Resource Managers: Your Unsung Heroes

With their agency-wide view, the resource manager is your agency’s unsung hero.

Creative directors are obsessed, rightly, with creative output. Account managers want happy clients. Project managers are incentivised on the profitability and smooth running of their projects.

These are, of course, all vital to the success of the agency, yet they also make these people’s focus necessarily narrow. The secret weapon that brings all these functions together, allowing them to operate seamlessly and harmoniously together, is the resource manager.

Good resource managers operate across all departments and teams involved in a project. They see where resource is under-used or overstretched. They spot scope creep. They notice seemingly minor events or actions in one area that could affect another further down the line. They protect your bottom line.

No other role provides this vision. The resource manager is the eyes and ears of the agency, helping it spot anything that may threaten client satisfaction or profitability well in advance.

It’s a truly pivotal role, yet one that often struggles to get the respect and authority it deserves.

However, as enlightened CEOs, CFOs and other members of the C-suite are discovering through my course, Strategic Resource Management, investing in the resource manager is a shrewd investment in the agency as a whole.

My next course is in central London on Thursday 16 March. There are a few places still available, so book now to ensure your resource managers don’t miss out.

Jo Petroccia is Resource Management and Operations Consultant at The Industry Club