Some advice from Link Media CEO Scott Lafoy and Lamar CEO Sean Reilly on the benefits of decentralized management taken from In Their Words – Out of Home Executives Talk About Out of Home.

Scott Lafoy, CEO, Link Media

First and foremost, we’ve been establishing local managers for each of our primary markets where before we had regional management in the past. Not having regional or centralized management helps Link to better understand our markets and customers. We really believe it’s important to have local leadership that’s part of the fabric of the community, someone who customers and landowners see in the grocery store…We have a corporate office but it functions are a resource for the local markets. We’re here to serve them.

Sean Reilly, Lamar Advertising

The business school books call it a flat, decentralized organization chart. I like to
call it respecting the business judgement that is in the field and creating a corporate infrastructure that services the field…when I walk around our place here in Baton Rouge I constantly remind our corporate folks that at the end of the day if we’re not servicing folks in the field – our GM’s, our account executives, our production managers, our folks that are hanging vinyl – if we’re not helping them get better at their jobs then we don’t have a reason to exist…We’re not command and control. When we pick up the phone, when we take a call from a sales manager or a general manager, the first words out of our mouth is “how can I help” not “here’s how you do it.”

For more great advice like this buy In Their Words – Out of Home Executives talk about out of home.  This 147 page guide has advice from 173 executives at 150 out of home companies.  It costs $49.95 and is available in pdf and epub versions.  To learn more and order your copy of the book visit the In Their Words page of the Billboard Insider website.