John Foenander
Growth Accelerator - who has built and sold multiple agencies
Provocateur ~ one who stimulates action
You may have heard of T-shaped talent: skillsets that are general and broad as well as deep specialist knowledge in a particular field. I prefer the comb-shaped metaphor. To grow a business - an agency -effectively, it’s essential to have a comb-shaped strategic perspective. Joining the dots, understanding what happens to all the connections when one or more levers are utilised. Business is not linear. Business is not one-dimensional. For sure, your practitioners need to be specialists but your strategists can’t be Fachidiots FYI, this is an apposite German term meaning ~ a one track specialist who is an expert in his/her field but takes a blinkered approach to multi-faceted problems.
True innovation doesn’t tend to happen within fields but at the intersections of multiple disciplines… driving the cross-pollination of concepts, ideas, and capabilities. So make sure you’re (or your counsel is) across all areas that drive business growth.
The Agency Provocateur Difference?
John has acquired deep learnings building 3 agencies from start-up to trade sale and worked on the integration of these into both private businesses and listed holding companies through earn-out periods.
20+ years experience of continual results for clients including Sky, BMW, Vodafone, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Harley-Davidson, HP, GSK & IBM.
Deep expertise in brand, business strategy & consumer insight provides the cognitive framework to evaluate new models, technologies & tools to contextualise their value in accelerating agency growth.
A proven track record of working closely with entrepreneurial agency owners to drive incremental revenues.
Access to the Agency Provocateur network of like-minded agency entrepreneurs to partner and collaborate with.