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TRANSCRIPT:
DOUG: Chris, let’s jump right into it. What’s one of the most important lessons you’ve learned about industry consolidation?
CHRIS: Thanks for the opportunity to be here. I’d say the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that integration is fundamentally about people, right? I think the financial and regulatory transactions happen in due time, but building one organization takes time, right? It’s about creating trust with employees, maintaining confidence with clients, and being clear about, you know, where you’re headed. You have to resist the temptation, I think, to focus inward as much. Clients expect us to deliver, you know, while we’re integrating, right? So, every decision should answer one question, I think. Does this make us a stronger partner for our clients? And if we keep people and clients at the center, the rest of the integration tends to follow, but let me unpack, if I can, just one of those things real quick, because there are two other lessons I’ve learned. I think the integration is also a leadership exercise, not a financial one, right? I mean, you know, people don’t follow organizational charts. They follow leaders who can communicate clearly and make decisions, you know, with confidence and clarity. So, if you get the leadership right, I think some of the financial and operational synergies actually get easier to realize.
DOUG: Leadership can’t just be about one person. I know you’re extraordinarily influential, but it’s almost like making sure everyone feels like they have a leadership role throughout the organization. So, if you want to pick up with some of your other points, but I just thought that was something that I think is an important sort of take. It’s not just one person doing it all themselves.
CHRIS: I think you’re right. And it’s hard, right? It’s hard to lead. And, you know, one of the things in integrations, mergers, or whatever you may be managing is that there’s uncertainty. And we have to lead and inspire teams through that uncertainty, which takes, you know, a different skill set, but it also does require, it’s all hands-on deck for leaders across the business. So, I think that’s a really good point around extending leaders across organizations in these times.
DOUG: What is something that maybe gets underestimated in the time of transition that you think there needs to be more emphasis on in general?
CHRIS: Organizations tend to underestimate that these transactions are experienced emotionally, not organizationally, right? Leaders are thinking about strategy and operating models, but employers are wondering where do I fit in? You know, is my role going to change? Who’s my manager going to be? Who will I work for? And if we don’t address those very human questions, you know, fairly quickly, transparently, and consistently, I think people will fill those voids with their own assumptions. So, communication isn’t like a work stream, right? It is the work. We also underestimate the cost of uncertainty. Most people can adapt to change faster than I expect and your leaders can expect. They just can’t adapt to ambiguity. So, the longer decisions linger, the more energy people spend speculating instead of servicing clients and building the business. And I’ve learned that making good decisions quickly is often better than waiting for perfect decisions.
DOUG: Yeah, that’s such a great insight with transparency and certainty. And I remember we went through that in Covid and at the time all sudden we’re like, hey, is this the thing that’s going to take out our business after all these years? And we didn’t know, but, you know, fortunately, we were overly transparent, told, hey, we’re trying to get the PPE, we’re going to try and make the salary cuts as minimal as possible for a shorter period. And fortunately, we only had to do that for one pay period and got the PPE turned around that quickly, which just generated so much goodwill, but I think it’s nice if you tell people when times are good, then your credibility to tell them when times are bad. Knowing when times are good, people are going to be like, hey, I want a raise, times are good. You can’t just be nothing on one side and then all out on the other.
CHRIS: And I don’t think you have to have all the answers. I mean, you know, we’re month seven, you know, on this Omnicom PR journey. I don’t have every single answer, but I think, in addition, people want to know, get a lens into my thinking. They want to know where I’m headed strategically and what I’ve learned along the way. So, I do think communication can be broad, but I think, to your point and the point I made, it really is about transparency and honesty, and that’s what’s most important.
DOUG: Yeah. One of the things that you like to talk about is really understanding the time that the operating model of an organization needs to change. I mean, over the course of time, clearly, it’s changing multiple times. Maybe not wholesale change, but incremental and then sometimes wholesale. Obviously, this is a major change you’re going through and leading.
CHRIS: It’s time to change the operating model that made you successful starts getting in the way of the next stage of growth in progress, right? Every operating model is designed, you know, in a, you know, for a moment in time, but markets change, clients change, and technology changes. You know, talent evolves, right? So, I think the mistake leaders make is waiting for when the model breaks to try to change it. If you get to the point where you know your client’s needs are changing faster than your organization can keep up or respond, then I think it’s that’s a clear sign to rethink the operating model for sure.
DOUG: Yeah. So, from top to bottom, how does an organization stay nimble? And there might be a perception that it’s way harder for a larger organization to remain nimble. And some of that is instituting a feeling of entrepreneurship throughout an organization, but what are some of the keys you’re seeing to help the organization stay nimble in a time when change is probably happening faster than it ever seems to have been?
CHRIS: I think it goes back to your point about how you syndicate leadership, right? Remember, large organizations can also be broken up into small component parts, whether it’s a department, practice, division, or market. And I think that’s where, you know, those leaders in those practices, markets, and divisions are much closer to the people in the work, and that’s where you want to get some of that entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to move a little bit faster. I’d also say, though, that, you know, structure is important. You know, there’s a little bit of freedom in structure. It may sound like an oxymoron, but it gives you some of those guardrails to then be able to allow and empower managers across your business to lead and run fast within a bit of a framework. So, I do think structure is important. It should not be a strategy by any stretch, but it does give us sort of the framework and the guardrails that allow leaders to lead and respond in much faster times than you can. As a large enterprise, that’s somewhat silent at times.
DOUG: What I’m hearing from you is another word that it gives is guidance, which is so important. It’s, you know, it’s not just the guardrail of, hey, don’t go off the rails. It’s like, here’s a direction that can really help you move it forward. So, your teams are critical and say the brand or company level in shaping their organization’s reputation. Obviously, in your career, you’re at the point of like helping these organizations, right? How can those PR teams be even more effective in sort of providing that guidance again and actually executing to support the organization’s reputation?
CHRIS: I’m deeply passionate about this area of reputation management strategy. I think the first thing is that PR doesn’t own the organization’s reputation, right? It’s shaped by every experience people have, and customers have with the company. You know, what we do is PR to help the organization to understand, influence, and strengthen the reputation. And that brings together leadership, its employees, its customer service, and its customers. Our customers are now very much a part of the reputation journey with us, investors, and policymakers. So, I do think, you know, reputation is a team sport, and everyone in an organization plays a role in that. So, it’s and, you know, as we know and I know you know all too well, Doug, I mean, reputation isn’t built by what we say, right? It’s built by what we do and how consistently we do that. And I think the more our customers experience that and our clients experience it, the further along we are on that reputation journey.
DOUG: You know, we think of it all. It can be lost in a moment from a brand perspective. It can also be lost in a moment from a manager to employee perspective. I used to have and it was sort of a joke, but true. And I would say, okay, six months of goodwill I’ve generated with a colleague that can be blown up by one small f-up. That’s sort of the equation equality. So, how are you providing your guidance to still have your clients and your teams going for it? But, you know, not being afraid to fail, but still being not wanting to have one of those blow-up moments.
CHRIS: We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on the blow-up moments. I think, you know, where as reputation strategy is evolving, it’s more about reputation readiness, right? Are we clear and honest about where the vulnerabilities live within the enterprise? I mean, have we thought through the multiple scenarios of risk and challenged the reputation? Are we listening to markets? I mean, there are millions of conversations happening every day in social and digital channels about brands. And are we listening to those conversations or are we monitoring? And I think there’s more value in listening, truthfully, because, you know, the market will sort of take us and tell us what we need to focus on, as opposed to searching for something that happened. So, I do think readiness is the way I think for practitioners to get ahead of that. And we think more strategically, and we better prepare organizations for that. I mean, as you know, when you’re up against the clock and you’re in a crisis, I mean, it’s there’s a lot of friction in organizations, but if you can work through some of that in advance, gosh, I mean, imagine having an extra 30 minutes of not having to figure out the chain of command for approvals in a crisis. I mean, that’s worth its weight in gold.
DOUG: Yeah. And there’s monitoring you mentioned and listening, which is obviously much more important. There’s also a chance, especially with how AI is searching for information now to be influencing and affecting those outcomes based on the actions that you take, the content you create on or earned media has come back into vogue. The pendulum swings towards it in a way every once in a while, and we’re of course happy that it swung back towards it in this moment. So, how do you take it to even that next level where you’re helping to shape that. And obviously it’s based on good practice, good product, and good behavior.
CHRIS: It’s product practice behavior for sure. I mean, you know, this is music to my ears, right? I think AI is actually, you know, created an exciting moment for earned. I mean, we are we as practitioners are talking to the systems that are actually shaping and driving options for choice, right? That’s what the algorithms are doing. So, I think our audience has changed within AI and the algorithms, which has forced us to practice and think about communications differently and think about how we generate content differently. That’s still a bit of a work in learning in progress, but I think that is one of the main reasons why, you know, earned is making a comeback is what I said. And you and I spoke earlier on that which, which I think is pretty cool. Those of us who have been practitioners for as long as we have, you know, I’ve always believed in the power of earned, but now we’re seeing earned influence and, you know, it’s moving PR. I made this comment last week in Cannes, from the end of the race to the beginning, right? Which is great for us for earned influence.
DOUG: Yeah. It’s been fantastic. And it’s really such an honor and fun for me to speak to you. I’ve always been a fan when I see the good people do phenomenally well, obviously achieve success at the highest level in the industry. Any final thoughts that you want to leave our audience with?
CHRIS: Your questions have been great. I just would say, you know, this is an industry that I think is going to look very different in the next 2 to 3 years. I think that’s exciting. Those organizations who lean into that who aren’t afraid, you know, or can be afraid and still keep moving I think are going to be the ones who are going to shape it. Who are going to be the ones who are going to lead and, you know, put their thumbprint on the next generation of what PR should look like. I feel privileged to be able to sit and lead Omnicom because we have such a diverse portfolio of agencies, right? Not just our three large PR agencies, but we got a large public affairs shop, and we have small consulting businesses. So, we’re really an end-to-end communication capability, which I think gives me a really, I think, good incubator to innovate and imagine with clients and staff what the future of the organization should look like and how we shape the future of the industry. So, I’d say we should all be, you know, bullish and bold in this moment. This industry’s been good to the two of us. I know you feel the same way. And I just want to make sure, you know, we protect it because I think it’s exciting.
DOUG: Yeah, that’s fantastic. And thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with our podcast audience. I appreciate it.
CHRIS: Happy to do it. Always good to see you, Doug, thanks so much.
