Become a student of method
When agency-PE partnerships go sideways, it’s often due to a lack of understanding of how each side prefers to work. The best PE firms understand the creative process and how it drives growth. Likewise, a good agency partner understands how the lead team, backed by the PE firm at the brand, works—their decision-making culture, brand ambitions, etc. The client also must come in for a sit-down where we ask them to assume a potentially unnatural posture: humility. VCs and PEs are not expected to fully grasp user experience principles of web design, but their partners do, and they’ll bring that expertise to bear on the acquired brand’s digital assets.
Ultimately this is new ground, and everyone is performing a trust fall. Such a dynamic can make PEs and VCs squeamish. For these and other reasons, high finance and unbridled creativity may always sleep in separate bedrooms. But in our current era of rapid automation and fiscal uncertainty, finding a more perfect union could offer both agencies and brands—whether investing or being purchased—a new path toward durable, sustainable growth.
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