Great Agency Reads

 |  By: Kate Jones In: Trends and insights

We can all use a little guidance and inspiration sometimes, but with so much content available and so little spare time, wouldn’t it be nice to cut through the junk and receive only the best recommendations?

We asked our vast agency network to share the books that have inspired them. And there’s something for everyone with suggestions from Founders, Creatives and Account Managers.  

Think of this blog as a summer book club for the agency world. And if you have any recommendations yourself, let us know and we'll share on Twitter. 


Holacracy: The Revolutionary Management System that Abolished Hierarchy by Brian J Robertson

Recommended by Spencer Gallagher, Founder Bluhalo and Co-Founder Cact.us

This book convincingly outlines the merits of abolishing the traditional agency, and indeed business hierarchies. But more than that, it shares how to do it.

Offering tangible advice on how to adopt systems across your organisation that will help you, your department and the wider business make quicker and better decisions.

Buy book


The Science of Serendipity by Matt Kingdon

Recommended by Adam Graham, Co-Founder of Kiwi Gray

This book challenges the notion that innovation is synonymous with start-ups. Instead, taking a new angle, the book heralds the innovation going in within corporate investors and their daily battles with large established organisations.

This book is about innovation where you least expect it, offering tips and advice on fighting against the corporate machine to unleash creative innovation.

The Author, Matt Kingdon has worked with huge, global giants including Google, PepsiCo, Barclays and Pfizer among others.

Buy book


The Agility Mindset: How reframing flexible working delivers competitive advantage by Fiona Cannon

Recommended by Charlotte Anderson, Business Development Director at Rufus Leonard

A guide to how a flexible approach to working can deliver huge efficiency savings and productivity gains.

Taking flexible working to the next step ‘workforce agility’, author Fiona Cannon delivers a very practical guide based on rigorous research. Supported with practical diagnostics and frameworks, this is a very tangible guide.

Buy book


Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters by Richard Rumelt

Recommended by Kayleigh Töyrä, Creative Director, Seeker Digital

Author, Richard Rumelt provides a jargon-free explanation on how to successfully develop strategy and take action. Delving into how to avoid politics and other strategic stumbling blocks. 

This book takes a new approach to developing strategy highlighting how great strategy focuses on business challenges and provides an approach for overcoming them.

Buy book


Looking for more inspiration? The following books often top must-read lists:

The Marketing Agency Blueprint: The Handbook for Building Hybrid PR, SEO, Content, Advertising and Web Firms, by Paul Roetzer

As the name suggests, this is a practical guide proposing rules to create a hybrid marketing agency. Hybrid in the sense of digital services engrained in the DNA of the agency but mixed with more traditional methods for integrated campaigns.

The Marketing Agency Blueprint demonstrates how to:

    Generate more qualified leads, win clients with set pricing and service packages, and secure longer–term retainers

    Develop highly efficient management systems and more effective account teams

    Deliver greater results and value to clients

Buy book


Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

This book looks at US retailer Zappos. Renowned for empowering their employees and delivering unbelievable customer service, this footwear retailer has become a shining example of how to run a company. And they make a tidy profit doing so.

Not a guide as such but an inspirational read on what treating your employees and customers exceptionally well can do for your company.  

Buy book


Clients from Hell: A collection of Anonymously- Contributed Client Horror Stories From Designers

This book is exactly what the name suggests but far, far funnier than you could imagine. Not just for designers, the book is for anyone who has suffered misunderstandings or felt unappreciated by a client.

Buy book

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