License to lead

Asia Pacific president of Leo Burnett Michelle Kristula Green puts the talent issue in perspective, gives her take what the creative product should achieve, and tells what it means to be a woman in a male-dominated business. Debbie Cai gets a slot in her packed schedule.

What are your main challenges?

One of them is finding good talent, keeping good talent, and keeping the compensation levels competitive. As an industry we're much more fee based and clients are always trying to cut back on fees - want more for less - and really good talent is not only looking at your industry but they're looking at other industries where they might be able to make more. People are going to change industries, there's not much you can do about that. What I don't want is people leaving for other agencies.

The issue of how to train and retain talent is something we're taking very seriously. Internally, we have Leo Burnett University (LBU), Ad College (for junior staff) and a Senior Management Programme (SMP) that targets up to the MDs. It's a lot less about skills and a lot more about competency and leadership qualities. We're also working with the Publicis Group on an executive management programme to be offered in Asia for very senior people. In China, we have a relationship with Digitas and they are helping us come up with a Digital Boot Camp for China early next year.

Have these programmes really helped u retain talent?

It's hard to do a real quantification of that because you're always going to have turnover. The issue is ‘are you turning over slower'? One of the things we look at is the annual climate surveys which we do globally, which Asia has typically done very well in.

What's your take on Leo Burnett's creative work?

We're all about our creative reputation because that's what people see. I need to make sure we've got the right creative product and we're doing good work for clients that works for their business. What you want is to be able to move product and build the right image for the company/brand.

How viable is this market?

Singapore is a challenge because it's still very retail oriented and a bit of a fast churn market. And it seems there's quite a bit of pitching. Thus the Courts win was a really big one - because it's a retail market it's good to have a retail client like Courts. A lot of multinational agencies are here because there's a good talent base and a lot of multinational clients center their operations here.

You're a woman in a business predominantly run by men. How do you see this?

Being a woman is not a barrier at all. There are great opportunities in this business for females. In this space, you have people like Shelly Lazarus obviously, who is at the very top of O&M. There's Linda Locke who's very senior and there's Linda Wolfe who ran Leo Burnett globally before Tom Bernardine.

More recently there have been a lot of women who think it's just too fast paced along with trying to raise a family and trying to do other things. Sometimes people get out of it because you have to make that commitment to the time and energy going into it. I don't feel it's because there're barriers to it - you just have to work hard, just as guys do.

Is a career in advertising what u wanted as a young person?

No, I didn't even know there was such an industry called advertising. I studied Far Eastern languages and civilisation, with a focus on Chinese history and Chinese language - nothing to do with business. I also worked as a tour director in mainland China back in the late 70s.

A career counsellor hooked me up with someone from Leo Burnett and I joined its training programme with the mentality that I'd only be here for two years. I had no idea I would be here for so long - over 20 years. After the first interview I went to the library and read probably a year's worth of AdAge magazines. And now I tell people if you're looking at jobs read the industry publications and if you enjoy reading them then you'd probably enjoy the industry you're getting into.

In the little spare time you have, what do you enjoy doing?

I'm an absolute fanatic on exercise. My priority when I travel is a hotel with a good gym and figuring out how to get to the gym in the morning. And I ski, although I don't have many chances anymore. I also read a lot. With my husband and kids, I have a daughter and a son who are 20 and 18, we're used to doing family stuff.

 

Box out

Michelle on the road - we walk you through three days in her busy schedule

13 August 2007 (HK - Singapore)

Noon - Touch down at Changi Airport. Quick check of emails on the Blackberry. Head to Leo Burnett Singapore to meet editor of Marketing magazine, Debbie, who is interviewing me for a profile piece.

2:20pm - Wrap up interview, grab an apple for lunch and quickly review some background for 3pm client meeting on George St.

4.30pm - Hop over to Orchard Cineleisure's K Box to join Kurt (MD of the Singapore office) and the Singapore team as they celebrated Leo Burnett's 72nd Founders Day.  

5.30pm - Left for the gym for a 50 minute run before heading out to dinner with Linda Locke to discuss the Engage2007 conference.

10:30pm - Back to Fullerton Hotel, clear emails, stream National Public Radio from the internet and get to bed.

14 August 2007 (Singapore)

7am - Room service, phone calls and emails. Follow up on active projects. 

9:30am - Start at the office with planning director, Angela Koch for brainstorming on a new thought leadership project.

11am - Catch up with a Burnetter to discuss next steps in the company, how his role fits in and individual development.

Noon - Grabbed a quick salad from O'Briens while returning phone calls and more emails.

1:15pm - Quick review of next meetings slides with the team... plus a few last minute changes

2pm to 4pm - Meeting with a client to talk about our design capability

4pm to 6:30pm - Quick internal discussion on next steps following client meeting; talent review tele-conference with Hong Kong; catch up with Kurt on new business activity; quick discussion on a possible move with someone else. Missed my 5pm call... Walk back to the hotel, grab a salad on the way back...place the missed call that lasts till 8pm.

8pm to 9pm - Quick workout.  Eat and catch a few minutes of TV then back to the email and on-going projects. 

After 10 pm - End of another day in Singapore. Only looked at the first page of the Herald Tribune...will bring it on the plane.

Aug 15 (Singapore - Jakarta)

8:45am - Check out and leave for a full-day client meeting with the head of the region.

5:30pm - leave for Changi to head to Jakarta on 7pm flight where I read three days worth of newspapers and write up a summary of the meeting plus implications for global account head. 

9pm - finally get to the hotel and SMS the regional finance director to meet up for drinks in the lobby.

10:30pm - Bed.