BMF Case Study

The problem / opportunity

• In 2002 BMF were a rapidly growing full service creative agency, formed in the late 1990’s by 3 passionate agency heads. They had a bold vision ‘to be a world class agency that just happens to be in Sydney’.
• To support that they needed to put in place a world class people program to support the vision, help reinforce a vibrant culture and provide their managers and people with skills to handle the workload from major clients.
• Over the last 9 years the challenge has both stayed the same and changed a great deal. The agency has grown from 60 people to over 250 and they needed a partner who could maintain the world class standard and adapt to changing needs

A partnership solution

• The start point 9 years ago was very pragmatic. Some big deals were just about to be negotiated, so that was the focus of the very first workshop attended by the whole leadership team.
• From there that program was adapted to address a broad range of negotiating situations involving suppliers, clients, contractors, partner agencies and internal communication.
• The success of the program meant that we worked with the leadership team to develop a planned program of development covering 2 other key skills areas: presentation or work and Leadership/management.
• In 2004 we helped design their first structured staff culture survey to health check the culture and establish how to keep progressing towards the vision.
• On the back of the survey results we were then asked to work with the senior team/board to develop leadership skills and thinking. A 360 feedback process linked to a series of workshops held off site was supported by individual coaching of each person on the team.
• As the relationship has developed we have developed bespoke programs to improve skills in a range of topics for every area of the agency, including coaching and mentoring.

Results achieved

Even after the very first workshop the leadership team acknowledged that the ideas helped them negotiate better deals and both saved and made them money. With the leadership work, the comment was made that they wished they’d done it 2 years previously.

BMF achieved their vision, becoming a truly world class agency, recognised and awarded globally for their ground breaking work. Some of the local awards they have won are:

• Multiple Agency of Year winners for both B&T and AdNews
• Multiple Direct Agency of Year winners for both B&T and AdNews
• Grand Prix Prize for B&T and Adnews
• Winner Agency of The Decade by B&T