Thursday, December 21, 2006

It was the ship, not the captain.

These past few days,
le poor business has had it bad.

The van Winkles running advertising all this while,
suddenly decided to wake up.
And have the bad taste in the mouth all figured out.
The business sucks. The people suck. The pay sucks.
The new recruits suck. Clients suck. Everything sucks.

We are 'experts without expertise'.
(Words not mine.)

Wait a moment!

But weren't you guys on top all this while?
Weren't you calling the shots?
Weren't you charting paths?
Weren't you evolving agency culture?
Weren't you involved in negotiation?
Weren't you there when the agency got a raw deal?
Weren't you sitting in on pay and scales?

If you were not, what were you doing at the top?

And if everything suddenly sucks,
who should be taking the blame?
The poor AE who's joined you at 15k because Usha Boiler Repair House didn't take him?

It might not be what it should, ideally.
But just because a few at the top are tired and defeated,
doesn't mean the business sucks.

But the business will suck tomorrow.
And that will be thanks to the people who run the business today.
Because the greed for higher and higher profits ensured
that entry level salaries are lower than the afore mentioned UBRH.
(Your trainee client earns the same as your average AD.)

You charted the effing course.
Now the ship's taking in water.
And you take the only lifeboat,
look back at the ship and
suddenly figure that the hull's rotting.
You, you master of deduction, you.