Global President of Integrated Advertising
Framestore
4) Showing the most courage in times of success and taking chances when things are going well is the best way to ensure that you will lead, not follow. Having been in the industry for more than thirty years, I have seen many cycles, and one of the most apparent is that creativity tends to thrive at the point at which the green shoots of recovery emerge from the ashes of economic recession. After a period of consolidation, creative complacency follows. Then, as the next inevitable economic downturn arrives, there’s an air of panic, followed by the desperate attempt to cling onto the status quo. The cycle of creativity comes after the realization that the inability to change will profoundly affect your business. Having the courage to make changes at the height of your success will not guarantee eternal riches, but it will mean that you are looking for opportunities and points of relevance way ahead of your competitors.
5) My role used to focus on building teams of the brightest and best in creativity and technology, creating an environment in which they feel motivated to deliver their best work and then making our clients aware of that work. Nowadays, this last responsibility is a lot more complex. My focus is much more heavily weighted towards trying to understand who represents a potential client, uncovering what challenges they face and exploring how can we work together to find a creative solution. This, in turn, requires us to build teams in different ways. We are no longer assembling teams with the goal of finding sufficient work in the market to feed them; rather, we are examining particular challenges first and then adding new skillsets to our already brilliant teams that unlock their full potential.
Of course, I believe that we are uniquely positioned to create maximum value for our clients. But I am aware that as the old silo model breaks down and new players build different capabilities, our clients will be competing for some of our traditional work, and we will be competing for some of theirs. The ability to create genuine value and convey that to the person writing the check will be more critical than ever to maintain a thriving creative business.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More