Sat in the departures area of Florence Airport yesterday I struck up a conversation with two fellow travellers. Two medical students from New York, but who quietly admitted they studied in Philidephia.

We got to talking and soon I was informed that their annual student fee was $75,000. That’s right. Seventy-five thousand dollars every year, and for four years. So before you spit your drink about your £9,000 a year here in the UK imagine leaving with a minimum of £300,000 debt instead of £36,000. I found this out after I told them that University fees in the UK are capped at £9,000 a year, which was met with the usualy gasps of disbelief and envy from our American cousins.

American graduate schooling has always being expensive, we know this. ‘It’s just a business really’ one of the students exclaimed. ‘You go, you agree (blindly) to pay over all this money and you just do it, no-one questions it, we just do it. Year after year.’ She resigned. What do you get for $75,000, besides the course – I mean is there any perks? Free weekends in Vegas? Use of the schools private jet? Penthouse dorm room? I asked.

Nothing. Zip. Now’t. Nada. Seventy-five thousand, plus you have to pay $1,000 for each exam paper – which goes to the various governing boards, of which each paper is assigned a different one. Obviously. Incredible, no? ‘But medicine is regarded as the most likely course for you to gain employment and be able to pay your loans back.’ Reported the other student. A reason to study medicine then? I asked. Yeah, came the reply. I guess people are always dying, I replied.

‘Many students are really struggling, and it’s a big problem in the States. You get lots of people now leaving University with no job, so they go get any job to pay their way and regardless of what you earn you have to start paying back your loan at the same rate as if you were gainfully employed as soon as you leave. So if your waitressing you’re going to fallback on payments, and if you fall back you’ll wind-up defaulting and that has huge implications of any future loans or mortgages you might need.’

Not a pretty picture, is it? And you guys thought Nick Clegg was Satan. Well actually he probably is because this is where we are heading, sooner or later. Why? Because as the student rightly pointed out, University there and certainly here in the UK is a business. Each school is in a fierce competition with everyone else. When given the choice nearly 60% of all Universities in England opted to charge the maximum £9,000 annual fee (source: www.bbc.co.uk/news). Like petrol these costs will only ever go up. This does not include the amount UK Universities receive for overseas students, the fees for which are two, often three (or more) times the amounta UK resident will pay.

When I studied my BA Graphic Design degree at Nottingham Trent University our course had 110 students on it. Not in totality, just in our year in-take. It was rediculous to say the least. By the end of the third year there were nearer 94 students who graduated. Whilst there I met lots of students from other courses all happily taking part in the whole experience of student life, which I would recommend to anybody, including my son. Even then it struck me just how many students were there that perhaps really ought not to have been there. This is going to sound politically incorrect but stick with me.

There were a lot of people who really didn’t care or have any inclination to invest themselves in the course they’d taken. Indeed many it seemed had chosen their topic rather by random selection as apposed to having a burning desire to be a ‘Business man/woman’ or surveyor. I lost count the amount of times you’d ask ‘How many lectures do you have a week?’ (i.e. how many days are they required to attend the University) and you’d often get a shrug, or a ’2 hours!’ reply. On my course you were required to be in every day, and more often than not I was (as were many of us), particular from the second year onwards.

Everyone who wants to should have the right to go to University, that much we can all agree on. But with more and more attending year on year the value of that experience is high, but the value of the degree itself (remember, the reason you went there) is being completely under-valued.

Last year 2.5million students graduated (source: hesa.ac.uk) in to an ever shrinking economy. But a growing number, a further 500,000+ were post-graduates, which has grown year on year steadily at around 7% (last year was the first decline in four years). Which tells us that more and more people are staying on or going back to do MA, MBA, MSc or even PhD.

This is in-line with lots of discussions I’ve had recently with students and various institutions over the years. More and more places are actively encouraging to the point of disuading students from leaving after a BA because their degree will be practically ‘unrecognised’. In other words, worthless. So has the MA/MBA/MSc become the new BA? I have an MA in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins and a BA with First Class honours – but I chose to do an MA because I wanted a bit more time to study, not because my BA was worthless.

However the risk is there for us all to see. If a BA is no longer the marker for us to use and an MA is, what next? When that rate of UK post-grads rises from half a million to 1.5million and the MA sinks in to the quick sand of worthless recognition, then what? Will a PhD will be the only route left? Only if you desire a professorial position.

Where is the ceiling for this gauge? Where does it end? I imagine the education authorities will start to descale the BA to more of a ‘foundation’ degree (like the HND was considered), or like A/S A levels (what ever they were), and thus make MA degrees bolt-ons. Is there another solution?

It suddenly struck me whilst talking to the two medical students that perhaps there might be a better way for our American cousins’ education authorities to view their study programmes and astronomical fees – and indeed the UK too. Benefits Related Performance or BRP (which reads in my head as BURP!) could be introduced. Sort the wheat from the chaff, so-to-speak.

‘So if you do really well with your grades on your course do you get better loan offers? Or perhaps better rates of interest on your repayments?’ I asked innocently to the two med students. No, but that would make sense they both replied, almost in unison.

Here in the UK you only start paying back the fees dependent on your level of income (in the US they start paying back regardless of income). However wouldn’t it make more sense to place the focus on the students and their achievements? You work hard you get rewarded. Don’t work hard, don’t get rewarded. Of course this will favour the smartest, but nothing will change that. It will also not punish those who are less smart – you just pay what you were paying anyway, but improve, work hard, apply yourself and you will be rewarded. Better rates of repayments, get a first in your BA and get a six month repayment holiday, or a discount off your repayments? This will further sort the ones who are their to down cheap shots and catch STDs from the those who are able to down cheap shots but still make it in to work and perform. Ultimately it will encourage students (and the universities) to raise their game, which raises standards of the individual, the University and the nation as a whole. It won’t address the devaluation of a BA but it will give some benefits to students who will benefit from working hard.

I’ve often said it’s not ‘business, it’s personnel’, regardless of your profession it is just about people (or persons), and about getting the most out of each other. If this going to University is a business, and it is, let’s start applying some measures of performance and reward those who work (and play) hard.

University is a fantastic experience that every young person has the right to experience. It teaches you about life and independence. About people and places and alcohol and drugs and socialising and other passions like the course you chose to study (wink). But that experience should not come at the cost of a life post-graduation where upon many are financially crippled. The emphasis has to be on working (and playing) hard and receiving benefits for that – a system the banking sector could actually to with incorporating. I mean properly.

#BRP (or #BURP if you prefer)

Much has already been written and commented on Marissa Meyers decision to order everyone back to working at the office (Guardian: Yahoo chief bans working from home). The fact the internal memo titled ‘PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION – DO NOT FORWARD’ was leaked from its own HR department (and more employees besides) to news channels was hardly surprising.

I was contacted by a few people to comment given that I’ve been very vocal (albeit in tiny circles) about my distain for work environments and mentalities. My first reaction to this news story was ‘This calls for a blog post.’ Yeah! That’ll show ‘em. Another blog post from someone else with 2¢ worth to chip in to an already tired subject.

Since taking over as CEO and then announcing her preganancy I’ve been curious about Ms Meyers approach. As one of the most public CEO appointments of 2012 I was hoping she might use the opportunity of her preganancy as a firm stand to promote the need for better maternity leave, but instead she made a firm stance against it by taking just two weeks stating “I won’t be the working moms poster girl.” Fair enough, if I’d just taken over as CEO of a giant I might feel the burden of wanting to take the reigns quickly and firmly too.

Then last week came the message “to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.” Although I’ve yet to read anywehre the fine print – it doesn’t say 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, so perhaps there is still ‘flexi-time’. They’re not alone, Bank of America has done a similar thing in recent months.

Yahoo argued in the memo, “some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings.” Which as Prerna Gupta notes in her NY Times article (NY Times: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many), ‘That is certainly true. But it is also the case that some of the most creative insights come only when you give the human brain unstructured time to think.’ Prerna goes on to describe how her place of work simple requires everyone to spend a minimum of three days a week for five hours a day starting from noon in the office.

It is certainly true that having people in one place is an enabler for conversations, interactions, accidental collaborations and ideas to spawn. Studies have proven that people who work from home are more productive, but less innovative. “If you want innovation, then you need interaction,” says John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University (source: NY Times, Yahoo Orders Home Workers Back to the Office). I can definitely relate to this on a personal level, but then the secret is not to work in your PJs in your bedroom for 12hours either. I also believe in common sense. Not everyone always uses it, but set the right parameters and often people will surprise you.

Most of us are perfectly capable human beings and treated as such should be given the respect, and the responsibility, to manage their own schedules and complete their work on their own time, from wherever they choose. The challenge is to balance productivity with innovation (from interaction), and also to learn to let go and allow that productivity to come from home.

It’s a bit like parenting. Be strict, or wrap them in cotton wool or let them run free – the nurturing will shape the attitude and the reactions. I’m somewhere in the middle. I say that as someone who has in the past four years reduced his own company like a chef making a fine meaty, wine jus reduction; I no longer have a studio, direct employees or even a desk. Instead a host of locations, a network of freelance people, two laptops and a wifi connection. So I accept that I am in a far simpler position to be agile and fleixble than a giant like Yahoo.

As a single parent the value I place on being flexible is priceless. Parenting my son means I lead with a firm hand but I am relaxed about most things because I treat my son like human being with respect and most of all Love and Support. Not a commodity or a trophy. I spend time with him, real time – not just ticking boxes but actually sitting and drawing with him, playing lego, writing, reading, playing football, swimming, you name it. I hope I give him enough responsibility and freedom in life so that he makes his own interpretations and understandings, and when he over-steps or does something wrong we talk about it, sometimes I change my tone so he knows I’m upset and ever so often I raise the volume. But the time we spend together, the time we invest in each other means we have a much richer relationship and a mutual respect for one another. I Use a similar approach to people I work with. Regardless of how big your firm is – people invest in people; so invest in your own, more often.

The irony is that Yahoo is a firm, who they themselves have created actual technology that makes it possible for us to communicate and work from any/everywhere and yet have taken steps to reign in their net back to the trawler. Ms Meyers stance on being a CEO and not a ‘working mom poster pin-up’ means she is also recalling working parents, single moms and dads who will have to now change their lives to return to what should be a dying post-industrialisation mentality of ‘bums-in-seats’ in office equals work.

There is a balancing act and there is no easy solution to this live/work balance. Companies like 37Signals, Semco (Brazil), Smule and Khush (and many others) who actively seek to find that balance with three or four day working weeks and flexi-time I commend you whole-heartedly. There is real value in those coffee maker, water cooler conversations, but equally in time for people to be able to think clearly and not on the ‘pretend’ lounge area disguised as ‘not working’ when clearly it really is.

Ultimately this decision by Yahoo is a bold and brave decision, hopefully not taken lightly and perhaps (for them at the moment) necessary. I suspect to better assess and cull any excess they might be carrying. It will make a great deal of their employees reconsider their jobs, and maybe even jump ship – plenty of competitors to likely snap them up. Overall I hope it works for Ms Meyer, but ultimately if the details do turn out to be more ‘bums in seats’ mentality (8hrs/5days a week) it saddens me and I wish them good luck retaining that talent for too much longer.

#SlipperySlope

How do you present a three week discovery phase for a new web site project to a record label/artist management client in the US whose passion in life is music and making great art?

You write. You sketch. You think. You write some more. You source a company (on ebay, in the US) who sell blank white 7″ sleeves.

You layout each sections content as an insert like the lyrics of the track. You give each section titles like album tracks, and timecodes based on how long it takes you to read it. You add little sleeve notes ‘Lyrics by…’ (just for fun).

You get four A2 posters of your inspiration and vision printed and folded. You personally make each of the ten sleeves like your own demo vinyl using Letraset.

You package it all up in a plastic cover and Fed-Ex it to them and hope they love it half as much as you did making it.

That ladies and Gentlemen is #LoveandSupport.

#WIP #Ramseur #Letraset #PlanBStudio

P.s you then also send them a PDF to share with their team.

Imagine I come to your desk, or knock on the door of your house or call you with a question. What do you do? You answer don’t you? Whether it is a family member, friend, someone asking for charity donations or homeless person selling the Big Issue I always try to make eye contact and give them an answer. Why?

Because that’s being human. It might not be the answer they need or like, but it is at least an answer which means both parties can go on their way.

I’m growing increasingly tired of having emails from people asking me for work, placement or experience. It’s not the first email that frustrates me, it is the second one; the one they are replying to my email saying thank-you. Not because I’ve been able to enlist them but because I’ve bothered to even email them back at all. This happens EVERY time.

My inbox is similar to yours, and we’re all varying degrees of ‘busy’, but if you don’t make the time to acknowledge and reply to these people that’s your choice but remember. Remember what it was like. Ok, some of you might have been über talented and never had to go looking for work, lucky you.This isn’t just about looking for work, it is waiting for anything that you are pinning hopes on. Remember how it frustrating it feels not hearing the answer either-way? Remembered? Good, now start replying to these people, put them out of their misery one way or another, please.

With few exceptions advertising agencies don’t make adverts, production companies make adverts. Ad agencies come up with the ideas and the execution is done by the production team, usually hired in.

Advertising agencies (rarely) make digital campaigns – you know those all-too-often-bolted-on-but-getting-better-at-including-digital-earlier campaigns. No, digital production companies make those. There are more and more of them and some are especially good at it – Media Monks, Unit9, Rehabstudio, etc.

But for those that don’t know, digital production (for the most part) is an incipid environment. I’ve written about this before, suffice to say that generally it’s not the people that are insipid, it’s the nature of the beast. The intense pressure, the deadlines, the media-buyers who often dictate the deadlines, the changes, the bugs, the fixes, the Q&A, the client, the producer, the bugs, the fixes… etc.

I’m sure if my lofty aspirations were to ever be realised and we all just had more time we would probably still fuck it up, but needless to say I haven’t been apart of that industry for a year. I’m definitely poorer, but richer in spirit and health. Bully for me, yeah. I know, twat.

But there is a change happening. Can you smell it too? No, not that… I’m talking about a wind change, a shift that happened and continues to happen. It started a year or so ago. Shush, are your ready? Clients are doing it for themselves.

The likes of Apple and Google have been doing it for years, Facebook too and fashion brands like Burberry raised the bar and took much of their core work in-house; outsourcing some and managing other projects internally. They realised early on that in order to maintain control their has to be control maintained, starting with in-house. Core teams were established and have grown. I often joked that I was the only man in Shoreditch not to work with Nokia, at one point it seemed everyone was and all at the same time. Look what happened to them.

Other companies are following – TV stations have been doing it slowly, and some reaping the rewards, namely those that manage to balance change with agility. Now Intel, the worlds biggest supplier of silicon chips are entering the TV market with their own ‘start-up’ called Intel Media, with a team of some two hundred people working towards that common goal with three golden rules, as set out by their new VP Executive Global Lord Emporer (Master Waterfall).

More fashion brands, technology companies and sportswear brands are following suit. Nike has already taken all of its social media marketing in-house (Marketing Week: Nike takes social media in-house). Even M&S are trying their hand with their own Digital Lab.

Advertising agencies (big and small) have tried, like their music industry (giant) cousins to adapt and, like those same giant cousins, thought that the key to success was simple: aquisition. Just buy them up and swallow them inside the big machine and all will be fine. But advertising agencies have tried and all-too-often failed in complete meltdown. Why?

Well why are the major record labels still in such dire straits, along with lots of electronics companies – Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, etc? One word: agility. The digital arena is not for the faint-hearted. Technology is advancing, rapidly. It is fast moving, fast paced, hard fucking core uproar, blow your whistle and dance to the beat monkey or get out of my effing studio. It’s both brilliant and bracing, fantastic and fraught, exciting and exhausting. If you can’t move with it, and keep up (forget being ahead) then don’t. Just stop. It is to the two thousand and tennies(?) what stockbroking was to the 80s. Crips, blackened and charred remains stuck to keyboards and smartphones expected.

Advertising agencies are their own worst enemy. They, like the big record labels, are big, slow, cumbersome creatures that like things a certain way. They are slow to adopt (if at all) change, and despair at those who do. Oh many boast the opposite, but I’ve been in and around enough of them (and this is by no means a dig at the amazing talent that helps make those big creatures move) to know that ‘traditional’ oftens riles against digital. I’ve experienced this on several occasions first hand and until that changes the ad industry will keep shooting itself in the foot or rather getting stuck in the mud and eventually sink and die. Long live the client.

The client has all the money. The client is the one willing to invest. The client is the one who is starting to wise up to the game that’s being played here, and big agencies should be scared. It is no surprise that this cross-over is happening and the very good are being sucked over to the Client-Side. This could ineffect be the tipping point of the industry.

So some words of support if you are unhappy, it’s not you it is the industry. A solution? Get out. Run, run to the clients – if you are good at what you do you are valuable to them. I am fairly sure you’ll never look back, apart from when you’re the one hiring those agencies. Just imagine how sweet that day will be.