Stability is the real innovation

In a restless sector, stability is the real innovation. 

“Blurring fact and fiction and claiming technology is ‘the death of creativity’ is harmful.”

Sammy Colson

CEO of Springbok

There is currently far too much shouting in our profession. Anyone following the newspapers and social timelines gets the image of an industry in an existential crisis, staggering between the nostalgia of whiskey glasses and blind panic over algorithms. The Financieele Dagblad recently tried to explain this by stating that technology has defeated the ‘Mad Men’. It is an attractive narrative for those who love drama, but as a leader, you learn that drama is rarely a good advisor for those who must run a company.
Anyone who truly looks at the market sees something much simpler. It is not a battle between creativity and code. It is about mental discipline and the sober focus to keep the shop open while the neighbors are tearing everything down. Let’s stop evangelizing technology and return to the facts. It is essential to keep those two strictly separate, especially in our profession. It is the only ground upon which an entrepreneur can stand. 
 

Tight business management

While the market mostly lets us hear gloom and doom, the figures from Publicis Groupe show a very different reality. An organic growth of 5.6 percent in 2025 and a profit margin of 18.2 percent. These are not numbers that arise merely from some magical technological secret. This is the result of tight management in a time of collective distraction.
Look at the merger between Omnicom and IPG. In the media, this is presented as a leap in scale, a strategic masterstroke. In practice, such a megamerger means primarily one thing: internal chaos. Anyone who pushes two giants together does not look at the customer for the first two years but is primarily busy with their own internal housekeeping. Meetings are held about new hierarchies, duplicate roles, and the cancellation of leases. The announcement of 4,000 layoffs at Omnicom is not proof of technological upheaval. It is the signal of an organization that has temporarily moved its focus entirely inward to optimize.
It is no coincidence that Publicis won no less than 56 percent of all global pitches in 2025. For a sober competitor such as Publicis, unrest elsewhere is not a threat but an open goal. While competitors fire their teams and erode their culture, you can attract the talent and the customers who are tired of the unrest. You don't land those because your computer or tech stack is better. You land them because you’re the only one not contributing to the drama. In a restless sector, stability has become the most scarce, and therefore the most valuable, proposition.
 

Profit from core activities

Then there’s the tech hype. We’re led to believe that every agency has to be a software house to survive these days, but that’s demonstrably false. Look at the figures from Sapient, the branch that is actually involved in digital transformation and consulting. Their growth for the whole year was essentially zero. The group’s profit and growth came entirely from its core business: media and creativity (which Publicis calls ‘Connected Media’ and ‘Intelligent Creativity’), which are nowadays managed much more efficiently through data.

“You are not going to "marry" or tie your company to your utility provider."

Sammy Colson

CEO of Springbok

Even Arthur Sadoun, the CEO, is remarkably level-headed about AI in his communication. He refuses to commit to one single platform. He understands that technology is a tool, a raw material, like electricity. You are not going to "marry" or tie your company to your utility provider. Anyone who anchors their entire identity on one specific technological hype today will be the owner of an expensive, outdated museum piece tomorrow. Mental discipline also means resisting the temptation to run after every shiny object.
The best way to grow is to keep your customers. At Publicis, that meant retaining 98 percent of their top 100 clients, partly through upselling. This wasn't achieved through a smarter chatbot, but by consistently doing what they promised while the rest of the industry was in flames.

LinkedIn chatter

By blurring fact and fiction, LinkedIn chatter about the 'death of creativity' through technology is actually harmful. It blinds entrepreneurs to focus on what really matters. A company's power doesn't come from an algorithm but from sharp execution and the knowledge that bottom-line results are secured by winning and retaining accounts like Coca-Cola, Mars, and Vodafone, not by a "disruptive" story on a conference stage.
 

This article first appeared on Adformatie.