Don’t Treat People Like Efficiencies: A New Guide for Leaders
February 12 @ 9:30 am – 10:00 am PST
Ad Age named Doe-Anderson one of the best agency cultures in the country in 2025. Their CEO John Birnsteel has said that employee tenure at Doe-Anderson averages eight years — three times the industry average. That culture boils down to one radical operational principle: don’t treat people like efficiencies. This distinction — treating humans as humans versus treating them as resources to be optimized — explains why some indies win despite higher costs or smaller teams. But most indies can’t articulate this distinction compellingly or operationalize it in ways clients notice. The question isn’t whether to value people — it’s what not treating people like efficiencies actually looks like in day-to-day operations, and how indies prove this distinction to exhausted clients.
Join John Birnsteel, CEO of Doe-Anderson — the nation’s oldest independent ad agency, a certified B Corporation, and an employee-owned shop that’s been building brands like Maker’s Mark for over 50 years. He’ll unpack what changes operationally when you stop treating people like efficiencies, from the specific processes, meetings, and metrics that shift when you prioritize humans over optimization, to how they position this values-based differentiation to clients exhausted by holding company efficiency culture, to what operational proof demonstrates genuine people-first culture versus empty corporate speak. This is essential listening for indies who claim to be people-first wondering how to prove it beyond slogans.
Who should watch:
🟢 Agency leaders building people-first cultures with operational proof
🟢 CMOs evaluating agency partners beyond capability decks
🟢 HR and talent leaders rethinking retention strategy
🟢 Indie owners positioning culture as competitive advantage
🟢 Operations leaders interested in what B Corp certification reveals about agency values
indiework #indieswork #agencyculture #peoplefirst #indieagency #leadership
