Back to the future-or-Never burn a bridge
In 1969, just before Cindy was born, I joined JWT in Cape Town. I gave up my company car and we bought a second hand LH Drive VW with a half a clutch. I was in my final year but had yet to graduate from business school.
I remember borrowing the JWT Ford Escort station wagon to take mom to the Booth hospital and again to fetch Cindy and Mom.
When I applied for the job at JWT, Asst. A/E on exciting Pepsi, I was rejected for lack of experience. But they said I could work on the boring Old Mutual Insurance account which had given JWT 90 days notice, and if they kept it they would keep me.
Young and foolish, I took the job and the risk. We kept OM and they gave me all the booze business at Sedgwick, which was bought later by SFW.
6 months later they fired the Pepsi guy and gave me his job as an A/E handling Pepsi, which was based in Jhb. Within less than a year they transferred me to JWT Jhb as a senior Account Executive. I initially refused the transfer but mom plotted with my boss and the rest is history.
There they also gave me the Beecham new business assignment which I had begun working on in CT.
We got the Beecham account, but within a year we were close to starving as a family, under the strain of the increased cost of living in JHB versus CT.
I begged JWT for an increase and they refused and I left to go to Leo Burnett.
But, I stayed on the Beecham account, so I never let them down.
After less than a year, Beecham told Ogilvy, (VZ) that they were going to fire Burnett and give them the toothpaste business. But they said they wanted to be sure that Ogilvy hired me to run it.
When I joined Ogilvy in 1971, I had been in the business less than three years. I was now an account supervisor.
As you know, I was transferred to North America as International Management Supervisor for Beecham Latin America six years later. By that time I was a director of Ogilvy and a candidate for MD. I took the transfer instead, agreeing to work as a lowly Account Supervisor again, on Rowntree and General Foods.
After one year in Canada, I acquired the Beecham Canada business.
I brought in Tim Elliott, John Charter and John Little my old team from Ogilvy JHB and was promoted to a Director of the company responsible for about half of the agencies business.
The first real and perhaps only break in my career was Hayhurst in 1980. Ogilvy had offered me Mexico and I turned it down. This time there was some bad feeling at the highest levels, but they also knew that they had messed up my career by allowing Julian Clopet to peg my salary at the transfer level for three years even though I had been promoted twice. This was his way of getting back at the Ogilvy Worlwide Vice Chairman, Andrew Kershaw who had died recently, because Andrew had sent me to Canada without Julian's permission.
I was offered the deputy MD job and an increase to stay, but it was too little too late.
It is interesting to note that 25 years later, Graham Phillips, the President of Toronto and Julian's boss when I arrived there, wrote a charming letter supporting my application to the Riverside Yacht Club.
Among other new business successes at Hayhurst like British Airways, I acquired the AMC Jeep business. I went from Director of Account Services, to General Manager to President and CEO in 4 years. When I was fired, very publicly at my insistence because they were going to sell the agency out from under me and my management team, AMC Jeep fired Hayhurst and asked Grey to hire me with the account. I told AMC I would do this for a year, but would not commit beyond that. There I also worked on the launch of Aquafresh for Beecham. This was the 4th agency I had worked for Beecham.
I took over Needham as CEO and continued my automotive ride with Honda.
In the Omnicom merger in 1986, Honda basically asked me to form an agency to service their business which became the now hall of fame agency that produced one of Canada's all time best ten spots. John Wren the CEO of Needham helped me set this up, but the second mortgage on the house was mom and my nickel.
I sold this agency in 1992, too soon and to the wrong people but re-joined my best friend Tim Elliott who had worked with me on Beecham in SA and Campbell soup, Eggs and AE LePage in Toronto. So our working relationship expanded to a third country.
A year after acquiring the Weight Watchers account at EPB Washington we formed out own agency in New York with the Client's encouragement,. This is the second time I did that for a Client.
From there, we won a theoretically impossible pitch for Mercedes in Southern California. How did we do this? We contacted my old Honda Canada team, now working on the Saturn account for Hal Riney in San Francisco and flew them into New York. They showed up with wives and the latest USA research. We mapped out the Mercedes strategy for California and won in a canter against the factory agency.
People at Omnicom are still scratching their heads today about how we did that.
After Tim died and DES self-destructed, I rejoined Omnicom in 1999 with a brief from my old Needham friend John Wren to integrate the Mercedes account between the four companies that serviced the business. John was ow CEO of Omnicom, the world's largest communciations holding company.
I continued the 5 year Mercedes ride, first at The Designory, (Based at Merkley), then Omnicom, (same base). Even though I moved off the day to day Mercedes business in 2005 and into Merkley proper, Mercedes insisted that I execute an International TV program on AMG toward the end of last year.
In April this year, BBDO offered me a transfer to Japan, primarily to run the Mercedes pitch there.
In May, PHD, an Omnicom Media Company and the Mercedes Client were still in discussions to bring me back to run the business there if they could agree a new contract.
But in May my patience with all things Omnicom ran out.
I returned to JWT where I started almost 40 years ago. On Monday 05/15/06 when I started as Director of Integrated Marketing, I was about five or six levels down from the Co-Presidents.
John Garland, an old friend was made COO on the same day. I now report to him, skipping a few levels to the #3 spot in the largest agency in America.
John and I had worked together at Earl Palmer Brown making Kathleen Sullivan Weight Watches commercials together in 1992.
John joined Doig Elliott Schur in 1994 and we made Cybil Shepherd commercials for Mercedes.
John and I formed an Internet company called IQ to build dealer websites in 1996 long before anyone knew what a website was.
What is the point of all this?
Every step in a career, perhaps life itself is important. As you can see, in my career, there has seldom even been the proverbial 6 degrees of separation. The threads are pretty clear and consistent.
Relationships are important.
The people you work with are important.
Clients are important.
You can tell people how you feel, especially if they mistreat you. But never let it get personal.
Never burn a bridge.
Yesterday I received more v & e-mail from Omnicom top executives than in the last six months while I was actively trying to find a position inside Omnicom.
The bridges are still up even though I am gone. But for now it is a bridge too far.
I remember borrowing the JWT Ford Escort station wagon to take mom to the Booth hospital and again to fetch Cindy and Mom.
When I applied for the job at JWT, Asst. A/E on exciting Pepsi, I was rejected for lack of experience. But they said I could work on the boring Old Mutual Insurance account which had given JWT 90 days notice, and if they kept it they would keep me.
Young and foolish, I took the job and the risk. We kept OM and they gave me all the booze business at Sedgwick, which was bought later by SFW.
6 months later they fired the Pepsi guy and gave me his job as an A/E handling Pepsi, which was based in Jhb. Within less than a year they transferred me to JWT Jhb as a senior Account Executive. I initially refused the transfer but mom plotted with my boss and the rest is history.
There they also gave me the Beecham new business assignment which I had begun working on in CT.
We got the Beecham account, but within a year we were close to starving as a family, under the strain of the increased cost of living in JHB versus CT.
I begged JWT for an increase and they refused and I left to go to Leo Burnett.
But, I stayed on the Beecham account, so I never let them down.
After less than a year, Beecham told Ogilvy, (VZ) that they were going to fire Burnett and give them the toothpaste business. But they said they wanted to be sure that Ogilvy hired me to run it.
When I joined Ogilvy in 1971, I had been in the business less than three years. I was now an account supervisor.
As you know, I was transferred to North America as International Management Supervisor for Beecham Latin America six years later. By that time I was a director of Ogilvy and a candidate for MD. I took the transfer instead, agreeing to work as a lowly Account Supervisor again, on Rowntree and General Foods.
After one year in Canada, I acquired the Beecham Canada business.
I brought in Tim Elliott, John Charter and John Little my old team from Ogilvy JHB and was promoted to a Director of the company responsible for about half of the agencies business.
The first real and perhaps only break in my career was Hayhurst in 1980. Ogilvy had offered me Mexico and I turned it down. This time there was some bad feeling at the highest levels, but they also knew that they had messed up my career by allowing Julian Clopet to peg my salary at the transfer level for three years even though I had been promoted twice. This was his way of getting back at the Ogilvy Worlwide Vice Chairman, Andrew Kershaw who had died recently, because Andrew had sent me to Canada without Julian's permission.
I was offered the deputy MD job and an increase to stay, but it was too little too late.
It is interesting to note that 25 years later, Graham Phillips, the President of Toronto and Julian's boss when I arrived there, wrote a charming letter supporting my application to the Riverside Yacht Club.
Among other new business successes at Hayhurst like British Airways, I acquired the AMC Jeep business. I went from Director of Account Services, to General Manager to President and CEO in 4 years. When I was fired, very publicly at my insistence because they were going to sell the agency out from under me and my management team, AMC Jeep fired Hayhurst and asked Grey to hire me with the account. I told AMC I would do this for a year, but would not commit beyond that. There I also worked on the launch of Aquafresh for Beecham. This was the 4th agency I had worked for Beecham.
I took over Needham as CEO and continued my automotive ride with Honda.
In the Omnicom merger in 1986, Honda basically asked me to form an agency to service their business which became the now hall of fame agency that produced one of Canada's all time best ten spots. John Wren the CEO of Needham helped me set this up, but the second mortgage on the house was mom and my nickel.
I sold this agency in 1992, too soon and to the wrong people but re-joined my best friend Tim Elliott who had worked with me on Beecham in SA and Campbell soup, Eggs and AE LePage in Toronto. So our working relationship expanded to a third country.
A year after acquiring the Weight Watchers account at EPB Washington we formed out own agency in New York with the Client's encouragement,. This is the second time I did that for a Client.
From there, we won a theoretically impossible pitch for Mercedes in Southern California. How did we do this? We contacted my old Honda Canada team, now working on the Saturn account for Hal Riney in San Francisco and flew them into New York. They showed up with wives and the latest USA research. We mapped out the Mercedes strategy for California and won in a canter against the factory agency.
People at Omnicom are still scratching their heads today about how we did that.
After Tim died and DES self-destructed, I rejoined Omnicom in 1999 with a brief from my old Needham friend John Wren to integrate the Mercedes account between the four companies that serviced the business. John was ow CEO of Omnicom, the world's largest communciations holding company.
I continued the 5 year Mercedes ride, first at The Designory, (Based at Merkley), then Omnicom, (same base). Even though I moved off the day to day Mercedes business in 2005 and into Merkley proper, Mercedes insisted that I execute an International TV program on AMG toward the end of last year.
In April this year, BBDO offered me a transfer to Japan, primarily to run the Mercedes pitch there.
In May, PHD, an Omnicom Media Company and the Mercedes Client were still in discussions to bring me back to run the business there if they could agree a new contract.
But in May my patience with all things Omnicom ran out.
I returned to JWT where I started almost 40 years ago. On Monday 05/15/06 when I started as Director of Integrated Marketing, I was about five or six levels down from the Co-Presidents.
John Garland, an old friend was made COO on the same day. I now report to him, skipping a few levels to the #3 spot in the largest agency in America.
John and I had worked together at Earl Palmer Brown making Kathleen Sullivan Weight Watches commercials together in 1992.
John joined Doig Elliott Schur in 1994 and we made Cybil Shepherd commercials for Mercedes.
John and I formed an Internet company called IQ to build dealer websites in 1996 long before anyone knew what a website was.
What is the point of all this?
Every step in a career, perhaps life itself is important. As you can see, in my career, there has seldom even been the proverbial 6 degrees of separation. The threads are pretty clear and consistent.
Relationships are important.
The people you work with are important.
Clients are important.
You can tell people how you feel, especially if they mistreat you. But never let it get personal.
Never burn a bridge.
Yesterday I received more v & e-mail from Omnicom top executives than in the last six months while I was actively trying to find a position inside Omnicom.
The bridges are still up even though I am gone. But for now it is a bridge too far.
Comments
Thank you for always inspiring growth.
"Never Burn Bridges" is actually one of the subcomponents of my father's contribution. I cannot comprehend how few people take this advice to heart; maybe I should simply consider myself lucky to have this as a core principle.
Simply put, there is no conceivable economic gain (economic in the true academic sense here, not money) in burning a bridge.
The formula is:
Expected Payback = Cost of Burning Bridge + probability of Loss*(Future cost of falling in river) + probability of a gain*(Future Gain from falling in river)
Let us assume the Cost of Burning the Bridge is 0 (writing nasty email, badmouthing former employer)
Let us also agree that the Future Gain of falling in the river is basically 0 (no reasonable assumption that you gain anything by having enemies)
Future Loss is always a negative, although the probability might be very small.
At best, this equates to Zero (if there is no future loss), but there is the possibility of some cost (however slight). So we have a (-X, 0) solution set, and the expected outcome is always negative for this.
Flip the equation around (you can do this as a homework exercise) to generate the expected Gain of NOT burning the bridge. You will see you end up with a (0, +X) solution set. Therefore the expected outcome is always positive.
According to the fundamentals of classical economics, no rational actor would elect the outcome that GUARANTEES a negative return when a choice with a guaranteed positive return is available.
And they say that U of C grads are too analytical to handle complex philosophical issues....pshaw !