I don’t know about you, but the past few post-pandemic years have made “the future” sound more like a threat than a promise. Consumer expectations are shifting at the speed of culture., marketing teams are under-resourced and over-stretched, with less time for strategic briefing and more pressure to deliver immediate results. In this new reality, it won’t be the biggest agencies or the oldest ones that survive, it will be the ones led by people brave enough to play a different game and pivot at pace.
Fast Company recently shared six ways leaders can build a reinvention mindset, written by transformation specialist and bestselling author of Mastering the Art of Reinvention Gary Waldon. I have no personal affiliations with Gary, although I did connect with him on LinkedIn. 🤣 I’m sharing them because that list struck a chord, not just with where I’m at personally, but with what I see across the industry. Over the past 12 months, I’ve been deep in rewiring mode at The Edison Agency because the tide has been turning and I feel most in my comfort zone on the way up a bell curve rather than on its way down. Almost every week I speak to another business owner or leader who’s feeling stretched thin, stuck, or just plain lost, it’s tough out there.
The 6 principles of 'reinvention' referenced are:
Adopt a beginner’s mindset: Let go of "the way things have always been done" and approach challenges with curiosity and humility.
Think like a designer: Embrace experimentation, empathy and iteration as core to problem-solving.
Build a learning culture: Foster teams that are open to unlearning and relearning as the world changes.
Turn failure into fuel: See setbacks as insights that propel better outcomes, not reasons to retreat.
Elevate listening: Pay closer attention to customers, competitors, collaborators and culture at large.
Act like a venture capitalist: Allocate time and resources to test new ideas with the same focus you'd give any commercial investment.
For agency leaders and marketers alike, design can no longer sit at the end of the process as a veneer, it must start at the centre, as a leadership tool that drives transformation. I've led The Edison Agency for over 13 years with the intention of being a force for commercial clarity, cultural relevance, and long-term value-adding. In a market where attention is scarce and loyalty is fluid, design isn't just a creative act - it's a strategic one.
Reinvention starts when leadership is willing to challenge business-as-usual thinking which means letting go of outdated processes that favour speed over substance and aesthetic over impact. The marketers and agencies that will thrive are those who are prepared to:
Rethink legacy brand codes that no longer connect with today’s consumers - experiment with how they can work harder and evolve
Anchor strategy in relevance and intent, not polish or buzz words
See design as a driver of behavioural change, not just brand awareness
I work with clients to build design systems that are both strategic and adaptive, existing at the intersection of creativity, commerce and code and where branding meets behavioural science and systems thinking.
Today’s landcape is moving too fast for static thinking. If you're clinging to what worked 2 years ago, you're already behind. Relevance isn’t maintained through repetition, it’s built through reinvention - reinvention in the way you work, OR reinvention in how your brand shows up. The spirit of that starts with curiosity and a willingness to get stuck in and change.
Let’s be honest, any creative services agency still hanging onto a bygone era is doing so from an outdated playbook. And I don't mean that work should be banged out in AI with no creative consideration or integrity, I mean WHAT you are selling and HOW you are selling it should have changed. The future calls for something different, so if you're leading a team or have skin in the game, ask yourself:
Is what I am selling still relevant, is there a market for it?
Are you prioritising speed, or building in space for strategic depth?
Are you solving for your business now, or designing a business for what's next?
The marketers and agencies that will rise from the ashes of 2025 are the ones willing to unlearn, reframe, and lead the charge, not just in what we create, but how we think and work, together.
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Read the Fast Company article referenced here.
