Whatever Happened to Globalization?

But all of that is at the level of structure. The real action is at the level of individual mind-sets. There is no more powerful weapon for a company than an army of engaged, excited people -- especially in the era of the Web. Many years ago, David Ogilvy was lamenting the fact that his firm had grown to the incredible size of 350 people. At first, he thought that this was a huge problem. Then it dawned on him that if each of those people were really excited to be at Ogilvy, and if each of them had 10 friends, then there would be 3,500 people walking around New York, broadcasting positive messages about his firm. Those 3,500 people, in turn, would go to cocktail parties and business meetings, talk about Ogilvy, and create powerful word of mouth. The Web multiplies that "network effect" by a huge order of magnitude. But it's hard to project a sense of greatness if people don't feel great about working with you.

So how do you keep people charged up?

We work hard to connect people, to keep them working together across organizational and national boundaries. And the best way to make such connections -- despite everyone's reliance on email and the Web -- is through old-fashioned physical contact. We organize all sorts of courses, ranging in duration from a single afternoon to a full week. We'll invite 15 to 25 people from maybe a dozen of the WPP companies. We might spend half a day wrestling with one question: How is the Internet reshaping public relations? We might spend several days wrestling with a Harvard Business School case study of WPP. We might bring in clients to discuss a major strategic issue that they face -- a live case study, if you will. These sessions are quite substantial. But the real value lies in the interaction among people who don't usually interact. It creates a kind of social glue. One way or another, about a thousand people go through one of these sessions each year, and we've been holding such events for three years. Over time, that creates a critical mass of connections between people, and it builds our internal network.

Here's another thing that we do: Because I need to stay connected to our organization -- to let people know what's on my mind -- I write to all of our people once a month (through email, of course). I talk about how the company is doing, I discuss a particular issue, I offer my perspective on (say) new business models for the Internet. This monthly email drives our lawyers nuts! But it's a great way to let people know what I'm working on.

This idea is hardly revolutionary. Jacques Nasser, CEO of Ford, writes a weekly email, called Nasser's Notes, that goes to everyone in the company. Those notes are absolutely brilliant. The idea isn't even all that new. I remember having a discussion with someone at British American Tobacco -- the old bat -- about the history of communications at that company. He said that in the company's early days, its chief executive would write a monthly report to all of bat's country managers. This executive used a fountain pen, and it might have taken three months for the report to reach India. I use email, and everyone gets the message in a nanosecond -- which really makes an enormous difference.

What's the most serious weakness plaguing big, global companies -- American or otherwise?

The battle for talent. Let's start with our business. As an industry, advertising is simply not getting its fair share of outstanding young people. The really talented people are going into investment banking, into consulting, or into Silicon Valley startups. They just don't find the advertising business to be very compelling.

Why is the ad business losing the battle for talent? Because it doesn't try hard enough. It doesn't commit the resources or the attention that Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Andersen Consulting are willing to commit to that battle. At WPP, we've been taking steps to compete more effectively. Five years ago, for example, we started the WPP Fellowship Program. We recruit the best of the best for a three-year tour of duty, including one year in each of three different WPP companies. A recruit might spend a year in London with J. Walter Thompson, a year in San Francisco doing market research with Millward Brown, and a year in New York doing pr with Hill & Knowlton. We've received 5,000 applications for a program that has just 50 slots per year. But do you know what I find most surprising about this fellowship program? That it's generated so little response from our competitors.

But don't get the wrong idea: The talent question doesn't just affect our business. There are big, global companies in every industry that seem to operate on an inhuman scale. Young people come into an organization, look up at the heights they have to ascend, and wonder if they'll ever get there. And there continues to be major resistance in big companies to giving young people responsibility early on. I understand that sentiment: If you've just spent 30 years climbing to the top of an organization, your attitude is going to be "Other people should serve the same apprenticeship that I did." You're not going to be very sympathetic to the idea that a 30-year-old can do your job as well as you can.