NEW YORK When Ogilvy & Mather named separate managing directors for advertising and direct marketing at its New York headquarters last week, it was a tacit acknowledgment that having co-leaders across all disciplines bred confusion among staffers and a lack of accountability among bosses.
"We were trying to get people not to worry about a P&L and to think in a more holistic way about [client] solutions," said John Seifert, North American chairman of The Ogilvy Group. "The effect that it had -- which we discovered pretty quickly -- is that it started to create a kind of grayness to what each discipline stood for."
Named managing director for Ogilvy advertising was Simon Pearce, 43, a worldwide managing director on American Express. The new managing director for OgilvyOne direct marketing (which includes OgilvyInteractive) is Harvey Kipnis, 54, former North American chief growth officer for The Ogilvy Group. Both report to Carla Hendra, chairman across all units in New York.
"They will be held accountable for their individual businesses," said Seifert. "So, Carla will work with them on their strategic plan, the operating team-the core functions and disciplines within the discipline -- and she'll oversee them as a CEO would a multi-disciplined client organization. They'll run their divisions, but then they'll have an accountability on her leadership team to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts."
Previously, New York was managed by co-presidents or co-managing directors from different disciplines. That structure encouraged leaders to collaborate more and focus less on their individual profit and loss goals.
"There should be a common culture and philosophy of our promise to clients," said Seifert. "But ... we don't want that to be lost in a mushed-up 'we're all one' kind of model."
Consultant Ken Robinson of Ark Advisors credited Ogilvy for trying to improve its operation, but said, "If the goal is to bring new business into the agency, they need to do a lot more than reshuffle at the top." He added that shops "grossly overestimate how much clients care about bureaucracy. It's really about talent and the respect that the leaders can get either from within or from clients."
