Office Of Meaning

Another week, more layoffs.    A few rounds ago, I wrote on LinkedIn about how mass layoffs are an outward indication of changing priorities for large companies, and the less visible impact these shifts have on the creative agencies who serve them. My assertion in that post was that this is a client concentration problem on the surface, and a marketplace positioning problem at the root. When you turn this lens on internal creative teams, some of the same vulnerabilities are exposed, and it becomes clear why these groups are often of the first to get riffed.  But wait, you ask, don’t internal creative teams have the inside scoop on shifting priorities? Don’t they have a front row seat to the context in which decisions are made? In my experience in-house resources are often engaged in the same way as external agencies: They are approached with a brief from an internal client, and entirely dependent on that client for context. But wait, how can an internal team have a client concentratio