In my first job in the advertising industry, the agency had separate account management and project management functions.  It wasn’t until my second job in the ad business, at which these two functions were combined, that I fully appreciated the value of having distinct account and project management roles.
We at Cella Consulting have often seen [...]

Business Week recently ran a cover story on the advent of disposable workers. While the title may be distasteful, the concept is viable. As companies recover from The Great Recession, the likelihood of organizations staffing up to pre-2009 levels is low. As a result, we’ll see a dramatic uptick in the ranks of contingent workers [...]

A rule of thumb: “Offshoring projects will cost 4 times less but take twice as long to complete.”
The notion of saving up to 70% of labor costs can be very enticing, especially in tight economic times. However, offshoring can be a daunting endeavor and one that can almost as easily waste money as save it. [...]

One of the hardest balancing acts in any creative organization is maintaining the right balance of seasoned veterans and “new blood,” creative directors and lightning-fast production artists, specialists and generalists, and new media and traditional media gurus. This is especially true in environments where the volume and nature of the workload is relatively low or [...]

Cost management, flexibility and cutting edge expertise……one if not all of these reasons have led you to use consultants and/or temporary associates on your latest project or proposal. The Microsoft case in the 90’s drove awareness around co-employment issues. Since then, many companies have adopted practices such as term limits to help mitigate [...]

You can feel it… the economy has regained a heartbeat. It may not be ready for an Ironman competition, but at least we can find a pulse. And I am wondering how this will affect all our plans and budgets for the upcoming year.
Before we just submit a modest increase across the board (or even [...]

I just returned from the very successful 2009 In-HOWse Designer Conference, sponsored by HOW Magazine, where I heard lots of perspectives and predictions.
I was particularly intrigued by one data point gleaned from Megan Slabinski’s presentation on “Managing Through Uncertainty and Change.” She cited a recent survey that asked designers what trends were going to have [...]

Several people have been telling me that they need to re-evaluate their staffing mix in light of the current economic situation. Customers are relying more and more on their in-house organizations — meaning that more work is coming in-house and more complex work, to boot.
More work often translates into adding quick turnaround masters — [...]

“If creative work is to be perceived as valuable, it has to carry a price tag.”
With economic pressures squeezing U.S. companies to find and eliminate every inefficiency, we are hearing more conversation around chargeback systems.
A chargeback system is a method of accounting that allows a creative executive to charge clients for the costs associated with [...]

We are quickly approaching the 2010 budget season for many companies. As much as this time is about spreadsheets and numbers, this is also often the time for conducting enterprise-wide identity checks. In the wake of the 2009 recession, we find many in-house creative shops re-examining their raison d’etre.
What is the role of the [...]