Competition in the marketing, advertising, film and wider creative industries is infamous. Cut throat industry anecdotes depict it, Mad Men glorifies it and most agency cultures incubate it. During economic boom times we ignore the negative effects of industry and in-house rivalry because there is enough to go around and a rising tide lifts all boats. When the sails are full of wind we don’t worry too much about splashing the cash provided the bottom line is buoyant. To further the nautical analogy the problem we have today is that the tide has gone out; the economic boom times have gone and the halcyon days are not coming back anytime soon.