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Agency Operational Review
An independent assessment of how people, work, delivery and commercial performance fit together.
- A clear diagnosis
- Agreed priorities
- A practical 90-day plan
- Direction for six and 12 months
Agency operations · People · Commercial performance
I help great agencies work smarter and become more profitable
Hello, I’m Aidan.
I have spent more than 20 years working inside great agencies, and one of the main things I’ve learned is that being busy is not the same as creating value, and growth does not always translate into profit.
The latter part of my career has been spent in operational leadership roles at Ogilvy, Proximity and RAPP UK. My work has brought together people, resource and capacity, ways of working, delivery, technology and commercial performance to help agencies operate more effectively and profitably.
Resource management has always been the starting point for me because, done well, it connects client demand, capacity, skills and cost. From there, I look at the wider operational picture: how teams are structured, how work moves, where decisions sit, how technology supports delivery and how all of that affects commercial performance.
I have always believed that great agencies need an operational platform that allows talented people to spend most of their time doing what they were employed to do, rather than fighting the way the agency works.
That is how I operate: people first, informed by evidence and focused on commercial performance. Knowing what needs to change is only half the job. Helping people understand why is what makes the change work and the business tick.
Ultimately, great operations underpin great performance and create the conditions for award-winning work. That is hopefully what we are all in it for!
So, have a look around. If you think I could help your agency, let’s talk.
20+years inside creative agencies
+8 ptsprofit margin at Proximity over my tenure
£200kaverage monthly freelance cost removed
80%+creative department realisation
40%lower offshore delivery cost
7×Agency of the Year awards
Where good agencies can get stuck
Even successful agencies have things that get in the way.
Most of the time, no single thing is badly wrong. Small issues build up as clients, teams and the work change.
People are busy, but too little of their time is turning into billable work.
Freelance spend has grown without a clear view of the permanent gaps.
Staffing decisions are not always based on the work clients are actually asking for.
A new platform has been introduced, but everyday habits have not changed.
Pitches and internal projects are taking time away from paying client work.
Leadership teams are looking at different versions of the same business.
How I can help
A clear starting point, with support available to make the change happen.
Most engagements begin with an Agency Operational Review. It gives leaders a clear view of how the agency is really operating and what should change first. You can take the resulting plan forward internally, ask me to help implement it, or bring me in to provide interim operational leadership.
02 · IMPLEMENT THE PLAN
Operations Improvement
Working alongside your teams to turn the agreed recommendations into practical, lasting change.
- Clear ownership and decisions
- Visible progress every month
- Change explained and properly embedded
03 · ADD EXPERIENCED LEADERSHIP
Interim Operations Leadership
Hands-on senior leadership when the agency needs experience, judgement and someone to take responsibility.
- Working alongside the leadership team
- Joining up departments and priorities
- Staying close to the work
The review can stand alone. If you want support putting the recommendations into practice, I can stay on to lead the improvement work or provide interim operational leadership.
Start with a conversation →Where I usually start
The Agency Operational Review
Before changing anything, I work out what is really going on. I start with the shape of the agency, then look beyond it at the work, the numbers and what people experience every day.
Look at the numbers
Understand demand, capacity, delivery and commercial performance.
Listen and understand
Learn where the work gets stuck and why.
Agree what comes first
Focus on the changes that will make the biggest difference.
Commercial data can show where a problem exists, but it rarely tells the whole story. I combine the numbers with the experience of the people doing the work before deciding what needs to change.
How I work
Start with the facts. Listen and understand. Make the change clear. Keep going until it sticks.
- Start with factsUse the data that is available rather than relying on anecdotes.
- Listen and understandUnderstand the pressure people are under and how the work really moves.
- Make it clearExplain what needs to change, and why, in language everyone understands.
- Make progress visibleMake a meaningful improvement every month and tell people about it.
- Make it stickStay involved until the new way of working becomes normal.
Facts, conversations and a shared view of the problem.
Priorities agreed, ownership clear and early changes visible.
Better habits, better information and measurable commercial progress.
People should be able to see and feel the agency changing around them every month.
Platforms, automation and AI
AI has enormous potential to make agencies smarter, faster and better prepared for the future.
Used correctly, AI will remove administration, connect information faster and give people more time to apply judgement, solve problems and make better work. I am genuinely excited by what that could mean for agency operations, commercial visibility and the way agency teams learn.
The opportunity is not to hand the agency over to a machine. It is to design AI around real work, brief it properly, set clear guardrails and keep people accountable for those decisions. Agencies that learn how to do that now will be better equipped for what comes next.
I am technology agnostic. I will work with what is already in place, understand where it helps and where it gets in the way, and only recommend change when there is a clear operational or commercial case.
I have worked directly with platforms including Workfront and Float, and I understand the wider landscape of tools such as Productive, Kantata and Resource Guru. The platform matters, but the operating model comes first. New software will not fix unclear ownership, unreliable data or habits that nobody has addressed.
I have also worked closely with creative teams to understand and embed technology that genuinely improves how they work. That has included emerging AI tools such as Runway, alongside the wider CGI and motion-design ecosystem of Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Unreal Engine and Nuke. My role is not to tell specialists how to practise their craft. It is to help the agency evaluate new capabilities, introduce them responsibly and create the conditions in which people can use them effectively.
I encourage people to explore AI tools for themselves. Learning through use helps people understand what the technology could mean for their own role and makes the unknown feel less intimidating.
I also used AI to help build this website. It allowed me to turn my ideas into something tangible at speed, but the experience, thinking and decisions behind it are mine. That is exactly how I believe AI should be used: to increase what people can achieve, not replace their judgement.
A practical AI example
Resource management agents with clear guardrails
I built prototype AI resource-management agents to understand how AI could support an agency resource function: doing the repetitive administration quickly while experienced people retain every important decision.
The agents help withCollecting the factsSpotting gaps and risksPreparing options
People retain controlTesting brief readinessConfirming budget and prioritiesChoosing the right people
Results and case studies
Real results, with a story behind every number.
These figures come from changes I led inside agencies. They are not theoretical savings or promises in a presentation.
Agency Operations should create more value than it costs. In every senior operational role I have held, the efficiencies and commercial improvements I delivered more than covered the cost of employing me.
RAPP UK
£300k → £100k
Used permanent capacity better and reduced freelance spend
I consistently used utilisation and realisation data to identify available capacity, then worked with teams to use permanent people before defaulting to freelance support.
PROXIMITY
40% lower cost
Built an offshore model that worked for clients
Created a faster, commercially efficient delivery model without compromising client expectations or quality.
PROXIMITY
+8 percentage points
Improved profit margin over my tenure
Connected staffing, delivery and commercial decisions to create sustained improvement over time.
OGILVY
Days → hours
Challenged the traditional big-agency process
Introduced a fast-track route for straightforward executional briefs while retaining ownership and quality control.
For brands and in-house teams
Understand where creative effort goes and what it creates.
These short introductions show how I can review an in-house studio or help a brand understand the effort, cost and value behind its agency relationship.
A bit about me
I know agency life because I have lived it.
I was drawn to the agency world by the adverts I watched on television as a kid. The best felt like mini films or works of art. I knew I was never going to be a creative, but I worked out that becoming a traffic manager would give me the best chance of being close to the idea from the very beginning.
So, aged 17, I joined a small agency called Lonsdale Advertising as a junior traffic manager. That was where it started for me.
Since then, I’ve worked in agencies of almost every kind, including above-the-line, CRM, integrated and digital businesses. That experience includes independents such as Wieden+Kennedy and major network agencies from Publicis to RAPP UK.
I’m a people person. I build loyal teams and strong relationships because agency operations depends on trust, judgement and understanding how people really work together.
For me, it always comes back to the work. I see Agency Operations as the structure and operating platform that allows a business to achieve its best. Done well, it frees talented people to concentrate on the work they were employed to do, within an atmosphere and culture that inspires them.
Operations should underpin the business, not get in the way of the work.
Mentoring
Practical mentoring for agency operations and resource leaders.
Agency operations can be a lonely place. You are expected to balance people, work, clients and commercial pressure, often without anyone independent to test your thinking with. I provide a confidential and practical sounding board, drawing on more than 20 years inside creative businesses.
Who it is for
- Resource and operations leaders stepping into broader roles
- New heads of department managing difficult stakeholders
- Experienced people who feel stuck or lack a trusted sounding board
- People connecting operational decisions to agency commercials
What we can work through
- Difficult leadership conversations and influence without hierarchy
- Resource, capacity and skills decisions
- Utilisation, margin and commercial pressure
- Leading change while maintaining trust
- Confidence when moving into a larger role
Flexible support: begin with an initial conversation, then choose monthly mentoring or a focused three-month programme built around real problems rather than abstract coaching.
What people say
People I have worked with describe it better than I can.
“The best sergeant major of strategic ops I’ve ever worked with!”
“You made the world go round at Proximity and RAPP. Strategic and infinitely successful in your implementation. Every business needs an Aidan.”
“You kept things simple to move them forward, without shying away from what was actually complicated beneath the surface.”
“You worked the operational machinery we have now come to rely on. Whoever gets you next will be lucky indeed.”
“Wherever you end up next, they’ll be extremely lucky to have you.”
Get in touch
If this sounds useful, let’s talk.
Tell me what is happening in your agency and what you would like to work better.
Privacy
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