OMD boss Peter Horgan: I pushed my staff too hard
The CEO of media agency OMD has described the aftermath of losing the media account for Westpac in 2011, conceding that he made a mistake in the year that followded by pushing staff “very hard” to try to win new business to replace the $70m account.
In an interview with the Australian Education Times, which uses children as its interviewers, Peter Horgan speaks openly and honestly about the impact the account loss had on the business.
“The failures I look back on are where I let people down,” Horgan says in the video. “You become too focused on a new business target or a client demand and you push your team too hard and you forget the human side of the teams that are working for you and are doing their best.
Good to see an agency CEO recognissing that pushing staff to continually work very long hours is bad for business
FFS doenst a seasoned CEO like Peter Horgan know this stuff already?
Mea Culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa……Catharsis….OOps! Purgatio Purgatio Purgatio
It’s hard to understand the comments of Peter without knowing the context of losing Westpac.
Is the acknowledgement of the mistake of intentionally as in in cold blood decided to disrupt staffs lives by pushing them beyond points that are healthy or balanced or is it the acknowledgement of poor management by the leadership.
It is interesting in that the victors can always write the history. By this I mean that Carat for example probably flogged their staff harder to win Woolworths – but they won so no acknowledgement of this is delivered. OMD on the other hand have pushed people to hard – a gamble on winning if you will – but having failed to win business are unable to write history as victors and there acknowledge a poor strategy which is fair enough.
Beyond Peters comments it is sad that we operate in an industry where staff are seen as pawns to be pushed to levels that are not ethical and exploited for corporate financial gain.
Open question to Peter:
Have you compensated your staff mate?
Is it still happening?