I’ve always believed that crisis reveals character. How we help clients navigate and thrive during crisis, treat our people with authenticity and empathy, and support societal progress reveals our values as a business, and our character as leaders. As with any crisis, the world watched how brands, businesses and governments responded to COVID-19. The world watched the effects of climate change take its toll on our natural resources and communities. And finally, the world watched in horror the eight minutes and 46 seconds that shook us to the core.
Clients often ask me whether I’m still optimistic about the future, and I say: absolutely. The reason is because while the world watched crises unfold, we also took action for better outcomes. I’m a big believer in the power of mobilizing people, ideas and resources to catalyze change.
In the following letter, I reflect on four key learnings that I’ve gained as a CEO leading in a crisis. This hindsight has been hard earned and every indication that with grit and innovation, we can all be a force for good and growth in 2021.
Be agile in adjusting to what your new reality requires – don’t fight it
Ease and expertise. The truth is while dentsu has always had deep expertise across creative, media and customer experience management, our operating and delivery model didn’t have the agility and ease that clients needed. We know our clients want fewer partners to solve bigger problems and simplicity needs to be at the core of that value proposition.
Over the past few months, we’ve crystallized our new delivery model to be ‘integrated by design.’ We stood up a teaming platform that: 1. Integrates client leadership, 2. Puts consumer intelligence at the center of our innovation and 3. Seamlessly brings together creative, media and CXM expertise in service of growth and good. We’re operating in a way that works for clients, creates agility and speed to market. A testament to this is our client NPS score, which was higher than 2019 and has also outpaced the industry average.
When the circumstance is out of your control - remember that the response is not
So, we did three things right away:
When I became CEO for the Americas in January, dentsu was enjoying organic growth that was higher than our peers. Our tech enablement capabilities were experiencing double digit growth, and we were looking forward to a great year. Obviously, what followed compromised that outlook, as it did for everyone. We watched a global health crisis become an economic crisis, that later fueled a social crisis.
While the global pandemic was out of our control, our response to it was not. We knew that we needed to connect with our people and our clients in new ways. And, in the absence of certainty, we needed to provide clarity that could get us from now to next.
We focused on creating a culture where people could still feel connected and supported, despite being remote. We also spoke to our people regularly. We’ve had more town halls, focus groups and forums for sharing opinions (and frustrations) than ever before. And despite some of the hard decisions that we’ve had to make, we were pleased to see that our overall employee NPS scores were higher than 2019 – all credit to transparency.
Anticipating client needs, we quickly launched contactless commerce solutions, identity capabilities reliant on first-party data and a global content operation that produces high-quality content at low cost. We found ourselves working with partners outside the ‘traditional marketing remit’ - rethinking supply chains, enabling ‘total commerce’ and elevating diversity, equity and inclusion across brand ecosystems.
We stayed focused on what made us different: knowing people better than anyone else. Since March, we've hosted nearly 20 clients roundtables to understand changing needs and challenges. Our strategy teams regularly tracked customer sentiment across key verticals to share with clients to help inform faster, better business decisions.
Our tech teams worked around the clock to help us and our clients seamlessly adapt to a remote work culture, and create strong engagement with employees and customers in innovative and creative ways. Our team’s drive to deliver was recognized – over the course of the year, dentsu’s client NPS scores in every market in the Americas increased.
Remember why
you started
I joined this industry 30 years ago with the hope of creating meaningful change. So, this summer, when we saw actions inconsistent with our values and heard rhetoric that was in sharp contrast with our beliefs, we stayed focused on “our why.”
We had some tough conversations among ourselves, and what we realized was that we were often treating symptoms, but never fully addressing the root cause. We need to holistically rethink where diversity, equity and inclusion sat in our organization and how it permeates the work we do with clients, communities and partners.
With partners like SeeHer, we pushed the conversation further on gender equality and representation. In partnership with New York State, we encouraged adoption of contract-tracing applications to combat the spread of COVID-19. And with clients like P&G and Microsoft, we continued to diversify the media supply chain with minority owned and operated media, greater multicultural representation, accessibility and more.
I’m excited to announce in 2021, dentsu Media, in collaboration with Black storytellers, creators and media partners, will launch an authentic storytelling engine that helps our clients build a supportive, representative ecosystem for Black voices and communities. As an industry, we have a long road ahead of us, but in order to create meaningful change, we need to act deliberately and not simply to delight.
We can’t be deterred by negative headlines, distracted by competitors or sidelined by crisis. The thrill of this industry is that it never stands still and so we need to put in the work to capitalize on opportunity. Along with my collective leadership team, we are relentless in finding new paths to growth and good in 2021 – for our own business and our clients.
I am also equally confident in the diversity, expertise and innovative thinking that our people bring to every conversation, brief and proposal. Along with our media and technology partners, I have full confidence that we lead the next frontier in marketing – not as a sense-and-respond partner, but rather an anticipate-and-lead partner.
To close, I wish our people, clients and partners a wonderful holiday season. I hope everyone disconnects, stays present with family and friends [even if socially distant] and finds the inspirational fuel that they need to push growth and good forward in 2021.
dentsu Americas
Put in the work. It’s the difference between realized ambition and lost opportunity.
I’ve always believed that crisis reveals character. How we help clients navigate and thrive during crisis, treat our people with authenticity and empathy, and support societal progress reveals our values as a business, and our character as leaders. As with any crisis, the world watched how brands, businesses and governments responded to COVID-19. The world watched the effects of climate change take its toll on our natural resources and communities. And finally, the world watched in horror the eight minutes and 46 seconds that shook us to the core.
Clients often ask me whether I’m still optimistic about the future, and I say: absolutely. The reason is because while the world watched crises unfold, we also took action for better outcomes. I’m a big believer in the power of mobilizing people, ideas and resources to catalyze change.
In the following letter, I reflect on four key learnings that I’ve gained as a CEO leading in a crisis. This hindsight has been hard earned and every indication that with grit and innovation, we can all be a force for good and growth in 2021.
When the circumstance is out of your control - remember that the response is not
So, we did three things right away:
When I became CEO for the Americas in January, dentsu was enjoying organic growth that was higher than our peers. Our tech enablement capabilities were experiencing double digit growth, and we were looking forward to a great year. Obviously, what followed compromised that outlook, as it did for everyone. We watched a global health crisis become an economic crisis, that later fueled a social crisis.
While the global pandemic was out of our control, our response to it was not. We knew that we needed to connect with our people and our clients in new ways. And, in the absence of certainty, we needed to provide clarity that could get us from now to next.
We focused on creating a culture where people could still feel connected and supported, despite being remote. We also spoke to our people regularly. We’ve had more town halls, focus groups and forums for sharing opinions (and frustrations) than ever before. And despite some of the hard decisions that we’ve had to make, we were pleased to see that our overall employee NPS scores were higher than 2019 – all credit to transparency.
Anticipating client needs, we quickly launched contactless commerce solutions, identity capabilities reliant on first-party data and a global content operation that produces high-quality content at low cost. We found ourselves working with partners outside the ‘traditional marketing remit’ - rethinking supply chains, enabling ‘total commerce’ and elevating diversity, equity and inclusion across brand ecosystems.
We stayed focused on what made us different: knowing people better than anyone else. Since March, we've hosted nearly 20 clients roundtables to understand changing needs and challenges. Our strategy teams regularly tracked customer sentiment across key verticals to share with clients to help inform faster, better business decisions.
Our tech teams worked around the clock to help us and our clients seamlessly adapt to a remote work culture, and create strong engagement with employees and customers in innovative and creative ways. Our team’s drive to deliver was recognized – over the course of the year, dentsu’s client NPS scores in every market in the Americas increased.
Be agile in adjusting to what your new reality requires – don’t fight it
Ease and expertise. The truth is while dentsu has always had deep expertise across creative, media and customer experience management, our operating and delivery model didn’t have the agility and ease that clients needed. We know our clients want fewer partners to solve bigger problems and simplicity needs to be at the core of that value proposition.
Over the past few months, we’ve crystallized our new delivery model to be ‘integrated by design.’ We stood up a teaming platform that: 1. Integrates client leadership, 2. Puts consumer intelligence at the center of our innovation and 3. Seamlessly brings together creative, media and CXM expertise in service of growth and good. We’re operating in a way that works for clients, creates agility and speed to market. A testament to this is our client NPS score, which was higher than 2019 and has also outpaced the industry average.
Remember why
you started
I joined this industry 30 years ago with the hope of creating meaningful change. So, this summer, when we saw actions inconsistent with our values and heard rhetoric that was in sharp contrast with our beliefs, we stayed focused on “our why.”
We had some tough conversations among ourselves, and what we realized was that we were often treating symptoms, but never fully addressing the root cause. We need to holistically rethink where diversity, equity and inclusion sat in our organization and how it permeates the work we do with clients, communities and partners.
With partners like SeeHer, we pushed the conversation further on gender equality and representation. In partnership with New York State, we encouraged adoption of contract-tracing applications to combat the spread of COVID-19. And with clients like P&G and Microsoft, we continued to diversify the media supply chain with minority owned and operated media, greater multicultural representation, accessibility and more.
I’m excited to announce in 2021, dentsu Media, in collaboration with Black storytellers, creators and media partners, will launch an authentic storytelling engine that helps our clients build a supportive, representative ecosystem for Black voices and communities. As an industry, we have a long road ahead of us, but in order to create meaningful change, we need to act deliberately and not simply to delight.
We can’t be deterred by negative headlines, distracted by competitors or sidelined by crisis. The thrill of this industry is that it never stands still and so we need to put in the work to capitalize on opportunity. Along with my collective leadership team, we are relentless in finding new paths to growth and good in 2021 – for our own business and our clients.
I am also equally confident in the diversity, expertise and innovative thinking that our people bring to every conversation, brief and proposal. Along with our media and technology partners, I have full confidence that we lead the next frontier in marketing – not as a sense-and-respond partner, but rather an anticipate-and-lead partner.
To close, I wish our people, clients and partners a wonderful holiday season. I hope everyone disconnects, stays present with family and friends [even if socially distant] and finds the inspirational fuel that they need to push growth and good forward in 2021.
dentsu Americas
Put in the work. It’s the difference between realized ambition and lost opportunity.