Close-Up: On the Campaign Couch ... With JB.(Jeremy Bullmore)(Interview)

Q: We're a medium-sized agency with a male-dominated management team. Do you think the fact that we have no women in our agency at board-director level counts against us in pitches?

A: No. Your lamentable new-business record is due entirely to your inability to produce inventive, well-directed work.

You've probably been misled by one or two benignly hypocritical clients.

When faced with a longish shortlist, clients grasp at any objectively respectable reason to eliminate contenders. Rather than admitting to a personal distaste for the creative director's coiffure or the agency's proximity to Greenwich, they seize on some demonstrable irrelevance. 'Pity they're so weak in Scandinavia,' they say. Or: 'Not a single sheila on their board. Odd, that.'

So when they call with their disappointing news, those are the reasons they give you. And you will want to believe them: it helps a lot with the all-staff e-mail. 'They loved our work,' you lie. 'If we'd only been stronger in Oslo ...'

The problem with your board is not that it's male; it's just not bright enough. Two formidably clever women would show up the rest of them to great effect.

Q: We've been shortlisted for a major global pitch. We already have a client in the sector, but will field our second-string agency for the new piece of business. The temptation is to use the wisdom and