Hire soft

It all begins with individuals, but the real magic happens when they come together as a team. Getting the right people on board requires a significant investment, often piling up on our regular workload. This is especially true in big companies where growth phases can be hectic and stressful. It's tempting to make quick decisions or overlook things that can't be easily measured.

Looking at the speed of innovation and through my experience, I've come to understand the value of hiring people not just for their hard skills, but for their great soft skills. Giving them chances to learn and grow has proven to unleash their potential while being incredibly rewarding in the long run.

Create a safe and supportive environment

From what I've seen, encouraging teamwork doesn't just benefit the group—it helps everyone find better solutions by working together as individuals don’t worry about personal judgments. This is hard to achieve in an overly competitive or individualistic setting. It's not just about what we achieve project by project; it's also about ensuring the team stays healthy and strong in the long term.

Embrace differences and include everyone

By leading a team in a diverse city like Amsterdam, I learned a lot about myself. I discovered my blind spots when it comes to various aspects of diversity: gender, race, nationality, language, age, and more. This incredible diversity within the team allowed us to create inclusive and effective global creative work. We also became agents of change for diversity in our industry. It not only improved each one of us but also made us proud to be part of such a collective effort.

A special example that made all of Studio A proud of the team culture we generated was the creation of Diversity Collective: “Providing creative industry knowledge and access for BIPOC youth and underrepresented groups.”

Good creatives are business leaders

I shifted from creative roles to leadership positions to challenge a common misconception: that creative individuals aren't ready for real business leadership and require other business leaders overview. Creativity is vital in every industry. By examining an organization's structure, it's clear whether they're prepared to maximize their creative abilities and therefore their business results. A company can truly unlock its potential and reach ambitious business goals only when creativity is woven throughout the entire organizational chart.

“Good design is good business.”
Thomas Watson Jr. (IBM CEO 1973)

Craft a smart plan for creativity

In the creative journey, the crucial starting point is the brief—the clear outline of the challenge. However, a successful approach entails more than just defining the problem. It involves a strategic foundation built on thorough research and relevant data, aligned with the organization's values and brand identity. This strategic approach ensures the problem is well-defined, and straightforward, and sets a plan that resonates with the consumer. I consider Creative Strategy has one foot in the creative field and I prefer having them integrated with the creatives minds.

Find your individual S curve

The S curve, made known by Everett M. Rogers, illustrates the adoption of new ideas and technologies. But it's quite evident how this curve also aligns with various individual profiles along the business grow and where they find their stride throughout the phases of the process. In recent years II discovered that I naturally excel and contribute significantly in the initial and middle stages of the curve: Innovation, Early Adoption, and Standardization.

You can learn more about the original S-curve concept in this talk directly from Everett Rogers "Diffusion of Innovations"

Standardise success

When steering a large creative team, reaching peak performance necessitates a significant degree of process standardization. Implementing frameworks like RACIs, seasonal calendars, and OKRs becomes essential. The most effective approach I found involves a combination of diligent distributed efforts to delve into the specifics, a culture of openness and kindness encouraging critical examination of every aspect of the operation, and a robust change management strategy to guide the direction in an iterative manner.

Foster innovation

Right from the start, I encouraged my teams to push for innovation in every project, adhering to a rule of 80% focused on efficient and brilliant creative work, complemented by 20% dedicated to explorative and passionate innovation. This principle distributed the accountability for generating new ideas. However, I realized that true maturity in innovation emerged when we allocated dedicated resources, budget, and goals for a specialized innovation group. Witnessing the excitement, optimism, and value that innovation infused into the entire creative team was truly infectious. This blend enables innovation to thrive throughout the organization, spanning both breadth and depth.

Empower your team with freedom

My initial venture into remote work was back in 2005 when I established a design studio named Neuart in Granada, collaborating with clients from Madrid, Barcelona, and beyond. Back then, remote work wasn't the norm in the digital advertising industry, but I can assure you, it was a game-changer for me. Fast forward to the COVID era, and many of us were compelled to embrace exceptional remote work processes, which surprisingly proved effective in most cases.

For me, it felt like a rediscovery of freedom. Currently, hybrid work models are all the rage, but I firmly believe that flexibility holds the key to the future. Granting my teams and myself the liberty and responsibility to choose where, how, and when we work fosters the trust and culture I aspire to be a part of.

Cultivate well-being and team harmony

In the wake of COVID and the subsequent isolation measures, I've witnessed the alarming surge of a mental health crisis. Each one of us carries a unique tale of how it impacted ourselves, our families, and our loved ones. I've learned, often through difficult experiences, how profoundly this can affect my team. This ties back to my initial assertion: it all begins with the individuals and culminates in the team. A blend of personal responsibility and fostering a strong team culture serves as the essential formula to offer mutual support and care.

Richard Askin

On Good creatives are business leaders

Creatives need empathy and understanding of what motivates those who brief us, what triggers them, and what creative/content performance looks like. Many creatives are focused entirely on the details of the work and lack vision across the bigger picture and context and can miss the impact their work might make. Understanding not just how creative work lands with consumers, but also within the strategy of an organization is critical to making an impact and lasting change.

Aligning creative work to have an identified (and sensible) strategic value exchange between consumer goals and business goals, ensures projects will be protected and effectively trafficked through the strategic layers of a corporation.

Grace Cowlard

On Empowering your team with freedom

‘I’ve learned so much from Ed over the years. Not just about how to get the best from my peers and myself creatively, but how to maintain a mindset of continuous improvement and growth toward personal development. The principle that resonated with me the most is ‘Empowering your team with freedom’ - the safe space Ed cultivates within the team allows us to explore creatively without judgment, and to take responsibility for our own work styles. A trusted and inspirational leader, I truly value Ed’s creative leadership.’

Robert Glad

On Embrace differences and include everyone

“STUDIO A represented a whole lot to me and my career. It was truly an eye-opener for the power of having a diverse team, fueling the creative firepower when different people and different points of view come together to strengthen ideas and concepts from every angle. And how we backed each other up, how we worked to understand each other and take pride in the collected amount of uniqueness we had within the team. This led to starting The Diversity Collective, mentorship programs and internally becoming a leading force to see these values spread out across the entire organization.”

On Good creatives are business leaders

“Stepping up as a leader within STUDIO A was truly a big moment for my career. I always look back on the phase where I truly began to understand how to connect business and creativity through strategy. It was an eye opener to me on how creativity can be used to solve real business cases but needed the strategic backing and leadership to ensure the creative led a connected life towards real business needs. I had the backing and mentoring from other leaders around me and Eduardo to mentor me to understand this while at the same time giving me the patience to absorb on my own terms.”

Jamie Watson

On embrace differences and include everyone.

I should start by stating that my time at Studio A was a career highlight. I know I speak for many of us when I say with Ed at the helm, we felt empowered to try things and experiment. Failure was not only tolerated but embraced as a positive learning experience. Ed cultivated an extremely entrepreneurial and creative-first culture that enabled many of us to thrive.

Ed taught me many things, the most important of which was the value of collaboration. As my manager Ed was fantastic at harnessing what I was doing well whilst encouraging me to embrace change and develop into areas where I could grow.

That change was felt most notably by those who I worked closely with. Ed was always clear that there was a hard limit to what an individual could achieve alone. By positively framing the benefits of taking the wider team on the journey, I was able to understand the advantages of building consensus in a team, absorbing perspectives from all corners and ultimately delivering better outcomes.

It's not an exaggeration to say that my work with Ed benefited me both professionally and personally. I am incredibly grateful for the time and patience Ed gave me over the years.