All professional services agencies entering the third decade of the 21st Century—from digital product agencies to marketing, public relations, and management consulting agencies or anything in between—have many responsibilities… but only one essential task.
They must constantly, continually, and rapidly adapt to change and innovate.
Although there are some differences in this continual reinvention—depending on agency type—the basic driver is the same. The world in which it lives is constantly changing, with new tech, new market dynamics, new kinds of customers, new regulations and new competitors. Since the birth of the modern Web, these dynamics have operated at hyperspeed, with trends rising and falling like waves in an ocean storm.
And, as in the ocean, the next wave is not always visible until it hits you.
So, change and adapting to change are givens for an agency. The bigger question: How?
Almost Like a Law of Physics
To retain the ability to rapidly innovate, agencies must design and monitor themselves to counter the tendency of organizations to drift into stasis and convention.
Organizations develop mechanisms against innovation naturally—almost like a law of physics.