AWEC Spotlight: Shelly Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather

Shelly Lazarus

Described as one of the most powerful executives in advertising, Shelly Lazarus propelled herself through the corporate world to become chairman and CEO of the billion dollar advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. Under her leadership the company has worked with some of the world’s largest and most respected brands including American Express, BP, Coca-Cola, IBM and Unilever among many others.

For more than 40-decades in the industry, almost all of the time at Ogilvy, Shelly rose through the ranks of Ogilvy & Mather assuming positions of increasing responsibility in the management of the company, including president of O&M Direct North America, Ogilvy & Mather New York and Ogilvy & Mather North America. She was named worldwide CEO of Ogilvy & Mather in 1996 and Chairman in 1997. She became Chairman Emeritus in July 2012.

A role model for businesswomen, Shelly, who also serves as a Board Member of The Center for Global Enterprise, is a long standing supporter of the AWEC program, delivering live presentations on Branding and Advertising with such supreme confidence, energy and passion that each experience is truly unforgettable. 

She took some time out of her schedule to have a conversation with us on the top traits successful brands have in common, the one thing she’d like to see more women entrepreneurs do, and what keeps her coming back to support AWEC year in and year out.

As someone who led one of the largest marketing and PR companies in the world, what have we achieved as women business leaders and what do you see as the biggest challenges ahead?

One of the biggest achievements that we often overlook is that women are just naturally present in business as we are in the world! Any room you walk into as a business environment now has just as many women as men.

Women have also proven that we can lead and successfully run the largest organizations in the companies.

But until the women have gotten to the very top rank, women will still question whether they have unlimited opportunity but it’s just a question of time to have women stay in there and achieve the highest levels, we certainly can and are capable of it. 

On the other hand, women have very complex lives because we bear a lot of burdens. We talk a lot about equity and dividing responsibilities but the whole family thing still really falls heavily on women, and rather than wishing it were not so, the better path is to recognize and acknowledge women have these extra burdens, and figure out and offer the best mechanisms of support.

I do think this new hybrid model of working —showing that you can work from home on a more flexible schedule, being productive without physically being in the office is a boon to women— it will make a huge difference to the ability of women to juggle all the responsibilities that they have.

What are the top 3 traits of the most successful brands you have worked with?

Great brands have a Point of View (POV): Once you understand the values and principles that make up a brand, it’s not hard to discern the POV on all kinds of issues. We do a lot of work with Dove and it's just natural for them to have a Point of View; for example about the role of women, the role of beauty, and development in communities. In the middle of COVID, they shot a commercial showing the faces of frontline healthcare workers at the end of their shifts in the battle against the virus. 

Great brands have consistency: They may change campaigns, redo their logos, or reinvent their type of advertising but at the core there is a consistency to what they do and to everything they do.

Great brands are distinctive: They don't feel like everybody else. You can recognise them wherever they show up. One of the fun things I love to do is ask clients to take their brand and apply it to a different category. If I said to you that McDonalds is going into the hotel business, you would know exactly what that hotel would look like and feel like, because they are such a powerful brand…or if Mercedes Benz created a line of watches or men’s clothing, again you’d know exactly what to expect. But, if you can’t play that game, you probably haven't gone deep enough with what your brand stands for. 

One principle on branding (personal or professional) that you wish more women entrepreneurs would implement?

I wish we’d all trust our own instincts! So many women (and entrepreneurs in general for that matter) think there is some right answer about what their brand or company should stand for. 

You already went into the business with a point of view. You had some thoughts about why your products or services would be valuable to people about how you want your company to be run and the kinds of people you want to surround yourself with, there is no right answer in building a brand you have got to create from within and your own instincts

If you are techie and whizzy and you love software, then that’s your brand, you shouldn't be warm and fuzzy! I watch this so often; people try to fight their own instincts and it’s never right.  

You always deliver presentations with electrifying energy, how does one sustain that fire in a longstanding career?

I found something in which I am WILDLY interested in,  and it’s something that doesn't feel like work. It’s got to be something that allows you to exercise your intellect, and can think about it momentarily. Even at this point in my life I still find marketing problems, issues with how to lead, how to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity, I am still totally engaged and I still want to talk about it and share.

If you find yourself in an industry that you don’t like, I really don’t know how you can survive very long if the work you are doing is dull.

How do we encourage more women to strategically share their accomplishments without feeling arrogant?

First of all, it’s never about you! Anyone who has been in a position of leadership knows that this is not a solo act. It’s about what you have been able to achieve together [as a team]. Great leaders are inherently and distinctively generous. They share the problems, the journey to getting to a solution and they share the applause. Unless you surround yourself with capable people who are willing to share the journey with you, you are never going to succeed and I will never forget that. 

When I get an award my initial reaction is ‘It wasn’t me…I was just the one who brought people together’. Once you acknowledge that you can then talk about the accomplishment and achievement rather than the role that you yourself played. 

What is it about AWEC and AWEC’s mission/work that keeps you coming back to support us with such enthusiasm year in and year out?

It’s all the women that are a part of AWEC. I keep saying this, I do a lot of speaking and I have done so for many years, I have never gotten questions that are as good as the ones that come from AWEC women, they are so grounded and so practical, not airy fairy. They just want to know how to get things done. I find that energizing, interesting and I love the GUMPTION that I feel when I am talking to them.

AWEC beneficiaries look to you as a mentor; what 3 skills would you recommend they learn to navigate leadership in their businesses?

• Leverage the ecosystem: Your own skills are not going to get you there! You have got to collaborate and share. Leverage the mentors and advisors around you. 

• Resilience peppered with a little bit of optimism: Don’t underestimate the power of resilience.

• Passion: You have got to be passionate about why you started out in the first place.

AWEC is grateful to individuals like Shelly, whose support is critical to enabling us to deliver on our mission to empower African women entrepreneurs to build resilient and scalable businesses. You too can join in to support AWEC’s continued impact by making a gift today.