The Uncomfortable Truth About Success

What does it really take to win?

We ask Stanley Clement, CEO of MBCS & Ensemble Malaysia, whose team just pulled off a rare triple crown this year – The APPIES, YouTube Works and Effie Agency of the Year.

But behind all the applause lies something less glamorous… discomfort.

The kind that keeps you awake, questions your worth, and pushes you harder than you’d like. Stanley calls it the uncomfortable push.

At MBCS, we move fast. Aim high. Every team member has 90 days to deliver one piece of work that stands out. If performance slips, a PIP to reset and realign. Yes, a Performance Improvement Plan.

The result? A culture where ‘good’ isn’t safe, and comfort is the enemy. Because the uncomfortable truth about success is… it never comes from comfort.

MBCS pulled off huge wins this year, what’s the real secret here?

Honestly, some of these wins caught us by surprise. It’s been years of grinding, so when it finally happened, it was like, damn, we actually did it.

But the secret? It’s push.

Constant, relentless push. Every single day we challenge ourselves and each other to do better, to go deeper, to never settle.

And here’s the uncomfortable part: we made people uneasy on purpose. Everyone at MBCS knew they had 90 days to deliver at least one strong piece of work. But it went deeper than that. It was about us putting our actions exactly where intent was set. To keep the fire burning.

This wasn’t fear-driven. It was pride-driven. That feeling of discomfort became our fuel. And it was all born from Creative Fridays.

How did that start?

It started organically. We wanted a space to celebrate monthly highlights – everyone had to present one great piece of work their client had bought into.

That evolved into something bigger: Creative Fridays.

We added One Mic Stand, where anyone could grab the mic and share something inspiring, not tell a joke. “Sh*t, I wish I’d done that” kind of work.

Then came Creative Games – the whole agency breaks into groups and solves random briefs. It’s not just fun; it trains your creative reflexes. Creativity is a muscle; you’ve got to keep it flexed.

Finally, we added Think Like a Client sessions, where clients come in to share what they really look for in agencies. That’s pure gold for the team.

It became more than a ritual – it became our culture of constant improvement.

How do you make people feel safe enough to throw out wild ideas, or even bad ones?

Creative Fridays help with that. It’s the one day everyone’s encouraged to go wild. Think big, think weird. We can always scale it down later. The point is… don’t play small. Leadership’s job is to give you the space to fail creatively. Because that’s where the breakthroughs hide.

You’ve said, “We’re not here to churn work. We’re here to make work that moves people.” How do you keep that belief alive when deadlines start to crush you?

At a basic level, we know there’s bread-and-butter work and then there’s fame work. Both matter. Clients deserve our best no matter what. Even when deadlines pile up, we don’t compromise on the standard. The mindset is simple: if your name’s on it, it has to be your best. Every single time.

Once you live by that, the work naturally stays strong. Whether it’s a small job or a massive campaign, the heart stays the same.

Two years ago, did you think this win was possible?

I’ve been chasing this for 10 years. Ever since my predecessors won it three years in a row. I was envious, not of the trophies, but of the consistency, the culture, the way their people performed at that level.

It’s been a long climb. Seeing our partner agencies hit that standard motivated me.

So now that we’re finally here: yeah, it’s sweet. But it took a decade of obsession to get here.

You’ve said scaling an agency without losing its soul is tough. How do you make sure MBCS stays real despite commercial pressure?

There’s no magic potion. One of my old mentors told me: don’t look at commercial pressure in totality. Break it down. Make it attainable. The other part is having the right people who understand why the pressure exists.

If you have people who believe in the same purpose – building revenue, fame and name in the right way – the business grows authentically.

Everything’s connected: the work, the people, the fame. You can’t prioritise one over the others. Balance is survival. And we don’t let intent remain an illusion by delayed action or inaction.

Situations change, and I’ve changed with them.

The ‘push’ I talked about earlier? It tested people, and it tested me. Not everyone liked it. And that’s fine. Leadership isn’t a popularity contest. It’s about getting people to be accountable for their success

One thing has stayed constant – clarity. Everyone knew we had two big goals this year: build our fame and sustain our revenue. If we failed either, the entire agency failed its KPI. Including me. So no complex dashboards, no corporate fluff – just one mission we all owned together. That we approached with honesty and accountability

You talk a lot about leading with heart. What does that look like day to day…

For me, leadership isn’t a pedestal. I don’t believe there should be a wall between me and the team. The title doesn’t make me better, if anything, it makes me responsible for making them better.

A lot of my team can do things far better than I can: that’s the beauty of it. My job is to pull all that talent together so we shine collectively.

I sit with my leadership team every day. I get my hands dirty. Sometimes I’m a disruption, but hopefully, a welcome one.

Describe MBCS in one word.

Passionate.

This team doesn’t give up. We live by one mantra: fight like there’s no tomorrow.

What’s something people outside the agency don’t know, but should?

That we are made up of genuinely good people. Everyone here has a clear intent to help our clients’ business grow – creatively, strategically, tactically. And we do this as part of the wider IPG Mediabrands family, which has helped to amplify the passion and success we’ve seen.

We’re obsessed with intent. Sometimes that gets overlooked, but that’s our superpower.

After a year like this, what’s next? How do you top it?

I said this the night we won Effie AOY, “We have to win it again next year.”

Winning once is luck. Winning twice means you deserve to be here.

How did it feel in that exact moment when the announcement came?

Relief. Pure relief.

We had one goal – win Agency of the Year. If we didn’t, everyone failed their KPI. Including me.

So when they called our name, all I could think was: Thank God I don’t fail my team tonight.

You could call it a comeback. Or a culture reset. Or just an agency that decided ‘safe’ was the real risk.

Either way, MBCS Malaysia didn’t just win trophies this year.

They proved that the uncomfortable truth about success is that it only happens when you make comfort impossible.