Name: J. Walter Thompson’s CEO Took Over Amid a Company Scandal
Uploaded: 2016-10-18
Duration: 4 min 29 s
Description: She took over after previous CEO made sexist comments

[ MUSIC ] Tamara took over after the company's previous CEO stepped down abruptly amid a discrimination lawsuit that accused him of racist and sexist slurs and inappropriate language and behavior. So it was A tumultuous time to say the least. Tomorrow has had an incredibly impressive career in advertising, she's been CEO of two different London agency offices. And was chief client officer at WPPP just prior, so this was a logical step for her. But it happened very abruptly, so why don't we begin tomorrow with just telling us. What that was like to step into a company at that time in that kind of context. All right, the first thing is when something happens incredibly quickly you have to remember the fragility of The people you leave as well as the people you go into. And it really took less than 24 hours, 12 hours. So I was very conscious of all the people I cherished I work with to say goodbye well, in a very short state of time. But also for the people I was meeting, to say hello. And to do it in a way that honored the fact they would be in a moment of change. And to acknowledge their feelings. So I think that's the key thing, to arrive realizing that it is a human business, and particularly now an advertising business and one needs to acknowledge goodbyes as well as hellos. Yes. The way it went down you, it was announced at noon, by one 0 clock you were at the company and at three 0 clock you did a town hall? What was that, I mean Well, there wasn't much planning I have to be honest. Yes. I left the agency at one 0 clock. I wanted to make sure that. Some people I knew would feel fragile. I would see before th town hall. Then at the town hall obviously my task was to give people a sense of security, continuity, stability and hunger. When you're in these moments they're moments of opportunity cuz the world only expects bad things And if you can expect a wonderful thing [ UNKNOWN ], it gives people a sense of confidence and a place, a vision to go to. So that's what I try to do at 3 o'clock. [ LAUGH ] So I want to talk about what you are doing, what your plan is for JWT, but before that, a few months later another advertising executive Saatchi & Saatchi stepped down for also Controversial remarks, [ UNKNOWN ]. And so there has been a lot of attention lately about advertising having a gender problem. You know, being a sexist culture and just having issues around women at the top and just having a cultural issue as well, and It seems to me you would think advertising is a creative issue, creative industry, it would be progressive, but is there a broader problem in the industry. I think until the leadership represents the streets we live in wherever we are in the world And I mean totally in the population, we will all have a problem. I actually think advertising therefore is not as good as many of us in the industry would like it to be. But I don't think that it is worse than many companies. But I'm absolutely clear until we represent our street We will not be good enough. And, for me, this is vital and vital for our company strategy. If we're going to have a divergent product offer, we need divergent thinking and people from many areas. And I feel this incredibly strongly I think if we look at the Malaysia politics. Brexit, very dear to my heart. The election, also extraordinary in this country, I believe it's cuz we have a forgotten 30 %. When when I think about diversity of people, I think about obviously women, I think about sexuality, I think about any ethnic group. But I also think about people who don't go to the same universities Have the same educations. I'm very interested in the graduates of life. We are about innovation. We're about engaging people trues against our products. We cannot deliver it if we don't have the people that represent the communities we live in. I don't think we have a bad problem. We have a lot, all of us in this room is leaders. Have a lot to do and it would take a lot of intervention. [ MUSIC ]

She took over after previous CEO made sexist comments