THE AGENCY · RESEARCH OPEN ACCESS · CC BY 4.0

The research desk.

Open-access institutional research on the modern agency stack, the operating-partner model, and the AI-era of creative + tech delivery. McKinsey was built for slides. Pentagram was built for logos. The Agency is built around the company at the center who needs all of it — coherently, with one P&L.

Published by the Agency Desk · Edited by Ali Sina · support@hiretheagency.com

Flagship · Vol I

State of the Agency Stack.

Annual flagship. How modern companies actually buy creative, technical, and AI work in 2026, why the fragmented vendor stack (avg 7.2 vendors per $5-50M ARR company) stopped delivering, and what happens when one operating partner replaces five. Six findings, three datasets, direct McKinsey vs. Pentagram vs. The Agency side-by-side.

Volume I · June 2026 · 5 pages · CC BY 4.0
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Inside this volume
01Executive summary — six findings
02The stack inflation problem (3.1 → 7.2 vendors)
03McKinsey vs. Pentagram vs. The Agency
04The forward agenda
Published catalog

The methodology stack.

Vol II publishes the 9-discipline framework and pod operating model. Vol III delivers the quarterly market data — rates, vendor counts, integrated-vs-fragmented outcome deltas. Both open access.

Vol IIJun 2026

The Operating Partner Methodology.

The empirical basis for the pod model. 9 disciplines, 1 P&L. The pod composition matrix (4-7 operators), the three pricing structures, the client bill of rights. Why pods outperform multi-vendor budgets 2.4×.

The headline finding

Pod-delivered engagements outperformed equivalent multi-vendor budgets by 2.4× on client-defined outcomes (n=84 engagements, controlled for budget + scope). The integration IS the work.

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QuarterlyQ2 2026

Agency Market Data.

Live rate data across 24 discipline × tier cells. Vendor-count benchmarks by ARR. Integrated-vs-fragmented outcome data. Q2 breakouts: AI workflow design (+280% YoY), Fractional CXO (+185%), operating-partner retainers (+56%).

The headline finding

Strategy-consulting implementation rate: 24% average across McKinsey/BCG/Bain/Big 4 (CFO survey, n=240). The Agency pod-delivery implementation rate: 97%. The slides are not the work.

Published · Read PDF →
Open access · CC BY 4.0

Research, adopted.

Every paper in The Agency Research catalog publishes under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The framework is meant to be adopted, critiqued, and operationalized by other agencies, CFOs evaluating vendor stacks, and operators making their own decisions about how to buy.

The Agency exists because the 2026 founder + growth-stage operator can’t afford to be the integrator of their own vendor stack. The research desk exists because the case has to be made empirically, not just rhetorically.

For citation correspondence, replication studies, or to contribute to a future volume: support@hiretheagency.com

Research · Methodology · Position · hiretheagency.com/research
How to cite Vol I: The Agency Research. (2026). The State of the Agency Stack, Volume I. The Agency. hiretheagency.com/research
Disclaimer. The Agency research catalog is educational. Numbers are estimates with documented methodology; treat as directional. Comparisons with McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Big 4, and Pentagram are made for educational and analytical purposes; each is a registered trademark of its respective owner. The Agency is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or otherwise associated with any of those companies.