A perennial discussion in the PR world – should you go for a global consultancy that is able to deliver a consistency of message and outreach across the globe, or a roster of ‘best-of-breed’ agencies that deliver high quality results in each country?

The problems start before we’ve even got past that first sentence of course. Does anyone *really* think that a global consultancy guarantees the delivery of a consistency of message across the world any better than a well coordinated roster of like-minded agencies? Conversely, can a ‘best-of-breed’ agency *really* guarantee better results than a particularly strong in-country operation of a large global consultancy, all of the time?

You see, the problem with PR is that it’s a *people business*, and sometimes I think people forget that. Agencies, whether they be 3-man bands in Brazil or 3,000 strong outfits spanning every corner of the globe, have one thing for ‘sale’ and that is the people they employ and how good they are at the ‘art’ of communications and public relations. This, unfortunately for those wishing to have a nice, easy metric for gauging quality, means that every agency in every region, needs to be measured on the quality of its individuals, their relevant experience and their ability to demonstrate success.

There are of course other reasons that are trotted out when decisions on global v local are made, but it all really comes down to the perception that you can  save money by going with one global agency vs. a roster of smaller ones. Yet, I for one have never seen a compelling cost-justification of this. Do such things exist, or is this simply another smokescreen thrown up by larger consultancies to mask some of their local inadequacies?

And finally… blogs are about sparking debate, and often to spark debate one must court controversy. Go out on a limb. Draw people into a discussion. I am sure that there *are* compelling reasons for a Global and / or a Local approach that I have not touched upon here. If so, what are they and can you prove it?   Is there any way that agencies can better harness the strengths of both approaches and form a ‘Glocal’ agency? Do such things already exist? Do they work?