There are a common set of problems, which are industry wide. We challenge ourselves to solve these issues and provide solutions on a daily basis

1. The agency focus has been shifted from the core business i.e. their client and creative, due to problematic delivery.
2. Agencies are struggling to manage the shift from retainer models to variable based models and the ability to ramp up or decrease teams accordingly.
3. Managing workflow peaks and troughs is problematic and can ultmately deliver excessive freelance costs, poor quality work culmintaing in an adverse staff cost ratio, unhappy clients and an unprofitable business.
4. There's a gap in the market for quality project management and client service personnel, which ultimately makes managing and growing business difficult.
5. There needs to be better client/agency relationships to work through the current industry challenges and form open and transparent dialogue.
6. Each discipline used in the agency landscape needs to be respectful and understanding of each others role. No one person is bigger than the business; a unified and understanding team is a strong, innovative and profitable one.

Google results defy fears of ad downturn

Google has confounded fears of an online ad downturn and posted earning of $1.31bn (£656m).

The search engine giant beat market expectations with its first quarter results, which revealed UK revenues of £402m, which represents 15% of the group's total sales, an increase from 14% at the end of last year.

Market investors had feared a slowdown of Google's continued growth after US industry figures suggested fewer people were clicking on Google ads due to the economic downturn. (New Media Age | Published 18.04.08 | Source: NMA.co.uk)