Why a Narrow Focus is Key for Your Agency

proposition
Written By Brian Kessman
Two professionals discussing analytics at a laptop with overlaid graphs and line charts illustrating strategic focus and performance insights.

Many agencies make the mistake of assuming that if they were to focus on a specific service area or market segment, they would limit their growth potential– that a narrow focus doesn’t scale and equates to a small business.

While this seems logical, it’s not true. 

  • Starbucks is narrow—coffee—but it certainly isn’t small. 

  • Intel is narrow—semiconductors—but ranks as a Fortune 500 company. 

And in professional services, some of the largest firms are some of the most focused. 

The bottom line is that offering a wide variety of services is what doesn’t scale.

What does scale is: focus.

With focus, you can sharpen your people’s skills, services, and internal ways of working because you’re focused on just one or a few areas.

You can concentrate your resources on a coherent strategy.

You can serve a large client base because you’re repeating the same focused service areas.

And it’s easier to maintain alignment between your strategy, your operating model, and your day-to-day decisions.

Your agency becomes easier to run and more profitable.

Brian Kessman

As Lodestar's founder and principal consultant, Brian helps agencies move beyond billable hours and commoditized services to scalable outcome-driven commercial models and value-aligned pricing.

Brian is an inaugural member of the 4As Expert Network, and his transformative approach has been shared across the industry through presentations for Mirren, the 4A’s, AMIN, Magnet, Worldcom, and other top industry organizations. Combining hands-on and advisory expertise, he is a trusted partner to agency leadership teams looking to break free from outdated models and thrive in an era of disruption.

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