At the Helm in Seas of Constant Change: How Leaders Navigate Instability
Steering large organisations through the choppy waters of change is no mean feat. As creatures of habit, humans need a degree of stability to plan their professional and personal lives and to pull off big projects, but constantly evolving markets and tech landscapes mean that businesses need to be flexible and able to move at speed to meet client needs and new opportunities.
But great creative businesses know what bearings to stick to to see themselves through. “Change is the bedrock of our industry and 2025 will be no different,” says FCB’s global chief executive officer Tyler Turnbull. “While the landscape is always evolving, the formula for success remains the same: attracting and retaining incredible talent, building strong client partnerships, and creating effective work. These are the pillars that anchor us.”
Crewing up and Getting Ship Shape
You’ll note that Tyler puts talent first in his list, because despite algorithms’ ever-expanding role in our processes, creativity remains a defining human trait. “At the heart of driving these outcomes are our people,” he says. “We must unite under a shared mission that empowers creativity and the brilliant minds behind it. Ultimately, clients don’t buy models or capabilities – they buy people. Teams with great chemistry and a track record of delivering powerful solutions to drive growth. It’s critical to foster a culture that celebrates out-of-the-box thinking, empowers teams to take smart creative risks and delivers brand experiences that drive the business forward.”
Another network’s global CEO, Nancy Reyes of BBDO, is equally obsessed with how she crews her ship to keep it cutting through the tumult. “I think it’s important to understand that change and momentum go hand in hand,” she says. “The key is moving quickly and decisively, even when it feels uncomfortable. But everyone needs to be on board to move quickly. So, as leaders, we must create an environment where people feel supported and empowered to adapt and take risks, especially in a world where client needs and market opportunities can shift in an instant.”
For Nancy, staying on course and maintaining that momentum is all about the ability to make decisions quickly. “If you make a wrong decision, go make another decision. It’s about forward progress, without fear and with conviction,” she says. “That’s why we’re focused on shifting away from talking about ourselves as a ‘network’ and truly behaving like a community. Unlike networks, which feel so transactional, communities are built on trust, shared values, and mutual growth.”
Keeping teams and individuals connected is the principle that many leaders say is most crucial. Zoe Eagle, CEO at Iris London, explains: ”A strong culture pulls people in, creating real human connections, not just colleagues completing tasks. Open communication, transparency, and leadership that shows up matter more than ever. If people feel supported and part of something bigger, they’ll navigate change together.”
As managing director at adam&eveDDB West, Alexis Coulter’s goal is to assemble and maintain a crew that can make the most of their humanity. “It is critical to remember that technology and optimised processes can’t replace human creativity, intuition, and resilience,” she says. “Our role as leaders is to nurture an environment where people are empowered to embrace rather than fear change. My goal at adam&eveDDB is to invest deeply in adaptive professionals who demonstrate curiosity, entrepreneurial instincts, and rapid learning capabilities, recognising that sustainable ways of working not only protect creative energy but also drive success.”
Change is what agencies like Big Com in Birmingham, Alabama, thrive on – it drives innovation and gives teams a chance to grow and break new ground with clients. But Merry Michael Smith, VP of marketing and communications at the agency has some advice on how to make sure that people view change as a chance to grow, not something to fear: “Be transparent and build trust with regular all-staff meetings, an open-door policy with leadership, and owning up to mistakes when they happen. This mindset not only strengthens your team but also leads to more authentic, innovative partnerships with clients.”
Like the majority of the leaders interviewed for this story, Alexis strives to maintain a transparent environment among her people: “Trust is equally essential – trust between leadership and our teams and trust between our agency and our clients. In a high-speed industry, clarity must replace chaos. Transparent communication, realistic expectation-setting, and intentional action are critical components that anchor trust, enabling our teams to navigate uncertainty confidently. And in the math of agency culture, I believe that purpose plus trust plus stability equals agility. Agility isn't about reacting impulsively to every trend but rather structuring our agency to thrive amid constant change by setting change as the baseline expectation.”
Preparing for the Storm
To ensure navigation through the flux of creative business is to embrace the uncertainty that comes with it. As Zoe at Iris London sees it, flexibility must be built into everything. “OK so it sounds cheesy – but it’s true. It has to be about the journey, not a fixed destination,” she says. “None of us really know what’s around the corner, so pinning everything on rigid goals makes businesses brittle. Instead, mission and behaviours act as the cultural scaffolding that keeps people focused and motivated, while allowing the organisation to flex, adapt, and even pivot without destabilising the team.”
The CEO of Iris London’s sister ship – Cheil UK – Chris Camacho is plotting a similarly adaptable course. “Navigating constant change isn’t about sacrificing stability; it’s about designing structures that foster agility within a solid framework,” he says. At Cheil, his team calls this their “+1 strategy,” where they continuously add one bold new idea or capability at a time, rather than waiting for a colossal overhaul that risks upending the entire operation. “This incremental approach keeps teams excited and motivated, and our people can see tangible progress while still feeling secure in
a unified vision,” he says. “Change doesn’t have to be chaos, it can be an ongoing evolution that keeps everyone prepared and energised. Ultimately, the key is striking a balance – maintain a stable core while empowering teams to innovate and adapt at speed.”
As a global independent creator and social agency, change is a constant for Whalar. James Mockler, EMEA director of client services, highlights the competitive edge that the ability to adapt and refine gives Whalar. “Locking down operations too rigidly can make agility impossible, so striking the right balance between structure and flexibility is key to long-term success,” he says. Director of creative strategy there, Ian Howard, agrees. “The creator economy continues to grow, adapt and morph in ways that none of us could have predicted years ago. Change is at the core of what drives creators, content and our work forward. To paraphrase Yoon Ahn, creative director of Ambush: ‘We should see change as a software update rather than new wholesale hardware. Sure, we have a process. But it’s always iterating, being refined, challenged, augmented. If it stayed the same that would be boring. Give me a software update over boring any day.’”
Agility over Speed
Change is a constant, but it accelerates as technology does. That can take its toll on people, as Jon Goulding, CEO at Atomic London, recognises. “The real constant isn’t change, but the human anxiety it creates. And that anxiety isn’t actually about stability versus change – it runs deeper than that,” he says. “At its core, it’s driven by the universal human need for growth. In every aspect of our lives, growth supersedes all. If you and your company are growing, you’ll be motivated, driven, and able to focus, despite the overwhelming noise. If you or your company are going backwards, you’ll feel anxious, whether you’re currently in a state of stability or change.”
He takes the opportunity to highlight the agility that independent businesses like Atomic often build their reputations on. “That’s the real challenge in big networks right now – net-net, they’re stagnant or even moving backwards. In that scenario, the sea will always feel choppy, making it incredibly difficult to steer the human ship. When growth stalls, uncertainty takes over, amplifying that underlying anxiety. So, as leaders, our primary job is to drive growth – for the business, our teams, and, just as importantly, ourselves. That’s hard to do in a slow-growth economy, but the opportunity is out there, and as an agency, we’re lucky enough to be harvesting some rich seams of growth right now. You’ll be amazed how positively that impacts everyone, regardless of their comfort level with change.”
Also leading a smaller independent agency, Rehab managing director Kerry Wilson highlights the manoeuvrability of smaller boats as opposed to lumbering dreadnaughts. “Navigating today’s business landscape is no easy task. Those best positioned to weather the storm are the ones who have built agility into their foundations – many learning from the rapid adaptations required during covid. Large corporations weighed down by rigid processes, excessive red tape, and an over-reliance on specialists are struggling to keep pace in an unpredictable market.
“As a small business, we’re not hindered by internal bureaucracy, but we are impacted by the paralysis of larger corporations, many of whom are hesitating to spend amid ongoing volatility. The ripple effects of global political and economic shifts are only just beginning, even though it feels like we’ve been firefighting for over five years.”
But Kerry’s not wishing for the big networks to go down, only highlighting the threat of change to them. “For big businesses, the need for speed and adaptability has never been greater,” she says. “Their ability to embrace change will not only determine their own survival but also impact the smaller businesses that depend on them. The sooner they shift gears, the better for the entire ecosystem.”
Ben McMahon runs another relatively lean crew of 65. As founder and CEO of experiential agency Collaborate, he highlights the importance of holding on to what makes start-ups so exciting. “We’re not a traditional agency and that's one of our superpowers. From day one we’ve embraced a work-in-progress mindset so we’re constantly evolving and learning. We've learnt to pivot at speed to support our clients – we call it ‘hyperservice’.”
“Toaster’s foundations are in digital creative and tech,” says CEO of the agency Tom Dunn. “And we started the company to be the antithesis of layered, slow moving traditional agencies. The confidence to navigate the changing landscape and move at speed is how we’re naturally wired as a business. The last decade has seen seismic shifts with sequential world-changing events and an increasing pace of tech advancement. Our independent model, international footprint and a collaboration across markets provides valuable perspectives and agility to help take on new challenges as they arise.”
That agility hasn’t come naturally. It needs deft management to bring it about. “While able to keep pace with change, flexibility can also breed reactiveness, increasing the need for clarity of direction,” says Tom. “Some fine-tuning of our structure and strategic positioning over the last 12-18 months has allowed us to look forward and ready the agency to solve emerging client needs and opportunities on the front foot.
“We’re striving for a healthy balance… new ideas, fast-paced creative ideation sprints and rapid tech prototypes; balanced with large-scale projects and stable, long-term relationships; with each side strengthening the other. Whatever opportunities the markets throw at us next we’re as ready as we’ve ever been to navigate them alongside our clients.”
Every Hand Steadies the Helm
Decisions can’t be made by small leadership teams and sent down the chain. Decision-making needs to be shared but guided by principles that ensure success. Alissa Hansen, CEO at Omnicom Production for North America considers how the organisation provides for this. “The process of change is too often seen as a barrier, a lofty ambition which brings fear and intimidation alongside wasted time and energy. However, change through the lens of action – where transformation is not one large leap, but a combination of many small wins along the way – delivers massive results. And when done correctly, the spectre of change is replaced with the promise of reward.”
In Alissa’s previous role, she led the initiative of ArtBot, Omnicom’s global content automation platform for scaled delivery. And there she saw the results of a team empowered to make change fast. “Kinetic energy can take off so fast when you incubate a committed team of change agents, and remove the silos and barriers preventing greatness,” she says. “We took advantage of the post-covid instability to incubate the idea that became ArtBot. We teamed up creative engineers with coders,
developers, technologists and analysts, all on a mission to unlock new levels of craft and performance. While this was a transformational change within Omnicom, it was set in motion by a few practitioners armed with a united passion to do something new, starting at the most atomic level of creative and delivering measurable results. And it quickly established content performance as a leverage point for Omnicom.”
From there, it was about maintaining momentum. “Quick wins are essential,” she says. “When you celebrate those, it creates buy-in. Others want that impact on their business, and it no longer seems scary or unknown. Those micro-changes start multiplying; you keep folding in change agents and new ways of working; and this combination of talent, tools, and tech accelerate and blast past what was once an ambiguous destination.”
Charts May Guide, but Learning Keeps You Afloat
Peter Figge, CEO and partner at Jung von Matt puts emphasis on education and personal development as a way to ensure navigating change comes more easily across an organisation. “As an independent creative agency, we are a professional services company,” he states. “In an era of rapid change, managing our most valuable assets – our people – is mission-critical. Onboarding, training, development, and offboarding are continuous processes. Building agile teams and fostering a culture of learning never stops.”
Growing people helps a business grow resilience. For Amina Folarin, CEO at OLIVER Group in the UK, the key lies in upskilling and empowering your people. “By continuously investing in training, mentoring and knowledge-sharing, you can build a workforce that’s not just highly skilled, but also resilient and able to innovate on the fly,” she says. “In-house marketing talent can play a crucial role here, with the right expertise directly embedded within your organisation, enabling them to act quickly. Seek out diverse skillsets – from data analysts to content strategists – to create cross-functional teams that can ideate, experiment and solve problems collaboratively.”
But it’s not all about knowledge. Encouraging a culture of curiosity and experimentation is what makes teams adaptable and ready to embrace, rather than fear, change. “Encourage your teams to stay curious about emerging trends, test new technologies (especially in the gen AI space), and share learnings. Create space for calculated risks, and reward the mindset of failing fast and iterating,” says Amina.
“Ultimately, responding to change is less about processes, and more about cultivating agile people and empowering them with leading technology. With the right talent development strategies in place, large organisations can steer through turbulent waters and capitalise on new opportunities.”
And for Phoebe Smith, managing director at production studio HELO, success has usually come from a broader atmosphere of empowering the right choices. “Our business is built on innovation, we foster a culture where people feel independent enough to take creative risks, we’ve always used agile workflows that allow for maximum flexibility, and we work hard to stay ahead of industry shifts without losing sight of what makes us HELO, what makes us unique.
“Navigating change comes down to maintaining effectiveness, surrounding the business with a network of exceptional people, giving those people freedom to think independently and explore new ideas, and having dogged determination, and quite a lot of resilience, to reach the creative outcome, and results, you want."
For Ben at Collaborate, change management falls into two complementary camps: client focus and agency focus. “We learned the latter the hard way,” he admits. “After doubling in turnover post-covid it became clear our back-end systems and processes needed a revisit for an agency our size, and embarked on a rapid, comprehensive overhaul of our entire accounting, prospecting and systems stack – in just three months. We also know that our unique culture is our secret sauce for success; protecting that during growth is critical. We’ve recently introduced extended mentorship and internal training programmes to prep the next set of agency leaders.”
Partnering with Clients to Ride the Wave
Meanwhile, change management for clients’ needs has to be in the DNA of a business that’s ready for the future. Ben goes on, “We’ve bolstered our approach to collaboration – with a robust strategy for identifying complementary partners and services (from AI to PR agencies) that support our core ‘experience-out’ offer. Templated commercial contracts, with clear joint KPIs, make it super easy to get running with new partners at breakneck speed, empowering collaboration that adds real, immediate value to clients. I’m a firm believer that change brings opportunity so it’s full steam ahead.”
That focus on collaboration applies at the level of leading a network as large as FCB globally, too. Tyler is clear about how agencies must guide their clients through the stormy waters together. “In today’s uncertain economic climate – alongside the technical innovation in AI – clients’ needs and priorities continue to shift. Now more than ever, clients are looking for trusted, agile, and unconventional partners who can deliver exponential growth. Agencies must be true partners and firmly demonstrate the economic power of creativity across everything they do.”
As Michael Feder, co-founder of Hornet wrote in his standalone preview to this piece, long voyages with clients prove the value of travelling together. “To navigate these new platforms, audiences, and deliverables, our clients want nimble, trusted partners who understand their brand and can be adaptable to future needs,” he wrote. “We are very proud to be a trusted partner going on 15 years with Leo Burnett out of London for McDonald’s UK Happy Meals, seven years collaborating with the in-house team at Spotify, five years leading the instantly-recognisable branded campaigns with Kroger, and blossoming relationships with newer partners such as Expedia Group and Apple. We treasure our client relationships and treat every job as an opportunity to build something new together.
“As a company going on 25 years, we’ve seen many tides change. We have weathered storms, invented and adapted, and have come to see change not as an adversary but an inherent part of every successful company’s story. To move forward and continue to grow as we do so, is crucial for us to honor the core values that have made us successful and that have been inherent to the brand since day one. This is especially true of a company that has a heritage like ours.
“As Hornet expands and diversifies, we make sure that the methods and means of doing so are organic and reflective of our core values. All new verticals we have grown are complimentary to the offerings and ethos we have always prized ourselves on – being fundamentally built on wonderful storytelling, a strong personal point of view on design, and a human-centric culture of creativity. This human touch has always been woven into how we produce and the art we create.”
No Sailor Was Ever Made in Still Waters
The best leaders love making it through the tempest of change together with the crews they’ve assembled. Alexis sums it up in a way that represents the prevailing sentiment among the people I spoke to for this story: “As managing director of adam&eveDDB West, I see change not as a storm to be weathered but as the ocean we navigate every day. Leadership in our rapidly evolving industry is akin to conducting an orchestra during an earthquake: maintaining harmony even as the ground continually shifts beneath us.
“The advertising landscape has always been shaped by cultural shifts, technological leaps, and evolving consumer behaviors. However, recent acceleration in these changes driven by the rise of AI, transformative digital platforms, and heightened client needs, demands an unprecedented balance between stability and agility.
“At adam&eveDDB, we’ve found that answer anchored in purpose. Our North Star – ‘Feeling First’ – is not just a catchy mantra painted on our walls. It is the guiding principle for evaluating opportunities, making critical decisions, and empowering our teams. ‘Feeling First’ sits at the core of our agency culture and creative output, reinforcing Bill Bernbach’s timeless insight that, ‘Unless you feel it, nothing will happen.’ This articulated purpose provides foundational stability that allows us to evolve strategically without losing our identity.”
A North Star is crucial in uncharted waters. But the uncharted seas are the ones that excite leaders of creative businesses. Alissa at Omnicom Production provides a fitting speech to rouse the rabble: “Industry drama threatens us with a sense of doom. We are creative explorers and we love to wrestle with the idea of our own extinction – a world without creatives! However, with each era comes the infancy of new ways of working, new technologies, a treasure chest of new opportunities all begging for our human hive of intelligence to unlock and unleash.”
So batten down the hatches and all hands on deck. Adventure and riches await those willing to face the storm.
Image from Unsplash. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library."Der Seesturm." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1837 - 1842.
