COVID wake-up call and retainers

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How big do you actually want your agency to become? Does the idea of running a massive team sound exciting or completely exhausting? For many agency owners, scaling feels less like growth and more like trading freedom for complexity.

Scaling an agency isn't about hustle. It's about surviving the moments that almost break you, building systems that actually work, and accepting that what got you here won't get you there. Today's featured guest understands that running a big agency is about structure and leadership. He's grown a global agency to 700 people without losing profitability, sanity, or culture and now he'll unpack the hard-earned lessons that most agency owners don't think about until it's too late.

Nital Shah is the co-founder of Mavlers, a full-service, lifecycle digital agency headquartered in India, with operations supporting global brands and agencies across multiple geographies. Today, Nital leads a 700-person organization focused on marketing operations, delivery excellence, and scalable systems for agencies around the world.

Having experienced both sides of the agency equation, client-side pressure and operational scale, Nital brings a grounded, operator-first perspective to growth, profitability, and leadership.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• An early principle: Profit should be intentional.

• Achieving operational excellence at scale.

• Structuring scale to make it manageable.

• Why alignment beats micromanagement.

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The Wake-Up Call: COVID, Cash Flow, and Retainers

Like many agencies, Nital's biggest inflection point came during COVID. Before the disruption, the agency was focused heavily on top-line revenue rather than predictable recurring income. When 40 percent of revenue disappeared almost overnight, the weakness in that model became painfully obvious.

Luckily, the agency's consistent focus on profit from day one helped them overcome this ordeal. However, it changed Nital's perspective on retainers and helped him understand that, without retainers, any similar unexpected bump in the road could destroy the agency.

The agency had enough cash flow to survive the shock and rebuild and the lesson was clear: at scale, a large team without consistent recurring revenue is fragile. Retainers aren't just about stability; they are about survival.

The other advantage that helped soften the blow was diversification. By spreading clients across industries and geographies, the agency avoided being wiped out by a single market downturn. When one region slowed, others carried the load. That balance didn't eliminate pain, but it reduced risk in a way most agencies underestimate until they feel it firsthand.

Profit Is Not an Afterthought

One of the most important principles Nital and his co-founder agreed on early was: profit must be intentional. It's not something you hope shows up at the end of the year. It's something you design into the business.

That mindset shapes everything from service selection to client qualification. The agency actively avoids hyper-competitive, race-to-the-bottom services and continually evolves its offerings as markets become saturated. When a service becomes unprofitable, they pivot. When a client isn't aligned or drains margin, they say no.

Profit isn't just about owner income. It funds experimentation, innovation, and future growth. Without margin, you can't test new services, pivot when the market shifts, or invest in better systems. You just stay busy. And busy is often the enemy of profitable.

Operational Excellence at Scale

Running a 700-person agency isn't about heroics but about process. Nital is clear that consistent, documented, and enforced workflows are what reduce mistakes, rework, and delivery friction.

The agency is structured into service-based business units, each with its own leadership and accountability. On top of that sits a customer success layer that ensures delivery stays aligned with expectations. Everyone is trained on defined protocols, and those protocols exist to protect quality, not bureaucracy.

When processes are clear and followed, the probability of hitting client outcomes increases. That reduces rework, lowers internal stress, and improves margins. In a people-driven business, operational discipline is what turns chaos into leverage.

Alignment Beats Micromanagement

One of the hardest challenges for Nital's agency came after rapid post-COVID growth, when the team doubled in size and remote work became the norm. Processes broke, alignment slipped, and as a result, communication suffered.

The turning point came with adopting the Scaling Up framework by Vern Harnish. This framework, aimed at businesses ready to scale in a more structured manner, forced clarity across four areas: people, strategy, execution, and cash. More importantly, it created alignment from leadership all the way down to individual contributors.

Every team member understands how their work connects to departmental goals, quarterly priorities, and long-term vision. When people understand the why behind the process, ownership replaces micromanagement. Accountability becomes cultural, not enforced.

Leadership, Tough Calls, and A-Players

When it comes to mistakes in team alignment, Nital openly acknowledges that the team that gets you to one stage may not be the team that gets you to the next.

That realization isn't easy, especially when loyalty and shared history are involved. But over the last two years Nital has embraced the fact that growth demands adaptability. The agency now prioritizes agility, learning speed, and ownership. When someone can't evolve with the business, they are given time, feedback, and support, but the standard doesn't change.

You don't win championships by protecting weak links. You win by putting the best players on the field while still treating people with respect and empathy. It's not cold. It's responsible leadership.

Structuring Scale So It's Manageable

When Nital decided to go back to India and start an agency, his mentor back in Australia offered him the chance to run their offshore center. From there, he started supporting other agencies in several countries and expanded his team to where they are now.

Seven hundred people sounds overwhelming until you understand the structure. Instead of one massive organization, the agency operates as multiple business units, each capped around 100 to 150 people and run as its own P&L.

This turns an impossible leadership problem into a manageable one. Leaders focus on coaching their direct reports, not managing hundreds of individuals. Each layer carries responsibility downward, creating clarity instead of bottlenecks.

As Nital points out, no founder manages 700 people directly. You manage your leadership team. And if that team is strong, aligned, and accountable, scale becomes less scary and far more sustainable.

The Future: AI, Change, and Opportunity

Despite the uncertainty surrounding AI and marketing technology, Nital is optimistic. The pace of change has leveled the playing field. Years of experience no longer guarantee an advantage. Everyone is adapting at the same time.

For smaller agencies, this creates opportunity. They can adopt tools and workflows faster than large organizations. For larger agencies, the challenge is moving faster without breaking structure. Either way, the shift toward complex marketing technology orchestration opens doors for agencies willing to master it.

For him, the future belongs to agencies that can adapt, systemize, and evolve without clinging to what used to work.

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