“A Vision for Transformational Change” — The Firm Voice Showcases Taylor
What are the truly inspiring stories in our industry today? Which agencies, individuals, teams, or offerings are boldly pushing the envelope, creating new value, innovating, seeing around the corner, making the world a better place, and inspiring others to do the same? Who are our big risk-takers, our thinkers, our trendsetters, and our heroes?
This week’s Firm Voice kicks off “Firm Showcase,” a new feature that brings the most memorable developments in our industry straight to your computer, smartphone, or iPad screen. How better to begin than by spotlighting a firm that over the past few years has done the seemingly impossible, re-inventing itself from a successful albeit fairly unremarkable, tactical publicity shop specializing in sports to a rapidly growing, strategic marketing communications firm that has earned a seat at the table with leading consumer brands, including Diageo, Allstate, MasterCard, Capital One, and Procter & Gamble.
I’m talking about Taylor. This New York-based firm is the subject of a new Harvard University case study, one of the few public 
relations firms to have received that honor. In 2004, the firm began the process of transitioning to new ownership and a new leadership team under the aegis of CEO Tony Signore. Eager to craft a new vision that would enable the agency to provide greater long-term value, Signore and his partners analyzed their clients’ needs and discovered what the ideal client partners really wanted — professional service at the highest level on a consistent basis. To thrive five to ten years into the future, Taylor would need to become a trusted brand counselor capable of building innovative campaigns grounded in deep consumer and business insights – truly an immersive approach.
Re-inventing Taylor wouldn’t be easy. It would involve not merely seeking out and welcoming new talent, but building a new business model focused on strategic brand planning, and critically, a very select client base that would embrace and support it. Signore and his partners took the bold steps toward parting ways with more than 50 clients, many of them long-standing, that didn’t conform to the firm’s new vision. They had to discipline themselves to become far more selective and strategic in business development and they had to develop new ways of servicing accounts. In essence, they had to learn and master a new way of approaching the development of business-building campaigns. This led to the establishment of its Brand Counsel Group. Comprised of seasoned brand planners, consumer insight specialists, creative directors and digital strategists, the BCG is immersed in every account.
Seven years later, the transition is still ongoing, yet Signore and his team are convinced that their transformation has paid dividends. “Given the economic downturn,” Signore relates, “I don’t think the old Taylor would have survived that negative impact. We are now more valued by the leading consumer brands that appreciate a narrow and deep approach through an alliance with only 15 client partners. We have our unique business model to thank for that.”
Given the momentous changes taking place across the marketing landscape, and public relations’ desire to get closer to clients, what can other professional services learn from a firm like Taylor? Signore and COO Bryan Harris reference the teachings of John Kotter by emphasizing the importance of treating transition of the business as an extended process, not an event, and preparing yourself to make calculated decisions that will be deemed too risky by some industry observers. Beyond that, they offer the following suggestions:
- Evaluate your vision and align it with your business model: Think about what kind of firm you aspire to be. Then ask: Does your business model align with that vision? If not, roll up your sleeves, because something needs to change. And ensure that your entire leadership team is in lockstep with this vision.
- Engage Internal Stakeholders: What is their understanding of the vision and their appetite for change? “It’s critical that you get all your employees to buy in. It took us about three years for everyone to get on board,” Harris explains. “Along the way, you need to showcase even the smaller victories to demonstrate how they ladder up to and validate the business model and vision.”
- Focus on your culture: For change to be meaningful, it has to run deep. Harris relates, “We had to ask ourselves if we had a strategic culture. And we didn’t. So we engaged more closely with our staff, partnered with a diverse set of external consultants, and researched best practices from firms such as Bain and McKinsey. We even relocated and re-designed our offices to create a more collaborative and creative environment.”
- Scrutinize your workforce: Taylor is a lot more diverse today, having drawn staff from global consulting firms, ad agencies, and consumer insight practices. “Like everything else, this is a process,” Signore says. “We didn’t realize how critically important it was to have strategic brand planning woven throughout our DNA. You have to continually examine your intellectual capital to ensure that you are relevant and valuable in aligning with your client partners’ business goals.”
- Specialize! Don’t try to be all things to all people. Become more comfortable serving as a niche firm. Figure out your sweet spot, and attract talent who can enhance that capability. Taylor decided to focus on the consumer space, and specifically, sports, lifestyle and entertainment platforms. The vigilance continues: On a quarterly basis, Taylor revisits the business plan to assess how well they’re delivering against it.
- Communicate your value: Signore and Harris recommend demonstrating to clients on a regular basis the impact of your firm’s value-laden solutions to their business challenges. “We demonstrate our brand planning approach to all of the client partners’ internal stakeholders, including procurement, by educating them on the foundation of our program development – the firm’s Five Strategic Principles.”
Taylor’s success is important for us in the industry to understand. Signore sums it up well: “In 2004, we looked under the hood and realized how much we needed to realign. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, had it right when he said, ‘Good is the enemy of great.’ Ultimately, we believe the choice for a professional services firm that desires to be great is a simple one: provide irreplaceable value for your client partners, or by definition, you become replaceable.”
NOTE: Do you know of an individual, firm, or team doing something extraordinary? Is there an inspiring story that others in our industry might enjoy learning about in a future “Firm Showcase” posting? Please let us know!
As the consultant who worked with Taylor at the onset of its transformation and through the years with them I recommend reading this case study no matter your size or specialty. The agency’s accomplishments from the time the new partners took over to present day are a testimony to the focus and commitment of Tony and the leadership team — attributes critical to the success of any agency.
[...] with industry influencers such as Steve Barrett (PR Week), Arun Sudhaman (The Holmes Report), Kathy Cripps and Matt Shaw (Council of Public Relations Firms) and Brent Hodgins (Mirren Business Development) will continue to be stimulating and [...]