Organizational vision with a global outlook had to replace the agency's reliance upon a successful dynamic within its internal organizational culture. Clients had to understand what Ogilvy could provide for their own brands, in a unique fashion, and to do this Ogilvy had to have a strong reputation or brand. What is your assessment of the process Beers and her team went through to create the vision?

Although Beers' expansive vision statement was a seismic attitudinal change for the company, Beers deployed a fairly participative management style in achieving this vision. She was intent upon bringing many members of Ogilvy's senior executives into the debate, as she was still an outsider to the organization and thus did not wish to act in an entirely autocratic manner. By doing this, Beers focused on creating open chains of communication, to fully integrate the various divisions and members of the organizations, all of who played critical roles in aligning the different strategic objectives of the organization into the vision statement.

Essentially, in the new Ogilvy, communication had to be lateral, or across different parts of the organization, as lateral integration was a goal of its new unifying vision.

What are the challenges facing Beers at the end of the case?

When Beers came to Ogilvy...

She was also a female in a still largely male-dominated industry. The insider culture of Ogilvy was quite resistant to any outsider, and the clubby, male ethos at the agency was a further obstacle in establishing control over the agency. Resistance, even after establishing a successful general vision statement, remained difficult to overcome.
Also, however powerful a new vision statement may seem, implementing the vision can be far more problematic on an organizational level. Because the vision statement was supposed to be so totally encompassing, creating a truly global company with a new image proved difficult on all of the organization's different divisions and international locations. Aligning all of the various spheres of Ogilvy under this vision statement was more difficult to do than to define in words.

Thus, at the end of the case Beers is confronted with the challenge of making sure that the various international parts of the organization are all under the same new 'brand' or vision, yet are still responsive to local or client needs. The various divisions must 'fit in' with what is needed at the moment for a particular environment or account, yet still have the aura of the new Ogilvy approach or brand.