Page 45 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

The Effects of Globalization on Morale 25

High Morale = Synergy and Growth:

The Ogilvy Story

Decades ago, one of the world’s most powerful and creative
geniuses in advertising history, the late David Ogilvy, was
lamenting the fact that his successful ad agency had exploded

in growth to include 350 employees. His first reaction was that
this was going to become a big headache and an unmanage-
able problem. But then the great value and significance of the
agency’s high-employee morale kicked in and shed positive

light on the possibilities of going global.

Ogilvy’s Synergistic “Aha” Moment

David Ogilvy experienced an “aha” moment when he soon real-
ized that if 350 of his employees were genuinely excited,
engaged, and enthusiastic to work at the famous agency and if
each of them had just 10 friends that they would brag to about
their jobs, then there would be 3,500 enthusiastic and excited
people out there walking the streets of New York City spreading

fanatically positive and exciting stories and messages about the
firm. And imagine if those 3,500 people all went to business
meetings, charity events, parties, and grand openings and start-
ed talking up how great it was to work at Ogilvy, this would cre-

ate even more synergy by word-of-mouth and continue to boost
employee morale even higher. And it did.
The legendary advertising guru was practicing globalization
before globalization was a buzzword and before there was an
Internet to make it so much easier to achieve this reality.

Here, set deeply in the roots of the Ogilvy culture, was the
evolution of one man’s thoughts, talents, work ethic, and unlim-
ited enthusiasm, all spread worldwide and translated into much
more than a defining business strategy. Ogilvy’s synergistic

approach became a destiny that gave employees purpose,
meaning, and pride. It also created a highly productive, high
morale workplace. Today Ogilvy (a member of the WPP Group)
appropriately calls itself, “The most local of the internationals,