Omnicom Media Group

OPPORTUNITY

Omnicom Media Group is a leading global media network that creates end-to-end solutions for clients, providing services in four disciplines: advertising, customer relationship management, public relations and specialty services. In order to drive cross functional, organisation wide initiatives and change, their CIO EMEA, recognized that his team was going to need a new strategy. Coming from traditional IT, he knew that with the right focus and alignment his team could deliver even more business value. He wanted to shift his team from constantly receiving requests and proposals to being more forward thinking, solution oriented, strategic, and ahead of the curve. The team had tried using OKRs before but never managed to get enough traction. It was time to implement some outside guidance.

CHOOSING OVERTIME LEADER

Recognizing the need for a complete, department wide restructuring, the CIO needed to turn to someone who could handle coaching high-level executive teams and who also was a veteran in the technology industry.  For this, Ominicom’s CIO turned to our founder, Gillian Davis, a 10+ year tech sector veteran and professional coach and her team of expert facilitators. 

Solutions & Working with OverTime Leader 

We worked with the CIO’s leadership team over the course of eighteen months to drive team alignment using the OKR process as a starting point. This helped the team transform their meetings to be more strategic and less operational. They quickly felt more focused and started to work better together. This process enabled them to prioritise their objectives and to start having really impactful conversations around the positive impact they were having on the wider business and how they could start adding further value to it. We coupled the OKR process with tools and approaches to product and design thinking, and ultimately, helped them better understand their role in leading change management.

Results Achieved 

Nailing an OKR process down created a complete shift in the Omnicom team's engagement, confidence, and ability to deliver in fast-moving organisations. It requires a shift in mindset and an openness to adapt to new ways of working, but in the end was well worth it,

Under an OKR framework, the Ominicom team was able to reduce complexity surrounding the internal processes of the organization and experience real breakthroughs in the day to day operations of the company.  

"You can’t make everyone happy but you can start by making slow progress by creating systems and better processes that reduce complexity step by step. As a leader, it’s imperative that you role-model the practices and trust the process. Be open to hearing feedback, and reinforce how this change over the long term will have a positive impact on them personally. As a team that spanned different geographies and departments I noticed that it was when we started creating our own rituals that began to see a real breakthrough".

—Roman Kornauka, CIO EMEA, Omnicom

The team defined a vision around which to rally all of their projects, and they felt more empowered to say no to requests that fell outside of their key focus areas. They delivered more and were recognized by C-level stakeholders in other regions, and their approach has now been piloted in US markets. It was very rewarding for us to see our client, Roman Kornauka, recognized as one of Europe’s CIOs of the Year in 2019. You can read more about our impact here.

Lessons Learned 

The main organizational problem at Omnicom was that Roman  and his team had reached a point where they knew it would be impossible to have the desired business impact without making some serious changes. By mapping out OKR’s for the Omnicom team, OverTime Leader created the lasting impact and  a list of actions, enabling Omnicom to execute its change initiatives.  

Another important lesson we learned in working with the Omnicom team is that as a leader in the face of change, it is vitally important to stay happy and to keep confidence levels up.  Anyone who is driving change, or is in a pioneering team will recognize the challenge of working against the wider organization's culture. Politics, hidden agendas, lack of funding or representation at the higher tables. It is too easy to get wrapped up in that, drain your energy and derail your focus from the impact you would like to achieve. 

“Staying positive is one of the most challenging tasks of leadership. If I pass all the pressure down to the team it won’t help them keep their confidence levels up”. —Roman Kornauka, CIO EMEA, Omnicom

So, along with doubling down on OKRs, the Omnicom CIO EMEA, Roman Kornauka  maintained elevated emotions in front of his team  to guide them gracefully  through change. 

Overall, the OKR process gave the Omnicom team a strong and unifying approach to how they work. It enabled them to get clear on their vision, direction, and understand how to communicate their priorities that were in line with the rest of the business.  We are incredibly proud to have partnered with them – to have had such a rich learning experience shaping their team vision for growth and learning alongside them.