Pros
- A great place to learn the ropes of agency life without getting chewed up and spit out like at bigger shops - Great work/life balance, laid-back culture for an agency - Cool perks like snacks, beer, occasional catered lunch - Fantastic work space and office location - Fun people who don't take themselves too seriously
Cons
In my time at Genuine, I saw an agency full of good people and a good intentions nearly destroyed by an identity crisis fueled by a lack of strong leadership and vision to get things to the next level. For years, Genuine's core competencies and operations were built around a waterfall approach to web design and development — it was something they were good at and known for. But to hit that next level they felt the need to diversify their offering — trying to model themselves after a full-service digital agency like HUGE. This is where things started to go wrong. While this wasn't an inherently bad strategy, there's a reason successful full-service, mid-size agencies are few and far between. Genuine simply didn't have the planning, organization, process, experienced talent, sales mindset, or level of accountability in-place to drive this strategy forward. The company won some decent accounts and employee count ballooned, but a strong foundation wasn't there to support the growth. This eventually led to mismanaged and lost accounts, overtaxed employees, a 'figure it out as you go' mindset, and general disillusionment with the agency's direction. The sale to Jack Morton and IPG accelerated and amplified these core problems, as hitting revenue goals imposed by IPG quickly seemed to be the only thing that mattered. It's possible things have improved since I departed, as I've heard there is new leadership in-place. But overall, I was disappointed in my time there as I really did think we were on the precipice of doing something great.