Case study 2.
1 59
Case study 2.1
Mother London
NICHOLAS KINNIE AND LOUISE HOPPER5
Background
Mother London is a creative organisation employing
around 280 people and part of Mother Holdings, which
has 20 companies with around 700 people including
freelancers. Established in 1996, Mother works with
around 40 clients, including a number of high-profile
brands. It is independently owned by its seven part-
ners who include the three founding partners. Mother’s
main outputs are producing commercials for television,
and cinema as well experience events and some online
output. Not experienced an experience event is the
actual term – highly participative marketing events. It
has also developed creative ideas in addition to tradi-
tional advertising including an award winning feature
film, graphic novels and various ‘house projects’ such
as the ‘uncarriable carrier bags’. It has an extremely
high reputation for its creative output and was recently
voted Agency of the Decade by Campaign magazine.
Core principles
Mother is characterised by a series of core principles
which reflect the beliefs of its founders and have a pro-
found effect on how it is managed and structured and
the relationships it has with its employees and clients.
Quality of creative output
Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.
Creativity is the essence of Mother. The quality of the cre-
ative output is at the heart of everything that Mother pro-
duces. In the words of one of the founding partners, ‘it’s
what comes out of the door that matters’ while another
senior manager said ‘Mother stands for creativity’. Since
its foundation, Mother has become the destination brand
for creative people who are attracted by the opportunity
to work alongside people who have a high reputation for
creativity and to work with well-known clients.
Holy Trinity of values
This emphasis on the quality of output is reflected in
what is referred to as the ‘Holy Trinity’ within Mother –
essentially a statement of values which underpins how
they work. It is these values which set their priorities
5
Group Head of HR, Mother Holdings Ltd.
Wilkinson, A., Redman, T., & Dundon, T. (2016). Contemporary human resource management : Text and cases. ProQuest Ebook Central <a
onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a>
Created from nottingham on 2020-10-08 02:15:53.
and drive their relationships with employees and cli-
ents. These values are:
•• Produce high quality creative output;
•• Have fun;
•• Make money.
Ways of organising
Mother have a distinct way of organising and working
with clients which is unlike other creative and adver-
tising agencies. In many other agencies there will be
a group of staff known as Account Handlers or Client
Services (sometimes referred to as the ‘suits’) which
act as the ‘go-between’ between the creative staff (the
T-shirts) and the client representatives. Mother has
dispensed with this group preferring that their creative
staff, their strategists and their producers have direct
contact with clients.
Ways of working
Mother is characterised by a highly collaborative
style of working which involves both specialists and
non-specialists being involved in the creative process.
In particular, there is a high degree of flexibility and
permeability between the various skill groups. Staff
often perform multiple roles and will move frequently
between different teams. Moreover, a problem-­solving
approach is adopted which often involves multiple
solutions being developed of which one is selected.
Joint ownership of creativity
In an industry which is often accused of pandering to
the highly individualistic prima donnas who build per-
sonal portfolios at the expense of others, Mother pro-
motes joint ownership of creative output. Rewards and
recognition are attributed to Mother collectively rather
than to individuals.
Brand teams
The brand teams are at the heart of the creative pro-
cess and are responsible for running campaigns and
managing relationships with clients. These teams are
 60 CHAPTER 2  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE
dedicated to a particular client, brand or campaign and
are typically composed of (see Figure 2.5):
•• Creatives – these include copywriters, art directors
and Creative Directors;
•• Strategists – who are responsible for the develop-
ment of strategy;
•• ‘Mothers’ – who coordinate the team activities;
•• ‘Nannies’ – who manage the relationships and
logistics of the team.
These Brand Teams then work with a series of internal
and external parties in order to produce work for clients.
These include the television editing suite, Finance, HR and
Office Management, each of which has a Discipline Head,
and with a whole set of external television producers.
However, it is the way Mother works with clients which
is particularly distinctive. Members of the brand teams
work alongside the client representatives to focus on the
problem; they see the client as part of the solution to the
shared problem rather than the problem. In the words
of one senior manager ‘our way of working is designed
to work with the client rather than for the client … agen-
cies are often seen to be at the beck and call of clients,
whereas we are not afraid to turn around and say no’.
Forms of capital
We can consider the key resources, or forms of capital,
upon which Mother draws to develop its creative out-
put. In particular, we can consider their human, social
and organisational capital.
Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.
The problem
Figure 2.5  Ways of working with clients
Wilkinson, A., Redman, T., & Dundon, T. (2016). Contemporary human resource management : Text and cases. ProQuest Ebook Central <a
onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a>
Created from nottingham on 2020-10-08 02:15:53.
Human capital
The core principles of Mother mean that they are com-
pletely reliant upon the quality of their human capital for
their success, indeed they can be said to adopt a ‘tal-
ent- or people-centric approach’. The staff themselves
have very high reputations in the industry built up over
many years and they are highly skilled and experienced.
They tend to employ staff who have gained some expe-
rience elsewhere and are attracted to work at Mother
because of the people who already work there. In the
words of one senior manager, ‘they need to have a
passion for creativity, they need to be inquisitive, be up
for a challenge, have an edge about them and a con-
viction about what they do’. However, they also need
to be ‘tenacious and get stuff done. They need to be
right and left brain people. And although they need to
be ambitious – they also need to have humility.’
Social capital
The core principles and especially the ‘Holy Trinity’ of
values mean that the culture of the organisation plays
a key part in Mother’s success. The fit with the organi-
sation culture, which gives priority to creativity, is abso-
lutely essential; in essence this commitment is the glue
that holds Mother together. Without this it would be
impossible to convert the knowledge, skills and expe-
rience of its staff into valuable client outputs. The result
is a high level of emotional attachment to the work
produced.
 Case study 2.1 61

Organisational capital The internal allocation of creative staff is made by

The structures, procedures and processes also reflect
the core principles of Mother. The organisation struc-
ture itself is relatively flat with only three levels, but
more importantly there is a high level of interaction
between the partners and more junior staff. One dis-
tinctive characteristic is the way in which staff is phys-
ically located. Not only is the work space open plan
but many staff are not physically located within what
in a more traditional organisation would be their func-
tion or department. The Head of HR is just as likely to
be sitting next to a Creative as someone from Finance.
Moreover, staff is rotated between their allocated
spaces every eight weeks to allow a wide range of rela-
tionships to be formed and contribute to the develop-
ment of social capital.
People management practices
People management responsibilities are shared
between three groups of staff: Discipline Heads; the
HR team and the Partners. These practices make a
direct contribution to the success of Mother.
Resourcing
External recruitment is mostly in the hands of each
Head of Discipline who work with the Partners to
identify suitable staff. Although some use is made of
agencies, most newcomers are recruited through the
extensive personal networks of senior staff. The selec-
tion process involves the Heads of Discipline and the
Partners with most emphasis placed on the applicant’s
portfolio of work. A cultural fit is also extremely impor-
tant and considered when hiring. The HR team deal
with the unsolicited applications and internships.
Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.
the Head of Creative Resource in collaboration with the
Partners. The task here is to balance the needs of
the employees for interesting and challenging work
and the clients who want to work with the best possible
staff. Senior staff is very aware of the risk of their best
staff being poached by competitors.
Training and development
There is a mix of formal and more informal training
opportunities. Although a budget is set aside for for-
mal training for each employee there are no formal,
routine training programmes. Instead, bespoke train-
ing is arranged for employees as needed. Much more
emphasis is placed on the opportunity for relatively
junior staff to work alongside much more senior staff.
Employees learn by working with other experienced
people, by being challenged by new creative tasks
and from clients. In particular, great care is taken to
identify the training and development needs of indi-
vidual staff. One of the resource managers said,
‘I take great care to find out what they want to do,
what are their aspirations, do they want to write a
book or a blog?’
Performance management and rewards
There is an annual system for appraising perfor-
mance to be carried out by the line managers. This
meeting involves discussion of the previous year’s
performance and changes to the reward package.
However, any changes in salary have to be approved
by one of the Partners. The benefits package is very
strong with very good provision for insurance and
time off.

Questions for discussion

1 In what ways have the different forms of capital contributed to the success of Mother?
2 Explain the role of people management practices in supporting these forms of capital.
3 What risks and problems might Mother encounter in the future in the people management area and how
might these be overcome?

Wilkinson, A., Redman, T., & Dundon, T. (2016). Contemporary human resource management : Text and cases. ProQuest Ebook Central <a
onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a>
Created from nottingham on 2020-10-08 02:15:53.