Strategy Is Not A Back Office Function

Would you like fries with your up-front?

October 7, 2025 - Medellín, Colombia

Friends, I’m experimenting with moving our newsletter to Substack. Hence why it looks and smells different.

Today:

1. Strategy Is Not A Back Office Function

2. Medellín Reflections

3. Tarot and Horoscopes

Things for you to do:

1. Come to Aisha Hakim’s portfolio building masterclass

2. Get tickets to November’s The Sweathead Do-Together (NYC, Chicago, online)

3. Meet strategists like you - free event, October 17

4. Watch the new Sweathead YouTube channel (Sydney Sweeney)

5. Add me on LinkedIn - I opened my profile after having it closed for years

6. Listen to my new song: “Hold It Against Me”

New AI tool from Davis Ballard:

Give your idea a reality check using 1050 marketing 1,050+ behavioral science studies and ad effectiveness books grounded in research from IPA, Ehrenberg-Bass, and more. Davis is one of my reggaeton friends. His partner Noa is also a crazy illustrator.

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✨ 2025 Strategy Masterclasses

New dates announced. I’ll also be coming through Chicago and NYC in November.

• Wed Dec 3 - Johannesburg 🇿🇦

• Fri Dec 5 - Nairobi 🇰🇪

• Mon Dec 8 - Lagos 🇳🇬

• Wed Dec 10 - Dubai 🇦🇪

• Thu Dec 11 - Doha 🇶🇦

• Sat Dec 13 - Riyadh 🇸🇦

• Sun Dec 14 - Jeddah 🇸🇦

• Tue Dec 16 - Cairo 🇪🇬

• Thu Dec 18 - Istanbul 🇹🇷

🌍 2026 Global Strategy Masterclasses ✨

• Jan / Feb - South-East Asia

• March - India 🇮🇳 (+Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka possible)

• April / May - UK & Europe

• Late May - Sydney 🇦🇺

• September - North America 🇺🇸🇨🇦

• October - LATAM 🌎

• December - Middle East & Africa 🌍

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Strategy Is Not A Back Office Function

The Last Job I’ll Ever Have

In the last job I’ll ever have, I was Head of Strategy of an 800-person PR agency in New York. I was told that new senior hires never fitted in. I was told that most people in the agency didn’t want strategists. I was told that the company wanted to do “earned media ideas,” which meant very different things to each of us because, to me, getting words from a press release into the news was low aura stuff. And, despite red flags that I desperately ignored, I took the job so that, later, I could be told, “You’re not a culture fit.”

PR is an individualistic, full-contact sport. PR people live and die by their network, their ability to influence their network, and their personal reputations that lead to more network to influence.

In New York City, where every second person says they’re a Type A personality and they’re either desperately trying to keep a grip on living in one of the most expensive cities in the world or they’re a nepo baby and they’re given an assistant during their summer internship (true story), the Corporate America vibes are frothy and feral.

I was a sucker in this environment. I tried to play soccer when I needed to play tennis. Singles tennis. With a sword.

And then it happened:
- “Hi there, my boss told me to come and ask you for an insight for our deck. We need to send it in two hours.”
- “Oh, would you like fries with that?”

Constantly, strategists were treated like internal service providers:
- “Give me stuff that makes me look smart in front of my clients but please don’t come out of the shadows as I have a reputation to handle.”

But here’s the thing: strategy is not a back-office function.

Lena Roland, Content Director at WARC, shared the above piece of research on LinkedIn this week. It’s from WARC’s annual “The Future of Strategy Report”.

On the left, you’ll see Tomas Gonsorcik (LinkedIn), Global CSO, say this:

“We have to rebrand strategy - not as a back-office function, not as a luxury, but as a service. Strategy as a service: clear, accountable, and indispensable.”

It took me moving to New York to understand how muscular advertising agencies and strategy are (or, were) in countries like Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

In high-performing agencies, there is an almost-aggressive focus on the work. Fighting for it. Everyone. Otherwise - get out of the way.

Agencies that focus on organizational charts, process, and job titles tend to be low-performing agencies because they have no creative heart.

But, like many of you, I thought my problem was a Me Problem and not an Us Problem.

I thought I just didn’t have the political skills or will to help strategy move from the back-office to the front-office in this particular agency. And the gaslighting made me realize how much I love strategy - doing it and teaching it - but how I’m allergic to Corporate America. So I built what I do now.

Front-Office Strategy Is Not That Hard

There are a few things that need to be in place for strategy to be front-office:

1. A sense of team over individual

Strategists can struggle in PR firms because PR firms are individualistic, plus they’re riddled with nepotism and dotted lines and matrix org charts. What’s more, creative departments often hold people who’ve never worked with strategists before. Yes, this has changed a little but I do speak with hundreds of people around the world every year so I’m not going to congratulate incremental change.

Strategists are rarely the first point of contact in an agency so they need the first point of contact to pull them in early and keep them there often. This will only happen if the first point of contact wants to play a team sport and has the leadership skills to do so.

2. Time to build real relationships with clients

In most agencies, the account management team will be in the pocket of their clients. But they will allow the strategist time to build relationships without feeling insecure about it. The strategist will also seek a direct line with key clients so they can have informal conversations about the work. If each interaction is formal and performative, the strategist might struggle to encourage the kind of work their team is capable of.

3. A charismatic strategy team and leader

Vibes matter. We’ve all worked with people who could make clients and colleagues swoon. A stiff, boring, and corporate strategy team will struggle to be front-office. If they constantly bore people, their own colleagues will shift them to the back-office anyway.

4. A reputation that precedes the strategy team

Around 2008, I started writing about strategy. At first, I didn’t want to be that guy but then I saw the offices of my clients empty out during the financial crisis and I got tired of competing in meetings. So I decided to write so that, in many rooms I’d enter, people might have a sense of how I thought before I entered the room.

I was working at Leo Burnett at the time. My boss was Todd Sampson, a strategist with a big reputation and, since then, someone who’s appeared on many TV shows. And the people I worked with all had amazing pedigrees and brands. We were competitive and we cared about doing good work. Clients wanted us in the room.

We didn’t have to constantly explain ourselves as happens so often in the USA in companies new to all of this and who don’t really want to change.

We just did the work and tried to help some of the best creative teams in the country do their work.

Just like with brands, strategy teams need reputations because reputations pull people into situations for which they don’t have to go sniffing around the building.

5. An unapologetic business model

Procurement has made a mess of our industry. The way agencies have had to open their books to reveal salaries and margins to clients is an embarrassment. Sure, there are a few people in procurement and a few forceful marketers who’ll fight to bring in their agency, but, mostly, Corporate America forces a blandness onto everything it touches - including the agency business model.

When strategy is strong and front-office, it appears on scopes by default. The Head of Strategy doesn’t have to chase projects through the corridors to beg for a strategist to be put on projects.

The Ultimate Front-Office Green Flag

Years ago, I interviewed Ilana Bryant (LinkedIn). I believe Ilana was the first American planner to work in London. This is quite a feat considering how Brits perceive Americans.

In the interview, she said that if a strategist’s or account planner’s name was on the building then it meant strategy or account planning was a legitimate activity in the agency.

These days, agencies don’t have such cute names as the partners’ initials but, as I’ve wondered why I made so many poor career decisions in New York and why I was eventually serving fries with ten slides of strategy having never met the clients, it’s so apt.

**

Medellín Reflections

Today ends my first month in Medellín as an experiment to see if I want to spend more time here. It’s the longest I’ve stayed in one Airbnb. I’m shifting from la Ciudad del Rio to San Diego, which is next to the Creative District, to see if it’s somewhere I could see us having a base - maybe even a studio.

Don’t hate me but I’m not in Colombia for the gringos. When I travel, I travel to meet the locals. I do feel eyes on me a lot of the time and I’ve been trying to understand the local dynamic. Luckily, I have met quite a few people in our industry (although Bogotá houses more of them) and I’ve enjoyed a lot of different experiences so far. But, I do feel a sense of conservative-ness here. And this is how I understand it:

Growth & Perception

• Medellín has only recently opened up.

• It’s harder to reach than many major cities.

• Its reputation for being unsafe slows what could be ridiculous growth.

• The recent growth isn’t benefiting all locals.

• But I believe it will become an increasingly important city in the years ahead.

Social Fabric

• Medellín is known for its mercantile mindset - people are enterprising, but also conservative in some circles.

• Heard locally:

  • “Medellín is closed, as if the mountains have closed it in.”

  • “Medellín is a napkin - it’s small, everyone knows everyone.”

• In industries like advertising: many went to the same conservative schools. Families all know each other.

• Catholicism still has a hold - although I have also heard that you can pray away your sins if you’re Catholic.

• Because it’s small, there’s a lot of “recycling” of boyfriends and girlfriends.

• Also, reputation management matters in the face of gossip.

Add to all of this the stress from Medellín’s recent history:

History & Context

• Medellín was a war zone in the 1990s → many families still carry grief.

• Gringos are a relatively recent phenomenon, especially post-pandemic.

• Gringos have taken over big sections of the city making them impossible for many locals to afford.

All of this leads to people “watching” other people more than in other cities I’ve spent time in. (Although some watching is seeing if you could be a good target). I think a lot of locals try to analyze what kind of foreigner people are before opening up. And, even if they do open up, they will keep eyes on who’s around them in case a friend, a relative, or former lover is nearby.

My Cheatlist For Medellín

Tarot And Horoscopes

One of my local Medellín friends does tarot reading. She’s a strategy director and existential coach (@julianaescobar___ and @llenadesentido) . She pulled this card for me and I couldn’t relate more. El Cogado - or, The Hanged Man.

Someone also did my birth chart recently and it was surreal because, if it were any more accurate, it could have described what I do every day.

The Hanged Man

Meaning: Suspension, surrender, new perspective.

From ChatGPT:

“The Hanged Man hangs upside down by choice - not as punishment but as revelation. He pauses in stillness, seeing the world from another angle. This card asks for letting go of control to gain clarity. It’s the moment between effort and breakthrough, where progress comes through patience, sacrifice, or a shift in viewpoint.

Light side: Acceptance, wisdom, awakening.

Shadow side: Stagnation, avoidance, self-pity.

Psychological take:
It’s the ego in timeout - learning that control and motion are not the same as growth. You don’t move forward by forcing, but by re-seeing what’s already there.”

Uncanny. Being in Medellín for a month without doing big events has been a challenge. I’ve had friends visit, which is a wonderful distraction, but my body keeps wanting me to choose Comet Mode and hurtle to the next place. I’ve been trying to sit with discomfort while also appreciating how incredible this year has been so far.

-
Peace
Mark
@markpollard

Now

1. Find out about our strategy classes at Sweathead

2. Follow us @markpollard and @sweathead

3. Watch us on YouTube - my travel channel, our strategy channel

4. Find my book “Strategy Is Your Words” here