Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

Today we’re chatting with Lucy McGettigan, partner at The Romans. Lucy was the 7th employee at The Romans when she joined Frank in 2017.

The Romans has 80 employees, 70 in London and 10 in New York. It had a fee income of £8m globally in 2022 and grew by a remarkable 97% last year.

On the show, Lucy is going to talk about the challenges of growing a consultancy business that quickly, the challenges of recruiting talent in public relations and whether process and creativity are a paradox!

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Thanks as ever to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors The PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what Lucy and I discussed:

2 mins Is The Romans still the Millwall of PR?

2.30 mins Lucy updates us on The Romans story specifically the growth the business has had in the last 18 months.

3.30 mins Is growth at 97% unsustainable?

4 mins Growing a 97% is difficult for any type of business - for a consultancy business where revenue is inextricably linked to the number of employees - recruitment becomes a huge problem doesn't it?

6 mins What percentage of new recruits don’t work out?

7 mins Has the Mother relationship impacted the speed of growth for The Romans?

8 mins Why Mother and The Romans share many clients.

9 mins Has the creative work changed as The Romans has grown? Are bigger clients more risk-averse?

12 mins The Romans is infamous for not having too many processes - has that has to change as you’ve added scale?

14 mins What does lead creative agency actually mean these days? Is there any such thing any more?

15 mins Is media relations still the dominant channel for The Romans' work?

“If you haven’t got a journalist on WhatsApp they are probably not going to reply to you”

16 mins How has Lucy’s job changed since she became a partner last year?

17 mins Lucy was the 7th joiner of The Romans - and 4 of those 7 people still work at the firm. I think people will be surprised by that…

“When agencies are growing you can find room to keep hold of your best staff”

20 mins What is the biggest growth limiter for The Romans at the moment - finding talent or finding clients?

21 mins Has The Romans gotten better at keeping hold of its clients in recent years?