Dealing with Procurement is chic!

As one of my clients said to me when I sent him the headline 'Procurement Pain: TBWA Anoints a Chief Compensation Officer '.

As Ad Age reported :

Rising tensions between agencies and marketing procurement have birthed a new role in the agency C-suite: the chief compensation officer.

Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day has appointed Neal Grossman, as its first global chief compensation officer.

The role -- which is distinct from TBWA's chief financial officer -- means Mr. Grossman will be the one leading contract renegotiations with clients and procurement officers, and overseeing fee discussions during new-business pitches. He'll also be tasked with developing value-based compensation models that are mutually beneficial to the agency and its clients.

But as my client said when he was appointed 5.5 years ago there was not this type of headline, but these days is it trendy ? or is it a necessity ? Certainly in the UK market, since I worked at Grey and Lowe, and Emma Nussey at AMV, there has been no significant agency appointments to be that focal point in dealing with procurement.

So I think it is a good sign, as long as they understand both sides and are collaborative in their approach. A defensive stance will not help the commercial relationship to work.