GOOD CEOs: Issue 16

I have a little crush
on this collective…
 

When I see a small business growing well and keeping what makes them special, I’m both jealous and falling in love.

When I see a company doing that at the scale of this business…

Full blown sodding crush.

Ryan Honey is co-founder and CEO of BUCK, a global creative company he helped grow from three people to around 450. When you ask him what makes him proudest, he doesn’t talk about awards or big client wins. But the people who stayed for 20 years, bought houses, raised families and built careers around doing something they loved.

That philosophy is also behind his latest venture.

A few years ago, Honey and his partners were approached by one of the big marketing networks with a sizeable cheque for the agency. They said no. Having spent most of their adult lives building the company, they couldn’t stomach the idea of handing it over to an owner that might not share their values.

Instead, they decided to build their own network.

 
They were approached
by one of the big marketing
networks with a sizeable
cheque. They said no
 

Residence brings together specialist creative companies including BUCK, Giant Ant, ACRONYM, OK COOL, It’s Nice That, Creative Lives in Progress, Part and Sum, wild and GateMaker. But unlike the traditional holding-company model, the businesses keep their identities, founders remain invested and nobody is forced into some enormous all-things-to-all-clients proposition.

We spoke about turning down the big cheque, why he’d rather acquire a specialist than an agency that does everything, and his test for potential business partners. Which is: ‘Would I let them stay at my house?’
 

Ollie Scott: Looking back to before you started Residence, in the BUCK days, what was the piece of work that gained you the most fame or generally made you feel proud?

Ryan Honey: I was the original creative director of BUCK. And the work that I am most proud of is the work that has meaning. Like charity organisations – Good Books, an online bookseller that hands its profits to Oxfam. As well as our work for Childline, a free counselling service for kids and young people. Using our skills and art to reach people and make a difference.

OS: Using creative excellence to drive positive change is something that ought to happen more, I often think. What else are you proud of?

RH: It’s how we enabled creative talent. Helping people do what they’re passionate about, putting beautiful things into the world. Being able to witness people who have been with us for twenty years or so raise families, buy houses based on the strength of their passion. That’s probably what I’m most proud of.

 
We enabled creative talent.
Helped people do what they’re
passionate about: Put beautiful
things into the world
 

OS: Those are lovely words. Many agency founders who have scaled their business would loved to have achieved this – but often haven’t. What did you do to make it happen for your teams?

RH: It starts with empathy, and caring. Then surrounding yourself with people who share your values. BUCK started with three people, and grew to four hundred and fifty. I think that growth occurred through constantly pivoting, collaborating, no ego. And a feeling that we want to make great work and take care of each other. That’s permeated through all the business.

OS: Looking at BUCK and now Residence, it feels like that from the outsider perspective too. The founders in the latter seem like they are aligned in their kind qualities. Zero dicks, zero egos: maximum class. How do you make sure to attract those kinds of people?

RH: There is a simple question that I use as a test. Would I let them stay at my house?

OS: That’s a clear indicator!

OS: So BUCK was going well, over four hundred people. What made you decide to shift focus from the agency, and start building a creative network in Residence?

RH: Most of our clients at BUCK were tech companies. We built teams to service them. But as they grew, these clients needed more things – experiential, media, digital. We could hire for that stuff, but we found that the quality was compromised. So the impetus was like: OK, how do we service these relationships and provide for these clients at the highest level? Meanwhile, we had been invited to join another network. There was a big check on the table, but we realised that these people didn’t share our values.

OS: Was that when the penny dropped?

RH: We thought – what if we did what they’re doing based on our own value system? Wade, our CFO, was like: ‘We can do that.’ He concocted a plan, we borrowed some money from a bank and started to merge in companies that we really respected. It started with ACRONYM, then Giant Ant and it just kept on going. Who do we love in the industry? Who do we respect? And who shares our values?

 
Wade, our CFO, was
like: ‘We can do that.’
He concocted a plan
 

OS: The old playbook – say, in the WPP days – would have been a central business that was in advertising. Then as private equity entered the creative economy, design focussed businesses became the anchor. But BUCK – the originator of Residence – is an animation studio. How does that get to the top table?

RH: Well, we evolved to be a lot more than an a animation studio, right? Four hundred and fifty people, we're not just making animation. We design systems and we got into branding. But it's really about co-creation with our clients. Having a level of trust that is built around solving problems for them.

OS: The structure of that is interesting because you could have gone for a holding company model. But instead, you have gone for a house of brands approach. What led to that choice?

RH: It was a combination of things, but I would say like when you know I talked about that process where someone tried to merge us into their network, and during that process they were like, ‘Yeah, you could keep your brand.’ And then at the very end they were like, ‘No, actually you're going to become us.’ That causes a drop in entrepreneurial energy.

OS: What is the difference on the client side for a house of brands approach?

RH: If a client wants to do something impactful they aren’t necessarily going to hire a homogenised giant company that does everything. They’d start by finding out who is the best in each category. So we are building this network of companies that are the best at what they do. We’re centred around the best way to continuously make the best work.

OS: With Residence, when did you realise that you were onto something?

RH: We built this out of a need, right? As I mentioned before. There was a need from our clients. And I think it has been a process of education. We're educating our clients on what we can do as a network for them. And then in the past eight, nine months probably, we’ve really seen an uptick in clients asking things like: ‘Can I work across five companies? And still get a cohesive output?’ That consistency is what’s helped make this successful. People talk about the importance of vision, but we kind of just rolled with it. The agency brands in our network aren’t competitors. They collaborate, have conversations, share information with each other. One of our largest enterprise clients works across five of our companies. So we bring in people at the Residence level to be head of client services, head of brand partnerships, and manage all of that at the Residence level.

OS: You speak about creative sustainability. What does that mean in practice?

RH: It’s about people’s careers in the creative industry. We want to create a sustainable culture for people. That means setting up an environment that they can thrive in, do what they’re passionate about and make great work. It’s about investing in creative opportunity – and there are times when we have lost money in order to create opportunity for people. That’s how you attract and retain talent. We're trying to make sure that these people feel creatively fulfilled and also stay curious.

OS: Let’s move into your predictions. What’s your first prediction about the future of the creative economy?

RH: I was talking to some of the entrepreneurs in Residence about the future of the creator economy. They had some interesting insights – one is that creators will license their likeness to your robots in your house. And so let's just say it's a chef, right? José Andrés, whatever. For a hundred dollars you can download his likeness and he can make you a meal with your robot.

OS: WTF??

RH: Did you ever watch The Simpsons where there was a robot in the house and they could give it a celebrity voice? We're in that episode of The Simpsons. You could have conversations with this version of José Andrés and his likeness would ask you what kind of micro-gastronomy you’d like. He’d get all the ingredients ordered to the house, then make a meal.

OS: That’s one of the weirder predictions we’ve had on this show. What’s your second?

RH: Creators will be more likely to be brought in as co-founders of brands. And also hired at the executive level to really shepherd brands as we move into this new world where the majority of spend is going to happen with social.

OS: So you mean influencers being brought in at an executive or creative director level?

RH: Yeah. It was like Chief Audience Officer. Understanding the way that shit works is a whole skill set. Talking to GateMaker when I was first getting to know them, they were telling me how they’ve moved the needle for brands – insane changes, even stock prices – just using an influencer strategy. And they have a wait list of clients who are chomping at the bit to work with them.

It's really understanding how that whole world works. How do you find the right people? How do you manage them? How do you convince them to work for this brand? It’s pretty fascinating. So I think that’s going to continue and brands are going to wise up to it. They already have, but not everybody. Certainly beauty and fashion are years ahead of everybody else. They’re going to catch up.

 
Creators will be brought in
as co-founders of brands.
Also hired at the executive level
to really shepherd brands
 

OS: And your third and final prediction?

RH: I think the third and main one is just going back to the future of marketing services. In-housing is rampant. I don't even know if I've ever encountered a brand that doesn't have an in-house team at this point. In the design and campaign world, it’s mostly project-based. Even production companies that have a roster of directors – brands are working directly with them. And the people who work at the brands want to co-create. That's the whole point of going to work for a brand: they like creating stuff. So they want to work with the makers. They want to make great work.

So I feel like in the next three to four years, my prediction is that you're going to see a resurgence of maker companies, thankfully. Even though with AI everyone's like, ‘Hey, we don't need you anymore,’ I think this year they're like, ‘Well, actually, maybe we need you.’

OS: I agree. Everyone suddenly discovered they could do everything. And everyone did – and it was really quite average. So maybe we go back to the specialists who love doing this stuff and do it as a profession.

RH: Yeah. No one likes mid. Mid is poop.
 

See you in a fortnight!

Ollie