Charolette Beers

Ogilvy and Mathers, a leading advertisement agency, after experiencing tremendous growth in the early eighties are now facing the winds of change caused by increased competition. Charlotte Beers, the new captain of the ship has now been entrusted with the responsibility to steer the ship.

David Ogilvy created O&M as an entrepreneurial organization where creativity and innovation was the norm. Employees enjoyed autonomy in their work and there was mutual trust between all the stakeholders. In the years that followed, O&M grew from a small advertising agency to one of the biggest agency on the back of booming economy. Because of rapid growth, the new management concentrated only on O&M expansion. As a result, O&M became rigid resulting in a culture of complacency. In the late eighties, the cost-efficient small bouquet firms exposed their weaknesses and they started losing

business.

After the acquisition, O&M started experiencing major organizational and structural problems. The working style changed from a collaborative and informal one to an autocratic and highly politicised one. The new leadership lacked the vision and employees were confused about organization goals and values, and their purpose. Because of O&M’s large size and inbred culture, it became difficult for O&M to adapt to the changing business requirements. As a result of which quality of work deteriorated and they started losing their creative streak and their clients. This not only affected the O&M brand but also the employees’ moral and the clients’ confidence. All the above factors reinforced the deteriorating working culture at O&M and employees became disillusioned and de-motivated.

It was during this period that Beers was appointed CEO of O&M. She had a gigantic task of revitalising O&M’s sagging fortunes. The first thing that she had to do was to gain the trust of employees as it was an organization that rejected outsiders. Her Vision was to build a creative and innovative organization that had respect for people, trust, power equalization, participation and conflict resolution as its underlying values. She had the daunting task of reinventing the O&M brand that had lost all its gleam and recreating confidence among the employees and clients apart from creating an organization that could take on its cost-efficient competitors.

She was an inspirational leader who tried to perk up the moral of the employees, challenging the status quo, shaking their long held beliefs about themselves