No substitute for creativity in the office, says adland boss
There is no substitute for face-to-face interaction in the creative process, the boss of advertising giant Havas London has said.
Speaking on Morning Wire’s The City View podcast, Xavier Rees, chief executive of Havas London, said there is a limit to what people can do away from the office.
“It’s true to say we can do a version of our jobs. I think the issue comes in the quality of what you’re doing and for me, there’s no substitute for the key moment in the creative process. There’s no substitute for us being together face to face,” Rees said.
“The magical leaps you need during the creative process actually happen by accident, you don’t really plan for them. My observation is that those accidents happen much less frequently when you are doing it via a video call or a phone call, because you’re slower to pick up the signals, people are interrupting each other.”
The advertising firm reopened its office on 1 June but for the first six to eight weeks only 15 per cent of employees returned. “I felt personally anxious coming in,” Rees recalled.
However during August, Rees said around 90 per cent of Havas London staff have been into the office at least once a week over the past fortnight.
“We can create a creative product [remotely]. Can we create one that is truly brilliant when we’re apart? It is much harder and more time consuming,” Rees told Morning Wire
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