Page 44 - AdNews Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

Profile
Like everyone in the industry, pitches for new business have con- tinued in lockdown, albeit switch- ing from the face-to-face to virtual.
“We’ve been on a number of pitches during this time including the important COVID response comms for the Victorian Government,” says Graham.
“We’re partnering with their internal communications team under the platform -- Staying apart will keep us together.
“They’ve been fantastic as a government unit, and our team in Melbourne, with support from people all over the country, have been brilliant.
“Like many things, pitches are on an accelerated time frame with a pre-recorded pitch in a video sent through, and people respond with innovation and creativity. It was brilliant to watch.”
He says it’s still early days on whether or not the nature of the pitch will change long term because of the experience of the coronavirus.
“Some are on an incredibly fast turn around because of the need,” he says. “Others are on normal timeframes.
“In terms of how we’ve responded to them, I think there’s
“You see your clients with their kids walking past them in the background.”
more openness. Across the group we have a collaborative culture, so it’s been brilliant to watch people building things in online environments in real-time. That collaboration has only accelerated.
“We’ve been able to step back and recognise where our skills are across the entire M&C Saatchi Group, and line up people as needed for pitches.”
In the deep end
Graham thinks he might have to rewrite the classic book, The First 90 Days (Harvard Business Review Press), which everyone gets when appointed CEO. Despite being dropped in during the world’s greatest crisis, the coro- navirus pandemic, he sees the role of CEO as a privilege. Leggett, his predecessor, described Graham -- who was then chief strategy officer -- as
one of the best strategic thinkers in the market.
“We (M&C Saatchi) turned 25 this year globally, and in Australia, and
I’m only the fifth person to have held that title in Australia,” Graham says. “We’ve got long term clients and strong succession planning internally. I’ve been in the business for the best part of six years so a lot of the clients that we’re working with now, I’ve either helped set up their partnership
or led them strategically.”
He suspects others believe he, with his strategy background, may
have a weakness in operational capabilities.
“One of the gifts, for want of a better expression, through this period
has been a fast-tracked MBA around operations in an organisation, and I’ve had the support of a brilliant operational team in making the calls on how we’re going to reset ourselves coming out of this.” he says.