Adweek interviewed incoming DDB North America CEO and President Wendy Clark, and the Q&A included the following:
How will you measure success?The highest metric is going to be the recruitment and retention of talent. If you’ve got the talent, and you’ve got people who want to put every ounce of their energy and their thinking into creating our clients’ businesses and outcomes, then the other things will fall into place. The awards and the revenue growth and everything else will come from peoples’ belief and desire to create the best work of their life.
Great. Clark’s imperative for recruitment and retention of talent makes no reference to diversity. As previously predicted, expect Clark to divert diversity by improving opportunities for White women at DDB. Thank heaven Omnicom Chief Diversity Officer Tiffany R. Warren is there to ensure other minority groups are addressed—when she’s not too busy dealing with ADCOLOR® Awards.
BTW, why does Clark’s photo look like a promotional shot for a network sitcom?
"If you’ve got the talent, and you’ve got people who want to put every ounce of their energy and their thinking into creating our clients’ businesses and outcomes, then the other things will fall into place."
ReplyDeleteI wish someone would ask her how she plans to create a level playing field at DDB. Most of the ethnic hires I know come through the door so exhausted from jumping through hoops of fire that they're half burnt out before they get inside the agency.
They're subjected to multiple diversity fairs to find someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows a decision maker; credential checks; multiple portfolio reviews; the cost of filling those portfolios in the first place with good and labor- and time-intensive work; having to go out and recreate work because they're told "ethnic market" work is too specialized, etc.
Meanwhile I've seen so many white kids hired because they're friends with someone in the agency, and somehow manage to magically bypass all the hoops above, including background checks and deep looks at their books.
I have to assume it's somewhat easier to "put all of your energy and and thinking" on the table when someone pulls up a seat they've made especially for you. Not so much when you're not invited to the party and then expected to build a ladder to the window in the room in the first place.
Amen, brother.
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