how I gave up command and control and became a better leader
A worldwide company with a worldwide reputation and aggressive growth targets. Its goal is to produce a new 3-year plan and unite the leadership behind it. Its task is to redefine the operations, performance, product, positioning and value of the business.
We helped it redefine leadership.
DDB Worldwide is a major advertising and communications company with 206 offices in 97 countries, employing over 10,000 people.
DDB is a member of the Omnicom Group and makes a significant contribution to its parent company's total annual revenues of $8.6 billion (2003).
DDB was Advertising Age Global Agency of the Year 2003 and also was the highest awarded advertising network at the Cannes Festival in May 2004.
DDB's clients include VW; McDonald's; J&J; Exxon Mobil; Anheuser-Busch; Dell and Philips.
The primary client is Ken Kaess, President and CEO DDB Worldwide (voted the Ad Agency Executive of 2003 by The Delaney Report).
The Key Task
The key task was to ensure that the Executive Management Group united behind a common vision for the agency's future, so that DDB - whose founding father Bill Bernbach is widely acknowledged to have invented modern advertising - were seen to have re-invented their category.
Ken Kaess's goal was to produce a new 3-Year Plan for the agency that would exceed Omnicom's aggressive growth targets, whilst de-constructing and re-constructing the operations, performance, product, positioning and value of the business, in order to assume an unassailable brand leadership position.
This fundamental shift in DDB was not to be achieved however, at the expense of their core cultural values of 'Humanity and Creativity'. If anything, Ken's brief was to ensure that these values become significantly more evident in practice than had been the case in the recent past, consistent with his leadership commitment to 'People First' (People, Product, Profit in that order).
To place the scale of the task in context, two critical factors - one external and one internal - have to be considered. The first, external factor is that the advertising category has become increasingly commoditised and volume based with the inevitable consequence of pressure on price and margin.
The implication for DDB therefore, is that not only has it to exceed Omnicom's targets, but it also has to reverse the category trend and find new ways of defining and adding value, thereby driving up price and margin.
The second, internal factor is that, consistent with the category, DDB's operational management had become extremely focussed on 'hitting the number' in order to meet their financial goals. This had created a largely risk averse organisation and led management to narrow their operational focus and 'ring fence' their individual areas of responsibility/accountability.
The implication for DDB therefore, was that before setting out on its quest, the primary task was to ensure that the Executive Management Group redefined their Roles and Responsibilities. This was to guarantee that they demonstrated the inter-dependent, transparent and collaborative behaviour that would act as a model for the rest of the organisation.
The Main Players
The main players in the DDB Worldwide Executive Group are:
Ken Kaess, President & CEO;
James Best, Chief People & Strategy Officer;
Keith Bremer, Chief Operating Officer;
Dick Rogers, President North America;
Michael Bray, President Europe & Asia;
Bob Scarpelli, US Chief Creative Officer
& Herve Brossard, Vice Chairman.