin Nayak to strategic director and Christina Lim to client services director. Under this new operating structure, TBWA aims to short circuit the conventional paper trail briefing process and dedicate more time to the creative process. Designed to put the agency firmly at Asia's creative cutting edge, the re-organisation will see creative teams, account teams and creative planners brainstorming on client briefs, the moment they arrive in the agency. The idea is to harness the broader creative energies of the company and to make every member of the team a stakeholder in the creative process, within the compressed timeframes that are more common in today's high pressure business world, Mr Fourie said. Citing similar successes from its sister agencies TBWA/Chiat Day and TBWA/Hunt Lascaris, as well as UK hotshop, St. Lukes, Mr Fourie added that "Great ideas don't care who came up with them. Our colleagues have shown that when motivated, creatively-minded people work together, world-class creative works are often the result." The new approach by TBWA has been widely accepted by creative staff ensuring that the commitment to development and breakthrough creativity will continue on into the future.

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