6 Things I Learned From Swapping CCO for CEO
I spent over a decade as a CCO at BBDO, working across almost every category – creating famous work, forgettable work, award-winning work, and work we’d rather not talk about.
I’ve led big pitch wins and tough losses, sat in leadership meetings, finance discussions, and client reviews. I thought I knew how this business worked.
Then I became CEO. Suddenly, I saw the gaps – the things I never had to think about before. And the truth is, most of us share those same blind spots, whether we realise it or not.
1. Our creative industry sucks at being creative about our industry.
As CCO, the mandate to have the highest level of creative quality defines the job. Make the work great, push the ideas, elevate the craft, ensure we make things people really care about. The expectation is clear and constant.
But as a CEO, never once have the words ‘creative’ or ‘creativity’ been used as a part of my job description. For an industry experiencing a huge amount of upheaval, getting creative with the way we operate isn’t really an option.
How do we move faster? How do we do more with less? How do we integrate better? These are not just business problems; they are creative challenges. It’s far too prevalent for an old play book to be used against new problems, then for frustration and excuses to settle in when it doesn’t work.
Creatively solving our business problems should be as clear an expectation for the CEO as creatively solving a client’s business problem is for the CCO.
2. CEOs get too far from the work. CCOs get too far from the business.
I used to believe that creativity needed to be protected from business constraints, that numbers and spreadsheets could only hinder great ideas. But now I see the danger in that divide. Too many CEOs lose touch with what makes an agency valuable – its creative product.
In my many conversations with other CEOs, it’s very clear they often don’t even know what work is going out the door. On the flip side, CCOs often avoid the financial realities of the agency, with some not even acknowledging the agency as a business at all. The best agency leaders are those who understand that business strategy and creative ambition aren’t opposing forces; they are partners.
3. Finance is your friend. Until it’s not.
As a CCO, finance often felt like an opponent – something to negotiate with, something that said ‘no’ and stood in the way. But as a CEO, I’ve learned that finance is actually one of the most valuable tools we have. It helps us invest in the right places, hire the right people, and plan for long-term success.
But on the flip side, it’s easy for agency finances to take over the narrative and for the focus on what we do and what we create to get lost. An agency that forgets it makes creative to earn money will fail in the long term – just as an agency that forgets to make money to fund its creative will fail in the short term.
4. It’s a lot easier to get lost as a CEO than as a CCO.
As a CCO, my North Star was clear: make great work. As a CEO, the landscape is much more complex. There are dozens of competing priorities, and it’s easy to get distracted by day-to-day operational demands.
The challenge is staying focused on what truly matters – making sure the company is set up to produce outstanding creative work and sustain itself while doing so. Even with being aware of this problem, I still find myself drifting into a sea of meetings, spreadsheets, and emails, losing sight of why we’re here in the first place.
5. We often dismiss the challenges faced by our co-workers in other disciplines.
It’s easy to assume that other departments have it easier, face fewer problems, or do less. We all see it in our agencies. We’ve all done it ourselves. But now that I bridge different disciplines, I have a much better understanding of the unique pressures, constraints and challenges each discipline faces.
I honestly didn’t fully understand just how much crap account people deal with everyday. And as I explain the realities of creatives to account, they have the same awakening. Obviously, the best work happens when we acknowledge and respect each other’s challenges instead of minimising them.
6. CEO is a difficult and lonely place to be.
Creatives thrive on collaboration – we bounce ideas off each other, problem-solve as a team, and share in both the wins and the losses. But as CEO, some issues just can’t be shared. Financial topics, personnel decisions, tough client situations – these are often things you have to navigate alone or with a very small group. For me, that shift has been one of the hardest adjustments – realising that sometimes leadership comes with a level of isolation.
Final Thought.
Stepping into the role of CEO didn’t just change my title - it changed my entire perspective on the industry. The best agencies aren’t just creatively excellent; they are strategically sound, financially stable, and built on a culture of mutual respect. If we want to truly succeed, we need to stop seeing creativity as something separate from strategy and business fundamentals.
Creativity must be woven into every aspect of how we operate—from how we pitch to clients, to how we manage our teams, to how we drive profitability. Only then can we deliver lasting value for both our clients and ourselves.
So, now it’s time to take my own advice. Ask me in a year if I have it all figured out.
