Ogilvy & Mather: Beers' Vision and Leadership Style

Case Analysis- Ogilvy & Mather
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Case Analysis- Ogilvy & Mather
1 What were the biggest challenges – internally and externally - Beers faced when she took charge at Ogilvy & Mather?
As new CEO and chairman of O&M, Beers inherited a myriad of challenges both in the internal and external environment. The acquisition of O&M by WPP Group interfered with the momentum the company had developed, leading to mistrust internally and loss of important assignments.
Internally, Beers faced a staid culture that needed immediate change. This challenge was exacerbated by the fact that she was an outsider, a first to ever take charge at the company. As an outsider, she was not well-versed with the depth of the problem the company was in. The staid culture in the company meant that she had a difficult task ahead of her. The clients of the company viewed its members as “uninvolved, distant and reserved” (p.6). This state of culture is dangerous for a company that prides itself in being one of the best advertising agency. As informed by Zheng, Yang, and McLean (2010), an organization’s culture impacts its effectiveness significantly. Therefore, given staid culture, the performance of the agency was bound to be affected negatively. With the negative perception among clients, the company was poised to continue performing poorly. Furthermore, there was no clear direction in the company, implying that there was no anticipation of a better future state. The company was also losing its creative potential as more focus was put on commercial goals. It is evident that Beers faced many challenges internally that had to be addressed to change the firm’s fortunes.
Externally, clients were withdrawing as confidence in the firm was diminishing. With Shell, Unilever, American Express, Roy Rogers, and Campbell Soup withdrawing, the agency incurred significant losses in terms of revenue. Furthermore, the agency was rated lower by clients in comparison to other players. This shows that competition was taking over the market share that was previously owned by O&M. Therefore, Beers faced challenges both in the internal and external environment. While she had some control over internal affairs, changing how the firm was perceived externally was a key challenge.
2 What is your assessment of the vision? Evaluate the vision in terms of the elements of an effective vision (cognitive, affective component, easy to communicate)
Beers, alongside other members of the agency, came up with the vision: “to be the agency most valued by those whom most value brands.” It is important that a vision possesses certain elements to be deemed effective. First, an effective mission has the cognitive element, which means that it ought to represent the ideas and beliefs of the members of the organization (Williams & Mayer, 2015). O&M’s new vision embodies the cognitive element in that it shows the agency seeks to be “the most valued.” Under the vision, it is deducible that the members of the agency will feel as though they are the best at what they do. In order to achieve the state being valued, the agency has to engage in practices that are appealing to clients. The creativity in the company has to improve to achieve a future desired state. Therefore, the vision, instill ideas and beliefs and ideas of the members of the agency.
The effective component is also present in the fact that it encourages clients that value their brands to be associated with O&M. Emotions and feelings are depicted in the word ‘valued.’ The inclusion of the word shows that the firm seeks to be appreciated or respected for the services they provide to the clients. Furthermore, the vision does not talk about just ordinary clients, but “those whom most value brands.” Therefore, the effective element is also present in the way the vision describes the clients of the firm. Therefore, clients whom most value their brands ought to value O&M.
The vision is also easy to communicate because it is succinct and unique. While it is short, its uniqueness makes it easy for members of the organization to grasp. Several sentences could have passed the message in the vision, but the fact that the team managed to come up with a single one and still communicate is commendable. Therefore, the vision is easy to communicate since it is succinct and unique.
3 What is your assessment of the process Beers and her team went through to create the vision? Assess and describe in what way she enacted the first three stages of Kotter’s eight-step model.
As described in the case, Beers and her team went through a rigorous process in trying to formulate the vision. The words used to describe the three-day event in which they formulated the vision include painful, ghastly, and dreadful. The first step in Kotter’s eight-step model is the establishment of a sense of urgency of the need for change in the organization (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, & Shafiq, 2012). For individuals to participate in change, they have to see that there a need for change. In the case of Beers, she instilled urgency in senior members of the organization from the moment she was appointed. She understood that there was a problem in the organization and change was necessary for it to perform better. She sent a vide...