Small is the New Big

Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter wrote a good article in Ad Age about how much he admires small agencies and what they can do compared to the large firms and holding companies. At Firstborn, we've always had the model of a boutique sized shop; currently we're at around 40 people and don't have plans to ever expand too much past that number (perhaps 50 or 60 tops). We don't have layers of account management; our producers serve that role in addition to their project management duties. It allows us - as Mr. Bogusky points out - to have a lower overhead than the larger companies, and as they say in sales land, we can pass on the savings to our clients. Being a small sized shop allows us to get stuff done quickly and efficiently. I like to point out in client meetings that you don't need large teams of people to produce high quality large scale work. Just look at our portfolio and you'll see what I mean. Long live the small shops.