Part 2: COVID-19 – Managing Your Agency in Crisis

In the second part of this series, Vanessa takes a deep dive into how COVID-19 is impacting our industry and wreaking havoc in the global economy.  She contends that the next 30 day period is critical, as agency leadership has to act both decisively and wisely in order to preserve cash, protect culture and to lay a foundation for the future.

The second part of the series focuses on “Priority” agencies, who find themselves with 2-3 months of cash in the bank, and who need to cut deep and restructure, so they do not find themselves in the “Emergency” category of fewer than 30 days cash.

About Vanessa Vollum Edwards

Hailing from Portland, OR, Vanessa graduated from university with a degree in Philosophy. An amateur helicopter and fixed-wing pilot since age sixteen, she began her first career as a pilot for LifeFlight. Upon completing her MBA, Vanessa was recruited by a fellow classmate into becoming the CFO/COO for a digital agency experiencing rapid growth. The agency was acquired in 2010. Over the last decade, Vanessa has built a strategic consultancy focused on empowering agency principals, accelerating growth, increasing profitability and deploying agency management software.  She is a founder of AgencyStory®, a patent-pending curated analytics solution for the marketing services industry.

About CPI

Creative Performance Inc. is a consultancy that specializes in agency operations for the marketing services industry (agency and in-house). Over the last decade, CPI has helped over a hundred agencies through complex organizational change, with an emphasis on increasing project throughput, project profitability, client profitability, and agency profit. CPI is consulting partners with AgencyStory®, Mavenlink, Oracle®, and Workamajig® – helping their clients successfully deploy, adopt and transform in a manner that drives lasting change.