Charlotte Beers At Ogilvy

Running head: CHARLOTTE BEERS AT OGILVY AND MATHER WORLDWIDE 1

Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

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Institution:

CHARLOTTE BEERS AT OGILVY AND MATHER WORLDWIDE 2

Question 1

When Beers took over, one of the biggest challenges that she had to overcome internally

was convincing the employees especially the executives of Ogilvy and Mather that she could

deliver the job. The company had a negative perception about outsiders. It did not allow other

people to just come and be part of O & M. One of the employees at one point is heard saying that

“This is an Organization that rejects outsiders.” This is a clear example of an environment that a

person is unwanted. When Beers also took over O & M, she had initially worked for a small

company in Chicago. As such, she had the challenge of convincing the other employees that she

was up to the task. Beers had also not managed multiple offices and at O & M she faced

opposition because they saw her as an inexperienced person.

One of the arguments by the employees against Beers is that she had never worked

outside the United States while O & M was a worldwide company. Beers also faced challenges

externally as shown by how clients did not rate the company. Clients could be seen preferring

other agencies while O & M had all the capabilities to be a better agency than the other entire

Agency in the United States. These challenges challenged Beer’s to change the climate of the

company both against her and also across the employees and clients. One vital measure that she

took to change the climate was bringing executives, clerks and accountants to one table so that

they could plan for the future of a company. Additionally, Beers sent a “Hello” video to all of her

employees. These two measures changed the toxic climate and people soon started to like her

although she had come faced animosity from the employees of O & M initially.

Question 2

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The vision of O & M is “To be the agency most valued by those who most value brands.”

This vision to some extent may be confusing to some employees especially the new ones. From

my opinion, the vision is wide and refined. The employees of the company can relate to this

vision at all cost. The vision has a good connection with the employees because it highlights

how they want their work to be appreciated. This is the kind of vision that includes both the

stakeholders and the stakeholders of the company rather than representing only one side or no

side at all but the company itself. When analyzing the vision in terms of the elements of an

effective vision, it can be noted that the vision is future oriented. The vision also is likely to lead

to a better future for the company. What the company wants is to be the most valued

organization. This can only be achieved if all the employees keep walking and delivering quality

services.

The vision can be noted that it sets standards for excellence. It inspires commitment and

supports enthusiasm from the workers. However, it can be noted that the vision does not clarify

the direction or rather purpose of the company. It only states that they want people or rather the

agency to be the most valued. To some extent, the vision portrays an ambition. The ambition is

to emerge the best among the other companies. However, to some extent the vision does not

show ambition. Their vision is limited to what those individuals or companies that value brand.

The vision should have strived to be even better than that. Additionally, the vision does not show

uniqueness. The consoling thing about this vision is that it is simple, the employees can relate to

it, and it can be achieved easily if the employees do their part

Question 3

CHARLOTTE BEERS AT OGILVY AND MATHER WORLDWIDE 4

Despite the fact that the process of crafting or creating the vision was chaotic, messy and

painful as a result of role commitment, Beer and her time competently created a vision that could

guide their operations. As the sixth largest advertisement agency, the team navigated by Beers

was committed to achieving the “just continue doing the same thing, better” vision that was

faced with numerous controversies that called for the need for a clear vision for the company.

Ignorance to the challenges that were present in Brand stewardship significantly impinged on the

vision crafting process. However, the team started by recognizing the need to involve

approximately or members of the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide organization. This step proved

that every person was significant in giving their opinion about the most appropriate vision

ideologies. After a debate in the meeting discussions as suggested by Wright, agreements were

made. According to Beers, the vision will be adopted after an agreed upon consensus in a

democratic way as a mechanism to increase the worker's loyalty to the vision. The final process

of vision formation was to integrate brainstorming based on three other groups as a strategy to

test and refine their thoughts. The end product of these long vision creation processes was “To be

the most valued agency by those who value brands most.”

According to Kotter’s change management theory establishing a sense of urgency,

creating the guiding coalition and development of a change vision are very basic steps that were

well enacted by Beers. It’s clear that she facilitated a sense of urgency in combating discord,

conflict, disagreement and challenges affecting her leadership. The fact that she gave room for

advice and other people’s opinions made her effective in responding to emerging issues for the

sake of the organization’s success. She opted for managerial collaboration in her struggle to fight

the firm’s faulted autonomous tradition. She minimized autocratic leadership. Thus, she paved

the way for successful guidance and coalition. Beers allowed the process of developing a

CHARLOTTE BEERS AT OGILVY AND MATHER WORLDWIDE 5

transformative vision that was cherished by almost all members of the firm for efficiency in

application. All this affirms that Beers was well knowledgeable of the Kotter’s eight-step model

that she massively applied in her leadership towards achieving the objectives of the firm..

Effectiveness in communication is among the determinants of an organization's success,

no doubt about that. Following this observation, Beers ensured that communication was

universal to accommodate international clients especially mega-agencies. She adopted corporate

communication to achieve globalizations standards of communication. Her communication was

inclusive and transparent to all members for clarity and criticism that could, in turn, enable her to

note any possible challenge that could affect the firm. She attained sufficient communication

strategies in all levels of the enterprise. Beers encouraged visionary communication and

adherence to the firm’s bureaucratic rules as a method of maintaining respect among all workers

and professionals which were a notable change.

Question 4

When creating the vision, some people did not agree with Beers. These workers felt that

the vision of the company was Brand stewardship. Other individuals saw Brand stewardship as

being a tool of achieving other great things. These differences or rather resistance were

controlled by Beers and the executive in three ways. The first way that the resistance was

minimized was by including a larger group in the vision formulation. One of the executives,

Wright commented that “We need to decide collectively what we are going to be. If you have 30

people deciding and 30 people who have bought into the vision, then they have no reason not to

go out and do it ” (Sackley & Ibarra, 1995). By reasoning with them this way, the executive

CHARLOTTE BEERS AT OGILVY AND MATHER WORLDWIDE 6

managed to minimize or rather manage the potential resistance. The second method used to

manage the resistance was by dividing the employees into three groups.

Beers took part in the process by being the first to place herself in a new group. All the

other employees suddenly became active and joined different groups. By splitting the tasks,

Beers and the executive managed to make the members active and forget the differences that had

made it hard to come up with a vision. Initially, the members had tackled the formation of a

vision as a one big group. However, this proved to be a challenge and splitting them became

effective. The last method was using feedback from the clients on brand stewardship. Using

clients lessened the work of the members or rather employees. The employees therefore were

free to conduct their other work. Some of the people resisted through complaints while others

wanted the organization to use the simple vision “Brand stewardship.” The participants also

argued that they were tired from discussing about the vision for three days straight. They wanted

the executives to stop the discussion.

Question 5

The leadership that Beers possess is transformational. Beers knows how to turn ugly

situations into a comfortable scenario. Initially, she is not wanted by the executive and the

employees. However, she slowly makes her way through the system and at last everyone starts

liking her. Additionally, the company was in a big mess before she arrived. The employees were

using some words to refer to each other. Beers changed this and in her first month, she sent a

“Hello” video to all of her employees. It can also be identified that Beers has a way with her

clients. The clients had at first rated other agency companies above O & M but she also turned

that around and client started taking this company serious once again. When the employees

resisted the change or rather the formulation of the vision for the company, with the help of his

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team, they changed the mind of the participants and In the end they managed to formulate a new

vision. Beers can be termed as an exceptional leader that reads situation properly and approaches

each one with care. It can also be identified that she rarely becomes emotional. Beers is a good

leader that should be emulated by other leaders in different organizations.

CHARLOTTE BEERS AT OGILVY AND MATHER WORLDWIDE 8

References

Sackley, N., & Ibarra, H. (1995). Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (A). Harvard

Business School.

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