Charlotte Beers At Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

Executive Summary

Charlotte Beers has a vision; however, she cannot convey this message personally to the whole Ogilvy & Mather organization (O&M). Appointed CEO after a hostile takeover, Beers was faced with the challenge of uniting a multinational, autonomous corporation under her concept of Brand Stewardship. David Ogilvy founded the company, that later merged with Mather & Crowther, which became one of the leading advertising agencies. O&M had offices worldwide, focusing on local as well as global advertising campaigns that used the influence of a multinational corporation with the appeal of local intricacies. The culture of O&M was such a large part of the company that any change was deemed as a personal attack on the employees. To overcome this obstacle, Beers assembled a team of change thirsty individuals that would create a model and process for the dissatisfied to recapture the once held high esteem of the advertising world. Beers ultimately is trying to create the emotionally charged environment necessary for organizational change.Case Analysis

Charlotte Beers entered O&M at a time when it was most vulnerable. She was placed into an advertising company that had accolades for memorable campaigns but had become stagnant due to inappropriate leadership. David Ogilvy was an eccentric leader and it was his eccentricities that paved the way for O&M to be such a successful organization. His out of the box thinking processes gave way to innovative advertising campaigns in all avenues of media. Gaining many major accounts with the credo “we sell вЂ" or else,” Ogilvy created the culture necessary for expansion while retaining the charm that attracted clients. Many employees noted his “presence,” how it was paramount to the success of the organization. Four chairmen attempted to fill Ogilvy’s shoes following his departure from the company. None of these leaders had the necessary presence to lead as effectively as Ogilvy had. Nonetheless O&M still had many successful years, mostly in part to the rising trend in marketing and advertising budgets. All was fine until the stock market crash of 1987, when many companies decided to shift their budgets less towards expensive mass media and print campaigns and more towards direct mail, cable, telemarketing, and sales promotion. This left O&M in dire need for presence in their leader. In 1989, WPP Group Plc acquired O&M in a hostile takeover. During this period, they lost many large accounts including the famous American Express campaign “never leave home without it.” Beers was appointed CEO to an organization that “rejects outsiders” and still she jumped in with both feet. A proven leader in the Mars Company and other competing advertising agencies, she was poised to take O&M out of the mire.

Beers first course of action at O&M was to pick a small group of change thirsty individuals, regardless of their current positions, to help her orchestrate the needed change. She only wanted the “people that got it” to help her clarify the vision O&M needed to recapture lost and win new accounts. She knew that this vision must be brand focused, but which direction was still unknown. Beers called for a secret meeting of these “thirsty for change” individuals in which they agreed upon Brand Stewardship as the focus for O&M’s vision. Even though there was a consensus as to this direction, many were still unsure of how it was to be implemented. Even after reading this case, Brand Stewardship is still an ambiguous term and perhaps on purpose. Beers’ leadership in the past came from her ability to motivate her employees; perhaps this was to purposely invoke thinking in the employees on which way to best portend the brand, the client’s and O&M’s. Beers took the suggestions from the members of this meeting and concocted three main strategies for furthering O&M: client security, better work more often, and financial discipline. She had set the path for O&M to regain its position in the advertising world, now all that remained was for the process to trickle down into every crevice of the organization. This would be the major bottleneck in O&M’s comeback.

A new group within the organization emerged from this meeting. The Worldwide Client Service (WCS) group was formed to help improve the retention of clients as well as coordinate the communication between the multinational clients and the local firms. Their goal was to combine global efficiency and local sensitivity. WCS gave the people on multinational accounts the enforcement power they once lacked. This double edged sword caused more