Great agency reads
We can all use a little guidance and inspiration sometimes, but with so much content available and so little spare time, wouldn’t it be nice to cut through the junk and receive only the best recommendations?
We asked our vast agency network to share the books that have inspired them. And there’s something for everyone with suggestions from founders, creatives and account managers.
Holacracy: The Revolutionary Management System that Abolished Hierarchy by Brian J Robertson
Recommended by Spencer Gallagher, Founder Bluhalo and Co-Founder Cact.us
This book convincingly outlines the merits of abolishing the traditional agency and, indeed, business hierarchies. But more than that, it shares how to do it.
Offering tangible advice on how to adopt systems across your organisation that will help you, your department and the wider business make quicker and better decisions.
The Science of Serendipity by Matt Kingdon
Recommended by Adam Graham, Co-Founder of Kiwi Gray
This book challenges the notion that innovation is synonymous with start-ups. Instead, taking a new angle, the book heralds the innovation within corporate investors and their daily battles with large established organisations.
This book is about innovation where you least expect it, offering tips and advice on fighting against the corporate machine to unleash creative innovation.
The Author, Matt Kingdon, has worked with many global giants, including Google, PepsiCo, Barclays, and Pfizer.
The Agility Mindset: How reframing flexible working delivers competitive advantage by Fiona Cannon
Recommended by Charlotte Anderson, Business Development Director at Rufus Leonard
A guide to how a flexible approach to working can deliver huge efficiency savings and productivity gains.
Author Fiona Cannon takes flexible working to the next step, ‘workforce agility,’ with a very practical guide based on rigorous research. Supported by practical diagnostics and frameworks, this is a very tangible guide.
Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters by Richard Rumelt
Recommended by Kayleigh Töyrä, Creative Director, Seeker Digital
Author Richard Rumelt provides a jargon-free explanation of how to develop a strategy and take action successfully. Delving into how to avoid politics and other strategic stumbling blocks.
This book takes a new approach to developing strategy, highlighting how great strategy focuses on business challenges and provides an approach for overcoming them.
Looking for more inspiration? The following books often top must-read lists:
The marketing agency blueprint: the handbook for building hybrid PR, SEO, content, advertising and web Firms, by Paul Roetzer
As the name suggests, this is a practical guide proposing rules for creating a hybrid marketing agency. Hybrid in the sense of digital services engrained in the agency's DNA mixed with more traditional methods for integrated campaigns.
The Marketing Agency Blueprint demonstrates how to:
- Generate more qualified leads, win clients with set pricing and service packages, and secure longer–term retainers
- Develop highly efficient management systems and more effective account teams
- Deliver greater results and value to clients
Delivering Happiness: a path to profits, passion and purpose by Tony Hsieh
This book examines US retailer Zappos. Renowned for empowering its employees and delivering unbelievable customer service, this footwear retailer has become a shining example of how to run a company—and it makes a tidy profit doing so.
This is not a guide as such but an inspirational read on what treating your employees and customers exceptionally well can do for your company.
Clients from hell: a collection of anonymously-contributed client horror stories from designers
This book is exactly what the name suggests but far, far funnier than you could imagine. It is not just for designers; it is for anyone who has suffered misunderstandings or felt unappreciated by a client.