Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather

Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

Charlotte Beers was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy & Mather in 1992, when the agency was going through a difficult phase. The world's sixth-largest advertising agency started experiencing problems after founder David Ogilvy retired, "The next four chairmen did not have his presence" (Ibarra, 2). What appeared to be a leadership problem then was confirmed after O&M was bought by WPP in 1989. Soon after, O&M started losing important clients and was seen as "beleaguered". Charlotte Beers was appointed CEO to turn the business around and bring positivity back to O&M. Beers faced two major issues while working towards that goal; she came from a smaller office and had no international experience; she was appointed CEO of a company that rejected outsiders. However, she overcame these obstacles by using effective communication to create a new vision for the company, empowerment, and different leadership styles and traits.

O&M was losing a lot of money and important clients. The world was changing but the agency was not listening to its clients’ needs. All the executives were internally recruited. The appointment of Beers as new CEO allowed for an external view on the company. Charlotte Beers wanted to bring change to O&M. She recalled, "My job was to remove 'beleaguered' from our name" (Ibarra, 6). She spent the first years at O&M creating a new vision for the agency. In order to do that, she decided to communicate a lot. Within her first weeks, she sent a "hello" video to the 7,000 employees. Even though she had no specific idea on how to bring change, she was open and honest, and asked for everybody's help to make her dreams for the company come true. Furthermore, she decided to personally meet with clients and listen to their concerns, "I met with 50 clients in six months" (Ibarra, 6). Understanding the customers' needs is key in any business and Beers understood that. After seeing the problems she was...