26
MAR
TAG ARCHIVES: OGILVY & MATHER
Charlotte Beers at O&M [wk79]
I have now completed the second installment of the Managing Professional Service Firms (PSFs) elective at Cass. Again, we were treated to some topnotch case studies and one of them – Charlotte Beers at O&M – is my focus this week.

In 1992, Texas-born Beers became the CEO of the advertising powerhouse Ogilvy & Mather, 3 years after the agency had been acquired by Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group. She had joined a firm that was still feeling the wake of the hostile takeover, full of self-doubt and conflict. While the business had quite publicly lost a handful of key client accounts (e.g. Unilever, Shell), Beers had the foresight and confidence to recognise the potential that her leadership would bring to this business in flux, and duly set about the challenge. By the end of 1993, O&M had rediscovered its mojo, won Jaguar Motor cars’ entire U.S. account and reclaimed 2 prized accounts: Amex and Shell. The press hailed, “Ogilvy & Mather is back on track.” How had she done it?

One can never be sure how much good fortune had a hand, but on the basis that you make your own luck, I hope readers can draw their conclusions from my selection of 9 ‘takeaways’ below. The HBR case spans 1992-1993.

Beers was full of energy, much of which she spent talking directly to investors and clients. This was a PSF within which executives drew their power from client accounts.
Within 2 months of her appointment, she had dismissed a top executive who had failed instigate necessary changes. Think Admiral Byng.
She was passionate about brands and what part O&M played in the custody of clients’ brands. This formed the basis of her new vision to ‘Activate the Assets’ – namely O&M’s expertise and their clients’ brands.
During this time, she was slow to pull together and Executive Committee, but when she did, this time had given her the opportunity to identify and appoint followers/believers.
She prepared the external position of the new the vision, calling it ‘Brand Stewardship’. She used this to encapsulate her only limit on an array of open conversations with the Executive Committee, giving them the opportunity to influence the change agenda.
She was able to distil their 22 change items into 3: Client Security; Better Work, More Often; and Financial Discipline.
She used these select band of disciples to spread the word, recognising the importance of translating the vision and strategic agenda into a new role for each employee.
As part of this new role creation, client relevance was maintained. The creative teams were tasked to translate Brand Stewardship into something tangible, e.g. a brand audit. A working group was tasked to articulate in a few words and images a brand’s unique “genetic fingerprint.” ‘A Jaguar is a copy of absolutely nothing—just like its owners’ was one of O&M’s first BrandPrints™. The client loved it.
Throughout this strategic overhaul, Beers kept the emotional content and commitment high, but let the structure of the business be, on the basis that it would naturally follow. The only exception was the instigation of a Worldwide Client Service group – a new cross-jurisdictional dimension that was set up to address the needs of multi-nationals clients.
On 24 May 1994, O&M landed the biggest new assignment in advertising history: the worldwide account of IBM, with billings of $400-500 million.