Case Study

Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

Final Draft
An advertising agency was established in 1948 by David Ogilvy with only $6,000. The company
was based in New York and received its financial support from two London companies called
Mather & Crowther and S.H. Benson. He had famous advertising accounts like Rolls-Royce,
Scheppes and Hathaway Shirts. His success came through his hard work and his philosophy
slogan advertising must sell. In 1965 he merged with his long time financial partner and
became Ogilvy & Mather. They had a good run both regional and international and in 1975,
David Ogilvy retired.
PROBLEM
The problem how Beers defined it was that she over O & M at a time when people had lost
sight of Ogilvys still impressive assets-its vast network of offices worldwide. Clients rated
O&M below other agencies and characterized the company employees as uninvolved, distant
and reserved. I agree with her assessment. Charlotte Beers becomes the CEO to a company that
was divided, and was losing clients. Charlotte tried to implement changes in the organization by
changing the mission statement and slogan. Beers wants to implement Brand Stewardship, and
embed the slogan To be the agency most valued by those who most value brands. Drawbacks
to this initiative are buy-in from internal user of the organization, employees feel that they were
asked to collaborate but no pay, and some O&M feels that there are no group decisions. Its
talked about, but decisions tend to be made by Charlotte. Though external customers respond
positively to Brand Stewardship, internally there is a lack of consensus. Beers was "crafting a
vision" with senior team members, but as with all big companies, adoption rates varied across the
massive company. The new vision was a more unified presentation of the clients to their
customers. In a high level retreat, the term "Brand Stewardship" was coined. Beers's goals was to
make Ogilvy "the agency most valued by those who most value brands." This unified and more
global vision created problems for troops on the ground who resisted, did not believe or failed to
see their part in this new Ogilvy. The following are problem that Beers faced:

The Brand concept was not clearly understood by the executives

Challenges in collaboration between the offices & multinational brand campaigns
The North American offices were not under and supervision, they were unmonitored and

no one knew the structure of hierarchy

There were no functional department overseeing areas of expertise
There were no local country offices with accounts to build sufficient critical mass to

service clients
Clients demands were being ignored

SITUATION ANALYSIS
Ogilvy was seen as old, slow and expensive in a time where more brands were fast and cheap.
Ogilvy had massive successes that propelled the company to extreme heights. With this success a
culture that "rejects outsiders" grew, leading to a lackluster attitude towards competition and
complacency. Eventually many clients outgrew their successful campaigns with Ogilvy and
pulled crucial business from the firm.
Situation before Charlotte Beer leadership (1) Hostile takeover by WPP Group, as a result, CEO
Roman & top creative account executives and joined the completion (2) Work deteriorated,
Campbell withdrew $25 million, Roy Rogers $15 million,(3) Print campaign withdrew $60
million, prominent business pulled their account(4) The agency was unable to adapt to clients
changing demand even though their revenue declined (5) Key employees lost confidence and
was unable to make the necessary changes (5) company downsized.
SOLUTION
Beers solution to the problem was to develop a new vision for the company, which included a
mission statement and ways to incorporate that vision into daily activities. Beers also, rehired
veterans of the company (I Agreed, because she is new and the organization, as well as the
community rejects outsiders, so the used them as liaison) (2) Beers fired a top-level executive
who failed to instigate necessary changes-I agree because they have to change the old way of
doing things to reinstall the company reputation.
Alternative solution:

1.

Bring a contracting firm to help implement her changes. Some of the benefits are, she will

have a third view of her organization structure, and can offer expertise on how to implement the
changes that Charlotte want to happen. Discuss some of the drawbacks to his.
2.

Start to implement the changes through geographical phases. Instead of going company

worldwide, put focus on the U.S region first, then Europe, follow by East Asia. The company is
very big, and pressuring all regions to adapt this change will take time. This is not to say to get
rid of the new mission and vision, rather to put focus on forcing the changes region by region.
3.

Define what a brand audit is and how it aligns to the organization new mission and vision;

then provide training. Many employees dont even know how to respond to clients request when
they mention brand auditing, and they also dont know what the organization means by Brand
Stewardship. Proper training can help put workers at ease.
4. Beers could have global ambassadors on a rotation between all the different offices. These
ambassadors would be "trained" by Beers and her senior management group. They would be
responsible for communicating, implementing and monitoring the new methods of Ogilvy at
local offices. This would also show smaller offices that the corporate machine responsible for
this dramatic change is willing to meet, work with and steer all offices who want to be successful
going forward.
IMPLEMENTATION
In order to implement change, Beers created an informal working group of employees that she
deemed thirsty for change. The group consisted of employees that caught her eye as potential
allies. I agree with her approach and admire her ability to inspire. Based on the article Why
Should anyone be Lead by You (Goffee, R., Jones, G. 2000), inspirational leaders rely heavily on
intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their actions. To be a true leader, the
authors advise, "Be yourself--more--with skill." I believe Charlotte Beers was a true leader.
Goffee, R., Jones, G.. Why Should anyone be Lead by You. Harvard Business Review (2000):
8. Web. 01 Mar. 2016