James Hier, a well-known face among some of Australia’s top marketers, thanks to fronting the AANA’s Marketing Dividends show on Sky News, is about to step up and take over the leadership of MEC Australia as Peter Vogel takes on a regional APAC role with MEC.
But while it’s change at the top, Hier says he’s not planning any sweeping changes.
“It’s not that the new broom sweeps clean. It’s about a continued forward trajectory, and it’s proving to be working and positive, so that’s not something that we’re going to change,” Hier said.
“I’ve been lucky enough to work in the business for four years. I know the national leadership team at MEC, they know me, there aren’t any surprises. It will obviously have my bent on what we’re going to be doing, but Peter and I have been working on this strategy together.”
Something he is keen to get moving with instantly is tapping into WPP’s ‘horizontality’ concept – which Hier says will see new international talent and tools enter the local MEC fold.
Horizontality, as coined by Sir Martin Sorrell himself, is about ensuring people work together across the global group for the benefit of clients, primarily through horizontal integrators such as client leaders and country managers.
“Horizontality is certainly something that we probably embraced, potentially more than other GroupM agencies, and it’s about really looking for where that existing talent resource capability or tool lies, that we can pull out of WPP and put in place here,” Hier said.
By leveraging that horizontality, MEC can increase speed to market and not waste resources trying to reinvent something that has already been done.
“If there’s a business intelligence tool that’s already available inside our global network, the point is, you can use that and bring it to your clients,” he said.
“It’s a way of getting to market with more products, faster, more often, and making considered decisions more quickly,” he said.
“There are many WPP companies in North America and Europe likely to be trying things that we’re talking to our clients about. We want to draw on that and bring it to bear in Australia.”
Alongside the horizontality concept, naturally MEC is after new business – in fresh categories.
“We’re a conflict-driven business – once you fill the category you can’t fill it again. So that’s the first thing [when looking at new business]. And the second thing is, obviously, everyone is looking for faster-growing categories, so categories which are on the rise…anything which has higher growth rates or is part of the new economy, those are the sort of businesses you want.”
However, while MEC is looking for growth, Hier says it has the luxury of not having to chase every bit of new businesss out there at the moment because it took on a number of large new clients over the last year, such as Nestlé’s $60 million account.
“There is new business pitch-work going on as we speak, but it means that we don’t have to take everything and we don’t have to run anything [that is] not necessarily suitable for MEC,” he says, adding that it’s a luxury agencies don’t always have.
He cites bedding-in and on-boarding existing clients as a priority – “otherwise all of the hard work we’ve done has failed” – adding that alongside that comes bedding-in new people to make sure that the agency’s staff are all absorbed in the culture.
Hier is taking over the agency in a strong position – far more stable that its GroupM stablemate MediaCom – and that’s largely credited to Vogel’s leadership and personal style in running the business.
Coming from the CSO role, there are skills and talents that fit well with moving into a CEO role, but it’s Vogel’s personal empathy that Hier admits will be most difficult to follow.
“[Strategy] is one of those shark-type roles where if you’re not moving forward, you’re drowning. And I think it is part of the psyche of any CSO that when they stop learning, they stop leading. But the other part of it is having an empathetic nature. It’s not about hugging all your staff members, it’s really about understanding that everyone makes mistakes all of the time. And if you’re not empathetic to that, it’s going to be a torrid time for you and your people.
“You have to have that empathetic nature, and I think that is something Pete has in spades. He is an incredible person ... That is an enormous part of his character and a huge strength of his. That is something I will not be able to live up to, but certainly I hope I can bring whatever it is I have in that area to the game.”
So, while Hier is inheriting MEC in a strong position, the nature of the beast is cyclical and there’s nothing that can mitigate against it.
“A great agency still has its downs, but its ups are better than the previous up. I think that’s really what we’re aiming for – to make the agency stronger. Not that it can never have problems, but that when it comes out of those problems it’s actually stronger, and the next time it curves low, it is higher than the previous time.”
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