I am the Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather North America, and I have been with Ogilvy since November 1994.
Here are some things I've learned from my years in the industry.
Talent: Any agency runs on talent; our most important job is finding it, nurturing it, retaining it.
Branding: Our goal remains "to be most valued by those who most value brands." But as the business shifts in scale from advertising to direct marketing and advertising, we find ourselves with more leaders who have no brand-building experience and fewer brand-builders in positions of authority. Since everything – including the growth of direct and interactive – comes from brand building, we have to work hard to preserve that core competence in the face of performance marketing, analytics, cost-cutting, etc.
Networking: A leader with a robust Rolodex is a pearl beyond price. We've won billions in new business because somebody knew somebody who knew somebody else. We're often lousy at new business. We're far better at marriage than dating. We won IBM because we did a good job on American Express. We won Kodak because we did a good job on IBM. We won Motorola because we did a good job on Kodak. And so on.
My favorite career highlight at Ogilvy is receiving the Jock Elliott Award, which honors leadership as judged by peers.
My favorite David Ogilvy quote is: "The most important thing you can do is worry about your people."