Hot damn. Domenico Vitale, Chief Strategy Officer of Lowe Worldwide, has left the battered shop to form his own agency, People Ideas & Culture. Free at last! Vitale is free at last! So what's the deal:

"People Ideas & Culture (PI&C): A global collective of diverse talent creating, sharing and delivering unbiased solutions as diverse as its members, designed to change with PI&C."

How it works: "The current model in the industry is based on high overhead with a limited, therefore biased, breadth of resources. People Ideas & Culture inverts the model with an expanded breadth of resources and low overhead. Every project is the perfect joint venture to solve a business problem. Not the obsolete AOR model. This new model is about creating true value for both the clients and the agency. The idea is to create the dream team every time, by utilizing the vast array of talent typically not attracted to the big agency model, entrepreneurs and perfectionists in their trade."

What the hell? Wasn't I just bitching about this? Anyway, Vitale is a planner's planner. He's a mentor even. Vitale is kinda Gandalf the Grey of strategy. No, not Gandalf the White. He's gotta battle his own Balrog (the ad industry) before that happens. Pretty sure he's going to pull it off, too.

Congrats to Vitale.
P.S. Somewhere in New York, Mark Wnek is probably freaking the hell out. With Vitale gone, what will happen to Lowe?

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