Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide

Group 6 Carole Attoungbre Camille Grondin Akshay S Bhat Prianka Sharma

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

WPP Group PLC takes over, May 1989, O&M was in shock, call it a Raid

Why a New Vision?

Beleaguered

No Confidence in the company

Pandemonium

No proper integration mechanism Employees say it was failed leadership High cost ops in a low cost world No financial discipline No Structured Decision Making Creative expenditure was high, No cut backs locally 12/17/2012

Campbell Soup withdrew 25 million, Roy Rogers 15 million, American Express, 65 million ($ ) withdrawal O&M did not streamline operations when Clients wanted it to

Clients demanded low cost and greater service O&M was not nimble
Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

Clients called O&M uninvolved, distant & reserved No insight into the Customer Needed to restore Confidence both internally and externally

Why A New Vision?

Wants to activate a core set of assets Wanted to remove the tag beleaguered from the name Dismissed those who could not instigate changes in the first two months Apprehension amidst the top management Sends a new Hello Video

Wanted to win Clients

Viz. Example of a complaining client, Interrupts, and says it wont happen again

Involve the clients, Follow up, dont make awesome ppts and step back, get business be aggressive was her mantra

New Enthusiastic Leader Charlotte Beers takes over Risen through the ranks, Bold Turn Around as a COO of a mid size Chicago agency Ability to inspire (Kotters Model) iconoclastic to ExCEOs

I wanted to give to give people something that would release their passion, that would knit them together. I wanted the extraneous discarded, I wanted a rallying point on what mattered
12/17/2012 Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A) 3

What is the new vision? To be the agency most valued by those who most value brands
Focus on brands : we work for Brands, not for clients. We work as Brand teams. Brand audit.

Goal Values

Creativity, and analyze, originality and rigor. Between confidence and arogance. Client respect.

Direction
12/17/2012

Expand our culture to reflect inexorable change Reinforce its timeless standards
Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

How?
To cope with the current situation, Beers implemented a re- creation change, structured among these 3 steps, the fourth one is still going on:

Initiating change

=> Creation of a sense of emergency

Building the content of change => Definition of a vision

Leading Change => Spread the vision

Achieving Change => The real challenge after?

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

How?
To cope with the current situation, Beers implemented a re- creation change, structured among these 3 steps, the fourth one is still going on:

Initiating change

=> Creation of a sense of emergency

Building the content of change => Definition of a vision

Leading Change => Spread the vision

Achieving Change => The real challenge after?

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

1) Establishing a sense of urgency

External analysis: Diagnosis of market and competitive realities. Identifying what clients think about us VS what client want? Internal diagnosis: Company strenghts, company indadequacy to market requirements Need of change was already perceived (loss of important account such as Amercian express) but nothing follows Leadership high involvement : Degree of urgency was multiplied when Charlotte Beers was appointed as CEO (dismission of a top-level executive who failed to instigate necessary change, communication to instigate change etc.)

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

2) Forming guiding coalition

Initial coalition: thirsty for a change who were either powerful (top executives heading regions or key offices) or potential allies and supporter of a new vision (creative and accounts directors). Further coalitions : groups in charge of thinking about action to settle the new vision (wording the vision, developing new shared values, stratregy to communicate the new vision, strategy to support the new vision through incentives, structures and organizational changes) Work together team: Vienna meeting was not convincing : difficulties to generate a debate, then difficulties to work together to find solutions. Involvment of the guiding coalition could have been higher : The guiding coalition eventually support the new vision, but Carole Beers was together the only designer and the only missionary of the new vision.

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

How?
To cope with the current situation, Beers implemented a re- creation change, structured among these 3 steps, the fourth one is still going on:

Initiating change

=> Creation of a sense of emergency

Building the content of change => Definition of a vision

Leading Change => Spread the vision

Achieving Change => The real challenge after?

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

3) Creating a vision
To be the agency most valued by those who most value brands Direct support of clients : quick succes of brand audit concept when developping the notion of Brand Stewardship Give direction to the change : client security, Better Work More Often, Financial Discipline. Establish strategies for achieving that vision (4 groups to tackle this issues)

Initial vision not clear enough: We need to move beyond a vision that is useful to the top five percent of account and creative people . >> Need to establish a clear corporation vision to enable cross-functionnal involvement. Everyone must see themselves as co-stewards of the vision

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

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How?
To cope with the current situation, Beers implemented a re- creation change, structured among these 3 steps, the fourth one is still going on:

Initiating change

=> Creation of a sense of emergency

Building the content of change => Definition of a vision

Leading Change => Spread the vision

Achieving Change => The real challenge after?

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

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4) Communicating the vision

Strong involvment of the CEO to communicate and constatnly support the new vision and the change. Direct support of clients : support of clients, successes such as return of American Express account and win of Jaguar motor contribute to convince employees about the new vision. Communcation to spread the message of Brand Stewaredship thoughout the agency develop awareness of the new vision But awerness of the new vision difficultly moves to implementation of the new vision : lack of teaching/ training to enable employee to experience the new vision. Resistance of the creative side : difficulty to communicate to creative staff Lack of missionary : people are aware but too few support the new vision. Insufficient communication towards local agencies.

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

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5) Empowering other to work on the vision

Hurdles to change were analyzed : resistance to change, communication problem, local vs global tensions

Choice to avoid organizational changes : frustration and disatisfaction from the employees. A change of vision (thus of mission) should have lead to : - Redefining role and responabilities of different units (e.g. local and global agencies) - Redefining incentives and reward for employees. - organizational change would have support culture change

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

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How?
To cope with the current situation, Beers implemented a re- creation change, structured among these 3 steps, the fourth one is still going on:

Initiating change

=> Creation of a sense of emergency

Building the content of change => Definition of a vision

Leading Change => Spread the vision

Achieving Change => The real challenge after?

12/17/2012

Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A)

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What do they still have to do? 6) Planning for and creating Short-term Wins
Planning for visible performance improvements Creating those improvements Recognizing and rewarding employees involved in the improvements.

7) Consolidating improvements and producing still more change - Change systems, structure and policies that dont fit the vision
- Hiring, promoting and developping employees who can implement the vision

8) Institutionalizing new approches - Articulating the connections between the new behaviors and coprorate success
- Developping the means to ensure leadership developpment and succession
12/17/2012 Group 6, TSS Charlotte Beers at O&M Worldwide (A) 15