Turns Adverto into the world's third ad agency to win the ISO certificate.

By Zahid H Javali

In a world where marketing is warfare, perception is reality, and you don't get a second chance to make a first impression, it takes 'advertising that works' to give you the winning edge." This is not just Adverto's punchline to 'turn wishes into customers', it's in the advertising agency's DNA. Some of it, though, seems to be imbibed from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Just the way the general summoned his highest ranked officer in front of his soldiers and beheaded him to instil discipline into his army, Menzies sacked his rebellious senior creative director of seven years (he protested: 'you can't have a guideline for creativity') to make everyone ISO-compliant.

The Rs 5 lakh processing strategy included patenting a real-time job tracking software (Adverto Legacy). Ten months later, his agency earned the distinction of being India's first full-service advertising firm and only the third in the world to be awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification. Legacy keeps human errors to the minimum and maintains the process flow up to the mark for any given job, takes care of consistent quality from vendors, timely dispatch of publication material and raising of bills. The result: It increases efficiency, optimises the use of time, eliminates errors, builds a team, makes everyone accountable and creates more value for the client. Says Menzies: "It will provide reassurance to him that creative is no longer subjective but objective and systematised."

Not to mention, giving birth to many Kenneths in the agency. As he puts it: “Earlier, everything was individual driven. Today, it's team driven. By the end of the year, I intend to have six Kenneths around.