It’s their business to have great model looks

I found your Vox Pop (DW 27 March) on independent small consultancies versus groups with a global reach very interesting.

We have worked with clients from Slough to Sapporo and all have bought our services, and others like us, because we understand their sector, are creatively led and don’t have to ‘pay the piper’.

Increasingly, as times get harder and budgets smaller, you see that the larger marketing conglomerate-owned consultancies are more concerned with profits and loss than with client relationships. What does a big global brand have to win by choosing a small consultancy?

If they choose the right outfit they will be assured that any strategic partners the consultancy nominates to help it achieve roll out of a global launch will be chosen on merit rather than obligation. They will also benefit from a streamlined overhead and cost savings genuinely passed on to the client. It’s hard to determine what mark up is made in order to keep the corporate vampires happy, but obvious that small independents do not have to fatten up their fees with clients in order to bolster a share price at the end of the day.

As we go deeper into a recessionary period we will see a lot of David and Goliath activity as the amount of work won and retained by smaller independents from bigger groups increases. I think that the early years of this century will show, in the design at least, that small (and independent) is indeed beautiful as a business model.

Adrian Whitefoord

Partner

Pemberton & Whitefoord

London NW1