Advertising Age reported 3% Movement Flounder, er, Founder Kat Gordon will join San Francisco-based Eleven as Creative Entrepreneur in Residence. Um, why would any self-respecting White advertising agency need a ‘creative entrepreneur’ on staff? Don’t most adpeople possess inherent creativity and entrepreneurial spirits?
Actually, the Ad Age story sounds like Gordon is positioning herself as a Chief Divertsity Officer Consultant. And a part-time CDOC to boot, as she’ll only be working three days per week at Eleven, maintaining her 3% Movement CEO title and peddling her CDOC services to a variety of enterprises. BTW, although Eleven displays a diverse staff, the folks in charge and holding big titles are predominately White.
The newly invented appointment presents certain fishiness too. Gordon hatched the idea while collaborating with Eleven CEO Courtney Buechert, who appears to be a 3% Movement sponsor. After writing the job description for the role, Gordon decided she was the perfect fit. How convenient. Were any other candidates—ie, people of color—interviewed for the position? The chances of having conducted a fair and inclusive job search are probably less than, well, 3%. Sorry, but it all smacks of the traditional exclusivity that routinely occurs between privileged White cronies.
But, hey, the Caucasian conspirators will spin it as creative entrepreneurship.
3% Movement’s Kat Gordon Becomes Eleven’s ‘Creative Entrepreneur In Residence’
Organization’s founder remains CEO but will take a lesser role moving forward
By Brian Bonilla
The 3% Movement founder Kat Gordon is taking on a new role at Eleven next month as the San Francisco-based agency’s “creative entrepreneur in residence.”
Gordon, who announced the move during today’s 3% Conference, says she’s unsure how long her time at Eleven will take. Tentatively she envisions sometime between 6-12 months. While Gordon will remain as CEO of the 3% Movement, she will be assuming a lesser role with the organization moving forward.
“3% will continue, but will evolve to allow me to spend less time fundraising and planning an event and more time creating the next meaningful change our industry needs,” Gordon said.
This newly created role came about following a conversation Gordon had with Eleven CEO Courtney Buechert about the future of the creative department and the type of leader that is necessary now compared to the past. After writing out the job description, Gordon realized she was the best fit for the role, she said during a conference panel today.
“The way I was trained to be a creative 30 years ago is woefully inadequate for the realities of the industry today,” Gordon said in a statement. “As creative departments finally start to look representative of the consumer landscape, the old ‘container’ doesn’t work anymore. Top/down leadership, internal competitiveness, big egos, and extroverts dominating—all of this is ripe for disruption. My vision is a new curriculum for the modern creative leader that centers on belonging, unlocks contributions and collaboration from everyone, and enhances the corporate social responsibility efforts of today’s clients. I’m delighted that Eleven is allowing me to pressure test my own thinking inside their agency and report back to the industry about my findings.”
“The plan is to serve in this role at a variety of companies, including a tech company and a large holding company setting to ensure that the curriculum I’m building works in a variety of settings,” Gordon said via email. “Simultaneously I will be championing other agencies to have a CEIR of their own (which is why I posted the job description and started the Substack newsletter where I will be posting regular updates about how it’s going for me at Eleven.)”
As part of the program, Gordon will work three days a week at Eleven.
Some of her duties will include meeting with each member of the creative department and agency leaders to identify the existing agency culture and set up goals for the agency moving forward. She will be reviewing hiring briefs, creative brief templates, and recent performance reviews with a focus on inclusion. Gordon will also participate in new business pitches and new client onboarding to help ensure that the work emphasizes diversity and that the client’s corporate social responsibility efforts are centered in all future messaging. Gordon will also have a hand in shaping safe post-pandemic working conditions in a return-to-office scenario where she will put a special focus on creatives who are neurodiverse or need extra support around mental health.
“As we expand Eleven’s commitment to diversity and a truly inclusive workplace, we are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Kat Gordon,” Buechert said. “Kat is a top voice in the industry who understands how quickly the landscape is changing. Going forward we want our internal processes at Eleven to allow people who historically haven’t been in leadership positions to bring their unique perspectives and whole selves to their work. With the Creative Entrepreneur in Residence program we hope that we can dismantle barriers in the professional development of our creatives and inspire change outside of our walls.”
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