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	Phil's Blogservations Tuesday, June 11, 2002 Posted by philgomes 7:12 PM Big Agency Or Small Agency? An Enlightened View: "Clearly, there's not enough new business to go around [for PR agencies] these days or we wouldn't have time to write...esoteric, inside-baseball opinion pieces," offers Morrisey & Co. Senior Vice President Ed Cafasso. He's referring to a debate on ExpertPR about the relative merits of small agencies and big agencies. To see what inspired Mr. Cafasso to write his thoughtful piece about the ultimate futility of the debate, you can read the gunfire exchange on the side of small agencies and big agencies by clicking on the appropriate links. As Mr. Cafasso describes perhaps less strongly than I will, articles describing both sides of the agency spectrum completely missed the point. In other words, "It's the service, stupid." The 'size' debate in our industry is relentlessly self-serving and subjective, and it works to trivialize the decision-making process that propels the circle of life in PR. It's a disingenuous conversation we have with ourselves whenever the bigger firms and the smaller firms find themselves bumping into each other in pursuit of a limited amount of new business. For my part, I found the small agency argument rhetorically unsound, and the big agency argument insulting as hell. As to the latter, from a Ketchum senior vice president: Many freelancers position themselves as being just as qualified as their big firm counterparts. "After all," they say, "I'd still be working there if not for layoffs; but now, you can take advantage of my big agency expertise for pennies on the dollar." But ask yourself a question: When your company has to do layoffs, do you cut your best people first? In the second round? Or, do you hold on to your best people at all costs, knowing that their abilities and experience are what customers want and need? Something to consider... I know for a fact that Ketchum let go of some very qualified folks during the current economic downturn, and early in the layoff process. My firm regrettably did so as well, and we lost some people I would love to work with again. The reality was that, when the downturn hit, the demand for certain high-level capabilities dropped with it. Senior level PR pros and extensive "bench time" don't often mix. I'm glad Mr. Cafasso beat me to writing and publishing this piece. I had offered to do the same for ExpertPR, though I don't think I would've done nearly as well. Stay tuned for my own ExpertPR piece on blogging, which should run this Thursday. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.