Why is genius in short supply?

Perhaps bosses are to blame for not hiring the right people. David Wethey picks a selection of individuals and agencies – real and fictional – who inspire him

Advertising is a clever business. Salaries are high and agencies are expensive. There is intense competition between ad agencies and for jobs. So why are geniuses in short supply? Perhaps I am mistaken. Maybe there are dozens and I just haven’t met them, but that would be odd. In my 20 years of advising clients on agency selection, I have met a great many hot-shot agency teams – and wouldn’t the agencies have made sure I met their stars?

Assuming I am right, and there is a shortage of exceptional talent, why would that be? There are several possibilities: there never was an abundance of genius, even in the glory days; there is less exceptional talent nowadays, because it’s less fun; agency bosses are frightened of really clever people and nervous about promoting young people, who then become disillusioned; as a result, the brightest and the best now go into the City or the media world.

There is probably some truth in all these explanations, but the third one rings especially true. As Steve Jobs said: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

Rather than try and define genius by criteria, I’ll try and do it with examples, confining myself to people I have actually met.

David Ogilvy, for his extraordinary self-awareness, articulateness and charisma. He wrote ads, built a stunning international business, and was able to tell us how he did it.

Jean-Marie Dru, for inventing Disruption, and helping to build both BDDP and TBWA into classy agencies with great people and superb work.

Sir John Hegarty, for wonderful ads and for building a new and radical kind of agency in BBH. Also for being the single best presenter of creative work I’ve ever seen.

Sir Martin Sorrell, for seeing the true potential of advertising and marketing as a mega-industry. And for being the hardest working, longest surviving, most-balls-in-the-air chief executive of any UK company.

Rishad Tobaccowala, for being the most captivating futurologist in our industry – both at Starcom and Publicis Groupe for years, and now at his own company Denuo.

Finally Graham Warsop – the corporate lawyer turned garlanded copywriter – for creating both The Jupiter Drawing Room (named after the business class section of a brothel in a Balzac novel) in Johannesburg, and www.thedukesofurbino.com.

I couldn’t resist putting together, retrospectively, some of the genius agencies we have missed out on, starting with Alexander Boudicca Polo Garibaldi Woods. This was a massive global shop brought about by a merger. The original team of Alexander the Great and Boudicca acquired Mint Biscuit, the Polo Garibaldi shop. Marco and Giuseppe brought Asia, Southern Europe and South America into the fold. Both had an affinity with the ad business having been born in Venice and Cannes (well, Nice) respectively. The partners had a long search (over 150 years) for a US connection, until they decided to hire Tiger. Woods’ arrival led to the move of the corporate headquarters from Macedon to Florida.

Einstein Gates came about through the merger of the ludicrously named E=mc’ and MS-DOS agencies. Creative talent has come and gone, but Bill now sources talent through a social networking site called I Love Vista (with surprisingly few members). Albert caused a stir – even in adland – by refusing to wear socks.

Franklin Da Vinci was yet another coming together. Benjamin Franklin, the agency, was becoming more of a new-product workshop (lightning conductor, lending library, bifocals and so on), apart from its one political account – The Declaration of Independence for the American Central Office of Information. So Ben reached into the past to hire Lennie, who was no slouch in the new product development department himself – helicopter, tank, calculator among others – and a first-class art director.

WWV (Will Wolfie and Vinnie) is the new name of Shakespeare Mozart Van Gogh, aimed at giving it more street cred. Shakespeare and Mozart also worked together on the smash musical Hamlet’s Magic Flute, which was made into a movie and shot at Arles. During the filming, Vinnie was irked by Americans pronouncing his name “Van Go”, and cut off his ear in protest.

Many geniuses exhibit the same problem with listening to lesser mortals. But they don’t cut off their ears – they just don’t use them.

David Wethey is founder and chairman of Agency Assessments International