Ogilvy On Leadership

18
Leadership Lessons
from David Ogilvy
Excerpted from ʻThe King Of Madison Avenueʼ
by Kenneth Roman

On principles
(borrowed from J.P. Morgan)

“Our policy is only ﬁrst-class
business, and that in a ﬁrst-class
way.”

1
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On professional standards

“Top men must not tolerate sloppy plans
or mediocre work.”

2

On setting lofty goals

“Raise your sights. Blaze new
trails. Compete with the
immortals.”

3

On knowledge

“Suppose, your gall-bladder has to be
removed this evening. Will you choose a
surgeon who has read some books on
anatomy and knows where to ﬁnd your gall-
bladder, or a surgeon who relies on his
intuition?”

4

On focus in an organization

“If we are to prevent the eventual disintegration of our
world-wide church into a Tower of Babel, we must
continue our evangelism, make sure that every ofﬁce
is headed by a member of the True Church, and not by
a stranger and, never again entrust the supervision of
ofﬁces to outsiders or lay brothers. This errors leads
to schism, balkanization, apostasy, bankruptcy and
ultimate disintegration.”

5

On size in an organization

“If God is on the side of the big
battalions, and that seems to be the
case, the path of wisdom lies in
becoming one of the big battalions.”

6

On committees

“Search the parks in all your cities,
Youʼll ﬁnd no statues of committees.”

7

On mergers
“Clients never like mergers. They hate
them. They donʼt like their accounts being
sold. I donʼt blame them. If my doctor said
he had sold his patients to another doctor,
whom I had never met and must consult for
all future health care, I wouldnʼt jump up
and down with joy.”

8

On acquisitions

“Finance aside, I have always
thought [acquisitions] a rickety way
to grow. Good agencies are never
for sale.”

9

On hiring

“If you hire people who are smaller than you are, we
shall become a company of dwarfs. If you hire people
who are bigger than you, we shall become a company
of giants. Hire Big People, people who are better than
you. Pay them more than you pay yourself, if
necessary.”

10

On meritocracy

“No spouses. No nepots ”

11

On corporate culture
“We treat our people like human beings. We help them when
they are in trouble. We help our people make the best of their
talents. Our system of management is singularly democratic.
We abhor ruthlessness. We like people with gentle manners. We
admire people who work hard. We despise and detest ofﬁce
politicians, toadies, bullies and pompous asses. The way up the
ladder is open to everybody. In promoting people to top jobs, we
are as inﬂuenced as much by their character as by anything
else.”

12

On minimizing ofﬁce politics

“Sack incurable politicians.
Crusade against paper warfare.”

13

On compensation

“Pay peanuts and you get monkeys.”

14

On checking expense accounts

“Even the Pope has a Confessor.”

15

On ﬁring people

“I think the most cruel thing you can do to
people, especially I am sad to say, to men,
is to ﬁre them, to put them in a situation
where they donʼt work. Always do your
damndest to avoid condemning people to
the hell of unemployment.”

16

On losing clients

“Clients come, they go, they come
back, weʼll get a new one. The only
thing that can affect who we are as
a company is if [the Chairman] feels
any less committed.”

17

On clear and honest writing

“People who think well, write well.
Woolly-minded people write woolly
memos, woolly letters and woolly
speeches. I believe in the
dogmatism of brevity.”

18

ank you
Leadership Lessons
from David Ogilvy
Excerpted from ʻThe King Of Madison Avenueʼ
by Kenneth Roman

Ogilvy On Leadership

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