Over the last four to five years I have been employing people into VivaKi and Audience On demand and have been looking for that common thread that links them all together. Is it a passion for programmatic or digital? An innate curiosity and wish to get under the bonnet of the digital ecosystem? Perhaps following the latest trends? In all honesty a combination of those characteristics and more besides. 

 

But then why not all flock to the raft of start ups that are around, bounce around a few and maybe get lucky. There is definitely a type that follow that road but there are many that want that sensation of building something, being part of an exciting growing business but within the confines of a larger organization. These people are intrapreneurs, not salary men, they still take risks. Anyone who moved into digital in 1999/2000 or earlier were all seen as signing up to lose their jobs. The calls from the TV department of will you come and fix my screen still echo to this day. Of course most are now working in digital but took years and years to make the leap. To me this makes them more cautious and not the intrapreneurs of the agency network. They are of course not the most cautious, anyone still in their same job 20 plus years later is either extremely cautious, lazy or very senior! 

 

So where does that leave the people we employ right now in programmatic. The business has evolved at such a pace, it has taken even the most forward thinking people by surprise. I already think it sounds strange when I hear ‘programmatic is growing’ it sounds so disconnected from the fact our whole business is going to be programmatic in a few short years. It also makes those who ridiculed the VivaKi Nerve Center and what we were doing with Audience On Demand look more out of touch as in a few short years they have been exposed as having little or no vision or understanding of digital. 

 

As a large employer of expertise in this area and especially as we hire more senior talent we are dealing with a new scenario. One where it becomes very difficult to answer the question ‘ what does my career path look like?’ My answer to this and one I believe fully is that I don’t have an answer. The reason for that is I believe that when you join our business things will change and keep changing. There will be opportunity all around and perhaps the least of that opportunity is me laying it out on a timeline for the next 48 months.  Instead I explain that I can’t predict exactly how things will develop but that you are in the hottest businesses in town and you are learning and developing skills that will open so many doors, to the extent that I have to admit you will eventually move on.

 

If when I signed up to be the only VivaKi Nerve Center employee and founder of Audience On demand in Europe I had asked for a nice clean career plan from Curt Hecht he would have struck me off there and then. Curt like me did not want someone who needed that, he wanted an Intrapreneur. An individual capable of replicating the same drive and passion but with support from a group and the abilities to navigate it.

 

As has been written about significantly this business of ours, has been turned upside down. Revolution not evolution is the name of the game and continues to be so every day, so anyone who wants to come in and have a nice well lit path to the CEO’s job is going to be unhappy. Whether it is Europe or US – if you work for Audience On Demand you are at the centre of the biggest thing going on in digital and will be set up for a great future – what you do now to make the most of it is important. 

 

It’s worth remembering that even in a Groupe the size of Publicis that the ability to be part of this kind of opportunity – to be intraprenurial- still exists. AOD is a fraction of the Groupe’s revenues and yet we are cited by Maurice in interviews and earnings calls. That makes it exciting. The Googles, Microsofts, Facebooks etc are the most corporate of all machines and their days of making you create something new, unless you are very senior or an engineer are done. Every day we compete with these companies and often they win by throwing money at people but feedback is often the same. It is like entering a science fiction film where you are put in a box and you need to start peddling, without the ability to change anything.

 

When I joined Zenith Media in 1996, the plan was clear, get to be CEO as quickly as possible, there was a path I could follow, others had. Now we have a world that is being rewritten and there is no clear path and opportunities and threats lie all around. Today’s successful candidates have to be open minded, they have to be flexible and adaptable. Get into the right type of business, be passionate, care about what you do and then all good things will come to you. If you want a nice secure line of sight then don’t come to programmatic because this is the fastest, most exciting ride I have been on in my career.

 

I will end by saying the true entrepreneurs amongst you, or even just those who want to keep taking risks and jumping to find a sale or IPO – keep doing it. I know many very average people who have made money by doing it.  There is no right / wrong answer in this amazing business of ours.