Question

Read the mini-case, Lessons in Leadership from Ann Fudge and answer the questions at the end.

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Lessons on Leadership from Ann Fudge

How do you rescue one of the largest advertising and media services firms in the world from a downward spiral? That is the question Martin Sorrell faced when his London-based WPP Group acquired Young & Rubicam in 2000. After many years on top, Y&R was starting to lose momentum—and clients. Kentucky Fried Chicken, United Airlines, and Burger King had all decided to take their advertising dollars elsewhere. Sorrell needed to stop the exodus, but how? Sorrell decided a fresh face was needed and started a search for a dynamic new CEO to revitalize Y&R. He found such a leader in Ann Fudge.

Ann Fudge was formerly president of Kraft Foods. At Kraft she had been responsible for the success of the $5 billion division that included well-known brands such as Maxwell House, Grape Nuts, Shredded Wheat, and General Foods International Coffees. Fudge’s reputation as a charismatic leader who listens was a major issue for Sorrell when he went looking for a new CEO for Y&R. Among the talents Fudge had to offer was an ability to interact effectively with all constituencies of a consumer business. Mattel Chairman and CEO Bob Eckert was Fudge’s boss when he was president and CEO of Kraft. Of Fudge, Eckert says, “She is equally comfortable with consumers at the ballpark, factory workers on a production line, and executives in the boardroom. She could engage all three constituents in the same day and be comfortable. She is very comfortable with herself, and she’s not pretending to be someone else. That’s what makes her such an effective leader.” Fudge’s commitment to her work and the people she works with is evident in the lessons she offers to other leaders:

1. Be yourself; do not feign behavior that you think will make you “successful.”

2. Always remember it’s the people, not you. A leader cannot be a leader if he/she has no followers. Be honest with people. Give them feedback. Put the right people in the right jobs. Surround yourself with the smartest people you can find—people who will offer differing perspectives and diversity of experience, age, gender, and race.

3. Touch your organization. It’s easy to get stuck behind your desk. Fight the burden of paperwork and get out in the field. Don’t be a remote leader. You cannot create a dynamic culture if people can’t see, hear, and touch you. Let them know you as a person.

4. Steer the wheel with a strategic focus, yet maintain a wide peripheral vision. Know when to stop, speed up, slow down, brake quickly, swerve, or even gun it!

Fudge had a difficult decision to make when she was approached by Sorrell about the position at Y&R. She was in the midst of a two-year break—after 24 years working for corporate America, Fudge had decided to take some time for herself. She had left her position as president of Kraft Foods in 2001 based not on her dissatisfaction with her job, but on a desire to define herself by more than her career. “It was definitely not satisfaction, it was more about life,” says Fudge about her sabbatical. During her two-year break she traveled, cycling around Sardinia and Corsica; she took up yoga; and she wrote a book called The Artist’s Way at Work— a manual for improving creativity and innovation on the job.

Fudge took on the challenge and has not looked back. In her tenure at Y&R she has worked hard to get Y&R back on top. She has traveled the globe to visit Y&R employees. She frequently puts in 15-hour days pushing her strategy to focus on clients, encouraging teamwork, and improving creativity. A major undertaking for Fudge is to bring together the various business entities under the Y&R umbrella to better meet client needs. She’s also trying to institute a Six Sigma method for creativity—looking for ways to increase productivity so employees have more time to be creative. Fudge’s hard work is paying off. Y&R has recently added Microsoft and Toys R Us to its client list, and if Fudge has her way, the list will continue to grow until Y&R is back on top.

Questions:

1. Where would Ann Fudge be placed in each of the Five Factor Model ( FFM) categories?

2. Consider the components of creative intelligence from Table 6.3. Identify the key components that have affected Ann Fudge’s success.

3. Ann Fudge decided to take a sabbatical to focus on her personal life. Based on her experience, what are the benefits of such a break? What might be some drawbacks?

Table 6-3: *if needed

The following is a list of things leaders can do if they wish to stifle the creativity of their followers:

Take away all discretion and autonomy: People like to have some sense of control over their work. Micromanaging staff will help to either create yea-sayers or cause people to mentally disengage from work.

Create fragmented work schedules: People need large chunks of uninterrupted time to work on novel solutions. Repeated interruptions or scheduling “novel solution generation time” in 15-minute increments around other meetings will disrupt people’s ability to be innovative.

Provide insufficient resources: People need proper data, equipment, and money to be creative. Cut these off, and watch creativity go down the tubes.

Focus on short-term goals: Asking a person to be creative at a specific moment is like asking a comedian to be funny the first time you meet him or her. People can be creative and funny if given enough time, but focusing on only short-term outcomes will dampen creativity.

Create tight timelines and rigid processes: The tighter the deadlines and less flexible the processes, the more chance that innovation will be reduced.

Discourage collaboration and coordination: The best ideas often come from teams having members with different work experiences and functional backgrounds. By discouraging cross-functional collaboration, leaders can help guarantee that team members will offer up only tried-and-true solutions to problems.

Keep people happy: If you keep workers happy enough, they will have little motivation to change the status quo.

Answer 1

1. Ann Fudge was a very successful woman who was very enthusiastic about her job. She took pride in being original and was committed to her work. In the five-factor mode, Ann Fudge would be placed in three different categories such as openness to experience, agreeableness, and neuroticism. When talking about openness to experience, it is concerned with curiosity, innovative thinking, assimilating new information, and open to new experiences. It describes a person’s personality. In the mini cases study Ann Fudge decided that after working 24 years in corporate America, she was going to take some time off to figure out her life and have some time to herself. During her time away from corporate America, Fudge traveled to different countries to visit and embark on some new experiences. People with this personality trait enjoy traveling to different countries, seeking new experiences through travel. Ann Fudge’s success was based on her ability to be strategic and being a big picture thinker; this denotes her high level of openness to experience. Ann Fudge had a great ability to get along well with others. From the case, it points out that Ann Fudge was equally comfortable with consumers at the ballpark, factory workers on a production line, and executives in the bored room. Ann fudge was approachable and easy to get a long with; she demonstrated this by being a charismatic leader who simply listened. These personality traits demonstrated agreeableness, which concerns how one gets a long with, as opposed to gets ahead of others. Fudge also demonstrated neuroticism, which deals with how people react to stress, change, failure, or personal criticism. People with these personality traits remain calm in pressure situations, and is able to handle personal criticism well. This was demonstrated when Fudge’s boss expressed how she was very comfortable with herself and she is not pretending to be some she’s not. Having this trait indicates that she can handle any constructive criticism and not take it personal.

2. The key components that have impacted Ann Fudges life has to be the analytic intelligence and practical intelligence and synthetic ability.

3. When Ann Fudge took a sabbatical to focus on her life, she was able to accomplish many things. She wanted more out of life than to be defined only by her career. During her break one of the benefits that she was able to experience was traveling. Fudge enjoyed traveling to different countries such as Sardinia and Corsica. She was also able to enjoy different activities such as yoga. Another benefit that she experience while on her leave was becoming an author of a book she wrote called “The Artist’s Way at Work.” In my opinion, there were no drawbacks. She took the time to redefine herself as a person. When she came back she was more successful than ever. Fudge took the job at Y&R and worked hard to put the company back on top, and her hard work paid off at the end.