The five biggest mistakes I’ve made in 21 years of owning an agency

Michael Abdel has guided his agency Sphere through years of successes and mistakes, to its 21st birthday. Here, he reveals the five biggest mistakes he’s made in that time.

I started Sphere over 21 years ago. Somehow, we’ve survived the terrible twos, the growing pains of our teenage years and made it to adulthood. Despite the great feeling of accomplishment, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t made any blunders along the way. Let me share five of the biggest errors I’ve made, so you can learn from my mistakes.

1. Not hiring based on our values

Almost every day, I’m preaching the importance of brand values to clients. It’s critical that brands live and breathe their values. After all, it’s the values they share in common with their audience that builds a meaningful relationship between brand and consumer.

Despite this, occasionally when hiring new employees, I would focus more on their skills and qualifications and not on whether they shared Sphere’s values. This has always ended in disaster and weakened company culture.

Today, when I’m hiring, I always try to make sure the potential employee shares our values of being passionate, honest, hardworking, entrepreneurial, informal and a team player.

Subscribe to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Subscribe

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

"*" indicates required fields

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.