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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
CHAMPION OF ADVERTISING
In an age when advertising agencies are bought and sold like commodities,
O&M remains distinctive. As part of the huge WPP communications family,
O&M has retained a unique identity as the agency of brands: identity, image,
inspiration, and aspiration. At O&M they call it 360 Degree Brand Steward-
ship, touching all the points where the consumer meets the product or
service—on the shelf, in a commercial, in a print ad, using the product, or
dreaming of the product. “Once the enterprise understands what the brand is
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all about, it gives direction to the whole enterprise.” The responsibility for
ensuring brand consistency falls on employees. “They are absolutely critical.
If the people who work in a company don’t understand what the brand is, if
they can’t articulate what the brand’s all about, then who can?” 15
At the same, Lazarus believes that you have to make the communications
genuine. “People don’t like being given messages,” says Lazarus, “but they
love listening to stories. I encounter fresh new examples every day of the prin-
ciples I consider important. I find them at work, in my everyday life, in the
media, and anecdotally. When I communicate principles using fresh, real life
examples, stories that tell a tale, people always ‘get it’that much better.”
Her ability to be articulate has made Shelly Lazarus one of the most
quoted advertising executives, not simply because of her gender but because
of her insights. “Consider the value an ad agency brings. We help build brands,
and a brand is the most critical asset a company has today. Sure, we’re under
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more scrutiny from clients, but accountability means credibility.” Lazarus
believes that an ad agency is really a “business partner” that is responsible for
helping to grow the client’s business. Toward that end, Lazarus would like to
see the agency become a partner that can help to integrate advertising, mar-
keting, and internal communications. 17
The business of advertising is cyclical. Lazarus’s belief in its power to
influence is not. “The ad industry isn’t struggling for a new set of principles or
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abandoning the ones that made it great from the start.” Despite downturns,
Lazarus says, “I’m having more fun than at any other moment in my 30-year
advertising career. The game is more interesting and more relevant than
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ever.” In 2001, O&M won more than $700 million in new billings. That same
year, Advertising Age, the industry’s top trade magazine, recognized O&M as
“the outstanding American agency.” 20

INTEGRATION OF WORK AND LIFE
Lazarus has mingled her personal and professional lives in a way that makes
her a role model. She and her husband, George, a pediatrician, both hold
demanding jobs, but they make time for their three children, including finding
time for skiing together. Her kids “insist that I ski alongside them without my