There's sweeping change blowing through the industry, and we, as managers, must understand the impact it will have on our working environment and our operating process. I believe that only changing the facade while the foundations are crumbling will just create a more volatile and abrupt agency demise. This is why wholesale change is needed.

I suggest that we only keep what is necessary and build a completely new model of how we do what we do.

This will require a great deal of vision and patience by the agency C-suite coupled with retraining our talent for a completely new workflow and a flatter, more collaborative open environment. And finally, insisting diverse thinkers work in partnership further upstream in the strategic and creative process.

Cundari has started to make the changes to take advantage of this "new agency social order." This encompasses giving greater prominence to the individuals who, frankly, were not even on most agencies' radar a few years back (chief technology officers, human interface architects and interactive requirements planners).

I believe that the creative directors' hero status within agencies will, and has already, begun to shift to a new breed of talent emerging from the technology backroom. These individuals are smart, strategic, and because they are young they demand that the barriers of working in silo be torn down. The real gems of our industry are the creative directors that get both sides and thrive across all disciplines.

Agencies must begin to deliver on technology. In fact, it should be the very foundation of what they do. Consumers have already moved from the old narrative model to one of dialogue and we need to catch up.

Since consumers hold all the power in terms of how and when they will start that dialogue, agencies have to become more innovative when developing strategies for reaching them. The foundation should be rooted in technology. When technology is made the hub of what we do, it allows even greater flexibility and creativity when developing a universal communication thread across a fragmented landscape. It will also allow agencies to harness the strength of experiential (human emotional capital) by capturing a two-way dialogue with the masses, yet individualizing those touch points.

For example, imagine in the near future that an automaker communicates with consumers through multiple channels, and has the systems to track those individuals, then customize an experience in real time as they walk into a dealership - and complete profiles that have been analyzed and served up as they walk in the door or search online.

Or consider the wonderful new technology that manufacturers have started to tag all products with: RFID, for automated real-time tracking of perpetual inventory (search "Patrick Dixon for Siemens" on YouTube). As part of our information gathering it will be possible to scan and link these tags to individual profiles. When a consumer enters a retail location, sensors will scan for RFIDs and their mobile number then link the two. Marketing applications will identify who they are, their past purchases, what's in their basket, and serve up tailored promotional offers (in real time) to