In the show Mad Men it’s becoming apparent that the character Roger Sterling, though he is an intelligent man, and can schmooze existing clients, is not a “producer”, and really has not (so far as I can recall) brought any new business to the firm (both old firm and new firm).
Is this correct or has he landed some deals?
He doesn’t have to bring in new business if his current clients (whom he maintains) are paying the bills. IIRC, Lucky Strike is his client and they basically keep the firm afloat. Why should he chase down new clients when he needs to concentrate on keeping the cash cow alive?
That’s just good business sense.
I think your assessment is correct, astro, and I further think that Lane agrees that Roger is not pulling his weight. Lane said as much to Pete in explaining why he wanted to bring Cosgrove aboard: Pete seems to be the one bringing in all the new business, and that’s neither fair to Pete nor wise for the business.
Erdosain, Roger should be working to bring in new business because he has created a situation in which a single client can sink the entire firm at will, and thus has inordinate power over them. That’s not a good situation even from Roger’s POV. He’d never have had to humiliate himself at the Christmas party if Lucky Strike weren’t the vast majority of their billings.
If Roger were an employee rather than a major partner, they’d be having some harsh conversations with him.
Well, there are a limited number of big whales in the ocean and lots of whaling vessels. Obviously, it’s not good to be so dependent on one client, but it’s preferable to the alternative: bankruptcy. What if Roger loses Lucky Strike while trying to tie on to a new client? Game over. Seems pretty risky to me.
I’m not saying that Roger should not service Lucky Strike, or not give Lucky Strike more priority than other clients. I’m saying that he should work to bring in new business in addition to Lucky Strike It’s far, far riskier to to have Lucky Strike be over 50% of their billings. (Hell, I think at one point they were over SEVENTY percent fo their billings.)
What happens when the odious LS guy meets a cute, closeted gay account exec or chief of creative at another agency?
First of all, Roger runs a full-service shop. He’d do what he had to do. But seriously, the odious LS guy would botch any encounter just like he did with Sal. If Sal had been up for it, I have no doubt the LS guy would have got him fired anyway. Sal knew too much regardless of the outcome.
Has Roger ever even had to really pull his weight? He said it himself that he never founded a business, he just inheirited it from his father.
Lucky Strike being most of their billings is precarious, but that doesn’t make getting new business Roger’s job. It means they need more Petes. Managing a major client can absolutely be a full time job.
I work in a different industry, but it’s not that structurally dissimilar from advertising (just less sexy). In my current job, my boss is the account manager for our company’s largest client. They’re probably 1/4 of our revenue. It’s a full time job. There are 6 people on our team, and 5 of us have production/administration for this client as a full time job. (I’m about 1/3, 2/3 another client, who’s entirely under my management). We have other account managers who chase new business. My boss needs to be at Major Client’s beck and call, essentially. It’s a skill all it’s own.
At my previous job, we worked on the company’s second largest account (much larger account, much larger company, but similar percentages). We had 2 account managers making it their full time job-- one to manage the client and one to manage the 17 people who worked on it.
When you have a massive client, they always have you on a chain, until you grow so big they’re no longer large. (The real key is probably to have a huge, huge number of tiny clients, so you can tell any individual, and as many as you want, to piss up a rope because they’d have to act collectively to make a dent, and they wont. Case in point: Comcast)
Which, of course, is just what Lane is doing. But I should think that Roger, as a major partner, would at least show more interest in recruiting more account men. He said to Joan that his job was finding people like Don–which I took to mean not finding creative geniuses specifically, but rather people who can make the business grow.
It just occurred to me that in the 80s version of MAD MEN – i.e., thirtysomething – the Michael & Eliot Agency went belly up precisely because they let one client be the majority of their billings, and then lost 'em.
One of the themes of this season is Roger’s growing irrelevance, from having to humilate himself before Lucky Strike, to Pete dressing him down, Lane commenting he is becoming irrelevant, even the idea that he didn’t find Don so much as Don hounded him for a job. I wouldn’t be surpised it has been percolating more ahn anything, but I would not be surprised if it became a major theme later on this season.
I love Roger as a character. Hilarious, and spoiled to the point of having multiple silver spoons in his mouth, he’s witty and cynical and doesn’t give a rat’s ass. In a world where everyone gives a shit, Roger doesn’t, and aside from doing the Santa bit, he keeps it that way. I don’t care if he doesn’t bring in business, and I certainly hope he’s not dispensed of for not pulling his own weight.
Perhaps that cousin goes away and Roger finds a new talent to complement Peggy?
I agree that keeping Lucky Strike happy is more than pulling his weight. Burt is the one who doesn’t really seem to add much, he’s not even in the office that much. Cooper, Draper & Price would probably work just as well as SCDP. I can only assume it’s because he put up 25% of the start-up capital.