Russell Davies

planning gubbins

A couple of my friends in planningland sent me emails which I thought might be of use / interest to the last few planners reading this that I've not driven off with videos of trees and bad percussion.

First, Regan sent this:

In need of senior strategic planners!! We* are seeking senior and PD level planners for positions in NYC, SF and LA. The senior level roles need 6-7 yrs of planning experience and it goes up from there. If you've got a strong mind, you play well with others, need little supervision, are nice, like to cook, enjoy Parcheesi and reruns of "Freaks and Geeks", and can't live without facebook and Skype, we might just have a job for you.  Really, if you just hit on those first few - send us your resume. Send resumes to: [email protected]; [email protected] Please indicate in the subject line:  Planner. We will respond to you as quickly as possible. Thank you!

* - "We" are outside recruiters working for assorted agencies in those 3 cities.  I'm Regan DeKoning and I was the recruiter at Wieden in Portland from '00-'06.  My partner, Joan Stephens was the recruiting manager at adidas from '02-'07.  We'd love to see your resume.

Second, Mark sent this:

It's 40 years ago this summer that  Stanley and Stephen came up with this wierd thing called account planning. It's been a great ride for many of us and in many ways much better than working! Thing is a week today, I'm standing up with my chum Domenico in front of a paying audience and talking about what comes next in planningland

And rather than pretend he and I have anything new, novel or even relevant to say, we decided to crowdsource the answers...(in other words, we will rely on other people's suggestions) We've set up a wiki, go there, give one piece of advice to future generation (and to make it our preso a more entertaining show), please cut and paste the URL of a youtube video that brings this alive. Already we've had great responses from Judie Lannon (editor of Market Leader and one of JWTs first ever planners), Dan O'Donahue (Global Planning Chief for Publicis) and the Spectator Magazine's Wikiman, Rory Sutherland.

But it'd be great to have yours, too. Go on, it's easy. Just one piece of advice and a youtube video

who owns what?

A correspondent asks a question:

"Do you know of any resource out there that ties various brands and their corporate owners together, and is updated in something like reasonable time? I'm thinking about all the different labels that P&G own, or the members of the RIAA, or joint ventures like MSNBC. Does this exist?"

Anyone have any ideas on this? I don't.

planninging

I get the occasional email asking for guidance on various planning issues (how to get a job, what to read, where to study etc). I'm no longer really qualified to offer such advice, but it seems churlish to say nothing, so I've made a quick page that gives links to people who might really know such stuff. It's here if you're interested.

planning stuff

It's time for Heather's planning survey again. Details are here. And, if you're looking for the next Account Planning School Of The Web thing, I think Paul's going to stick his results up at Rob's blog. I'm not sure what'll happen after that.

slow projects

I've recently been working on a lot of what I've come to think of as 'slow projects'. Things like the Instorematic and Best Urban Places. And other things which are too slow even to have a URL. Not long ago the idea of a slow project would have horrified me; where's the nimbleness, the agility? But now I'm thinking that for some projects slow is both unavoidable and good (like slow cooking).

It's unavoidable because these are the kind of projects you do with your friends, because you want to. Money is involved but only as a lubricant, not as the point of doing it, so these projects are cheap. And you're only doing them because you want them to be really good, that's the point. And that means the awesome logic of the fast/cheap/good trio swings into place - dictating that if something's going to be both cheap and good it can't also be fast. And of course it can't be fast, because these are projects done in evenings and weekends, in people's own time.

So you learn patience, and you realise that those long pauses are opportunities for reflection and that extra goodness might result from all that extra mulling, from stepping away for a while. The excitement and energy of a headlong sprint to execution is addictive and it can get a lot done, it's mostly what my working life has been about. But I'm enjoying the slow way, it's almost like craft.

(And to everyone who I'm doing one of these projects with: this is not me dropping a hint, honestly)

rules

These are the rules from the school playground. I think they're good rules. Maybe if Iain ever starts this, these could be the rules. I guess the tricky bit would be deciding who the adults are.

office space

Some friends and I are looking for some workspace we can share. We don't know much about how you do that, so I thought I'd see if I could invoke the power of the internet to help out. Do you know anywhere we can rent, like this:

Good natural light
Easily securable with 24-hour access
Between 800 and 1000 sq feet
Housing up to 8 people (We could take two floors and sublet)
We need to have some separate rooms, not for everyone, but some private space is a must, we could consider building walls
We need a kitchen
We could afford around £40k per year, but would (obviously) prefer much less.

Around King's Cross would be perfect. Failing that it needs to be West of Kings Cross, and ideally on the Northern section of the Circle Line or the Central Line.

If you know of anywhere like that, or have any good tips on finding somewhere like that, I'd love to hear about them - please email me - russell at russelldavies.com

travel = broken

Matt's put his reboot charts about the splendid dopplr on the dopplr blog. I'm sitting in Richmond airport right now. Looking at a sign. Slide 9 resonates deeply. (I was reduced to playing with photobooth and this picture seemed to capture how it feels.) I look at all the people here, the business travelers, with the wheely bags and bluetooth headsets and the empty hole in their eyes and you've got to believe that as soon as a good alternative comes up they'll take it. Please all you technologists, think of something.

On the other hand, I was hugely cheered by the chatter and thinking and life pouring out of my phone from twitter. Sometimes twitter keeps you going.

where has all the planning gone?

It's gone here, the job postings, the campaign articles, and the write-ups of presentations I do will be over there. The randomness will continue here.

a planner? happy? earning enough?

This is one of those 'just for planners' posts. Heather LeFevre of The Martin Agency is doing a brilliant thing. Here's the text of her email:

Hello Planners! It's time for the third annual planner survey. If you haven't participated before, the survey is designed to let us all see what planners at different agencies think about their jobs, understand what drives salaries, and hopefully learn more about how our discipline is changing. Each year it has grown and changed. 192 people participated last year and you are all receiving this email by blind copy. If you are not a planner, we're hopeful that you can forward this email to the planners you know. The first link below will send you to the survey - please only take the survey if you are working as a planner (freelance and those who work outside the US are welcome). The second link captures your email so I can send you the results and your answers stay anonymous. Please forward this email to all the planners you know, and if you have a blog, would you post the links so we can get the most responses possible? Please feel free to email me with questions and as always, thanks for playing!

Take the survey here. Enter your email here. This is one of those things that gets better the more people play, so please link to it and pass it along.