What do you need to know?
What would a course for the modern in-house leader need to cover?
We’ve been thinking about training. Well, less training more learning. The in-house sector is developing incredibly fast. Every day we see new announcements of external agency leaders moving brand side and IHAs expanding their role. How to keep up?
One of the things that we have highlighted over the past 18 months of running IHALC events is that there is no one model for an in-house agency that works for everyone. Onsite, off-site, hybrid, full-service or studio – almost every organisation has a slightly different take on what in-house means for them.
Nevertheless, our sessions have also identified certain principles and challenges that are common across the in-house world. Process, Talent and Culture are at the heart of what IHALC seeks to offer support around. Within those three pillars, we know that there are core issues around remit, briefing, approvals, measurement, creativity and more.
Which got us thinking about what a training course for today’s In-House Leader would need to cover.
You might need to start with Remit: when there are so many different models for IHAs, how do you understand what the right one is for your organisation? What are you there to do and why?
You’d definitely need to look at the basics: P&L, charging models, roles and responsibilities, KPIs. And then there are the Rules – what ITV Creative calls their Thing of All Things. Setting out how you want colleagues to work with you and getting everyone to agree to abide by what you agree to.
Briefing could be a whole course on its own, but what about Culture? Building trust? Strategies for assessing creative work, econometrics, wash-ups, what ‘good’ looks like?
And, a big one, moving away from being perceived as a service to become a respected and valued strategic partner to the business. We know IHAs who have done this, but how?
If we were to create an IHALC learning programme, what would you like to be included? Please fill out the survey below
