Written by Will Novosedlik
During the last few years, we’ve seen big consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte hoover up creative shops and assets like Droga5 and Madras Global. While we haven’t yet seen an agency buy a consulting firm, the lines that previously existed between these two business models have most definitely been blurred.
When two ad veterans set out their stall as a “workplace consultancy,” one is tempted to view it as a bold response. Andy Macaulay, veteran of shops like Roche-Macaulay, CP+B, Zig, Union and Rethink, has teamed up with long-time colleague Glen Hunt, formerly of Cossette, Ammirati Puris, Bensimon Byrne, Dentsu and Roche-Macaulay (where the two met 30 years ago), to launch a practice focused on helping small to medium sized enterprises (SME) grow their businesses – with purpose. It’s called The Optimalists.
While some former ad execs might prefer what retirement has to offer rather than fanning the flames of the pants-on-fire demands of running a business, Macaulay and Hunt are more energized than ever to be turning their combined experience into a unique value proposition.
Glen Hunt
Creative Director, Consultant, Coach
What inspired them to do this? As Macaulay explains it, “There’s a generational change in the way people are thinking about work and the role that it plays in their lives. People are asking, ‘Is that all there is? What role should work play in my life?’ And so we saw the need for businesses and people to find a new way of doing things. And that new way is centred on the core purpose of the business, and aligning everything that the business does with that purpose.”
On the face of it, this sounds like the fuzzy front end of a typical branding process, but Macaulay disagrees. “Our practice is about alignment. It’s about creating better places to work. And that alignment has to build off of something. There has to be a thread of steel running through everything that a business does. That thread of steel has to start with the question, ‘Why does the business exist in the first place?’”
Once that question has been answered, it needs to be clearly communicated throughout the company. This seems like something a couple ex ad guys should be very good at. But what about putting it into action? Glen Hunt elaborates: “Our primary output is clarity, but communication is just the beginning. Shared understanding is the objective. Not just why they exist or their shared ambition, but how they make it a reality. How do people put the vision into action? How do they measure progress so they understand where they are on the journey? How are they recognized for the work that they do? How do they choose priorities to help make all of that a reality? All of these things combined are what help make that that ambition achievable. That’s really what it’s about.”
“At the employee level, we want to promote the ability to meaningfully contribute to making that purpose a reality, and then to gain mastery of the skills that will help achieve it. As they gain those skills they gain greater autonomy, are more self-directed and can experience growth in their roles. How do you give them that opportunity to be and do their best? It’s by tapping into these key measures of mastery, autonomy and purpose,” Macaulay adds.
Andy Macaulay
Consultant, Coach, Advisor
These words could have been spoken by an organizational culture consultant. What claims can Macaulay and Hunt make on that kind of expertise? Says Hunt, “As much as we were ad people, we were focused on the inputs, the people and creating cultures that allowed for the best output. My last three roles have really been focused on creating high-performing cultures. My last opportunity at Vision Seven was transformation agent for the entire network. My mandate was to have everybody working together in as seamless a way as possible, one that motivated and engaged and inspired them.”
For Andy’s part, “Along my journey, I’ve helped conceive, build and ultimately sell a couple of advertising agencies. I’ve helped build small businesses that grew to over a hundred people. And so I have a lot of heart for the entrepreneurial journey. Since I actively left operational work in the agency world, I have been focused on helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses.”
The Optimalists are focused on SMEs, and there’s a reason for that. “If you talk to any business school in Canada, they’ll tell you that because of the size of the market, one of the toughest things to do in this country is to scale a business. We’ve learned along the way that there’s a particular space in the growth curve of a company where it’s challenging because the founder still has to wear most or all of the ‘C-hats.’ That gap between 40 to a hundred people is a threshold that not a lot of businesses are able to cross,” says Macaulay.
“We think one of the ways to get across is to codify what your business is all about so that people don’t need daily affirmations about it. They know how to act. They know what the right thing to do is in the interest of the company’s purpose. That’s why we think there is a particular opportunity in that size of company,” he adds.
When consulting began as a profession over 100 years ago, the organization was seen as a machine of separate moving parts. The Optimalists, on the other hand, see it as a living organism, where interdependence and interdisciplinarity fuel growth. Says Macaulay, “At the end of the day a company is going to hire us to help them grow. We’ll measure our impact based on how our work changes the behaviour of the people in the organization and what that does for the business as a whole.”
