Charlotte Beers Case Summary

Since its inception, Ogilvy & Mather established itself as a reputable, creative and successful advertising agency. The company prided itself on having a “first class” focus on creative work and the resources to manage global and local campaign strategies, “the most local of the internationals, the most international of the locals.” During the booming 80’s the agency continued to reap profits even though their business strategy remained unchanged. The failure of Ogilvy & Mather to address the new trends in the advertising industry, such as the emergence of boutique firms and a change in fee structure, eventually led to losses of revenue, accounts, and a stark decrease in morale.
Charlotte Beers, appointed CEO in 1992, hoped to turn Ogilvy
Charlotte was looking for people within the firm who would also realize the significance and value of “brand” for the agency. Beers needed to find like-minded “kindred spirits,” and began soliciting ideas for change from her senior managers in one-on-one interviews in order to probe their views on disciplines, different regions, as well as other staff members. Charlotte Beers clearly wanted a strategic organizational change to the firm. The interviewing process gave her the ability to hand-pick potential political allies to neutralize the resistance to outsiders that was characteristic for the
In it, she made it clear what type of behavior and attitude would be required from her people. Vienna developed a vision for the company, while Chewton-Glen created a mechanism for the implementation of that vision. This meeting showcased the second element of instrumental leadership: the creation of systems and processes for measuring, monitoring and assessing results. Chewton Glen yielded a long “to-do” list of priorities. Charlotte Beers coalesced these ideas from the newly-energized leadership into a condensed and implementable plan focusing on “Client Security”, “Better Work, More Often” and “Financial Discipline”. From these three main concepts came major structural changes, such as the creation of the WCS and the introduction of the Brand Audit as a vital tool in the integration of the Brand Stewardship concept. Through continuous focus and inter-level communication, Beers and her team were able to begin the integration of the new vision into the existing O&M