Financial Times - Hectic training schedule for Phoenix Ogilvy staff

Phoenix Ogilvy staffers recently completed a hectic three weeks of training - a regional training session at Kandalama and three other programmes at the Jaic Hilton, Hotel Riverina and the Phoenix auditorium the cmpany said in a statement.

Adopt –a-country training programme
Ogilvy’s Adopt-a-Country programme, the brain child of Miles Young, Chairman O&M Asia Pacific, was held at Kandalama. The AAC program is a unique and interesting training program one which pairs 30 high-potential young Ogilvy managers across Asia with a buddy of another office for two years. As a part of the training program they visit each other’s offices, work on projects and meet off-site three times per year.

The faculty for this workshop apart from Miles Young included, Kent Wertime, President Ogilvyone Asia Pacific, Ian Strachan, Training consultant & and ex- Ogilvy Regional Training head. Irvin Weerackody Chairman Phoenix Ogilvy made a presentation on Sri Lanka’s trends in politics, economy and the war. The main thrust of Weerackody’s presentation was adversity should not be a dampening factor for forging ahead. He reminded the young audience of the Shakespearean wisdom in As You Like It: “Sweet are the uses of adversity”.

Commenting on the AAC training programme, Young said: “Since we’re in the communications business where we’re expected to run some pan-asian campaigns, we’ve got to somehow create bonds between our managers. We’re beginning to see the fruits of it already.”

Butterfly
Hard on the heels of AAC Training Phoenix Ogilvy took its entire creative staff to Hotel Riveriena to unveil the ‘butterfly’.

Butterfly or 360 Brand stewardship process as it is otherwise known is a proprietary Ogilvy tool. It is Ogilvy’s competitive advantage and that’s what makes them unique.

In order to make the Phoenix Ogilvy team live and breathe the tool, the agency staff spent two days understanding and learning to apply the tool. The faculty for this workshop was Madhukar Sabnavis. Madhukar is the head of Account Planning in Ogilvy & Mather India and also heads ‘Thought leadership’ for the whole of Asia Pacific. Butterfly is Ogilvy’s new worldwide operating system, explained Mahesh Neelakantan – Head of Advertising, Phoenix Ogilvy.

‘All the offices around Asia are in different stages of the Buttterfly-cascade and we have successfully cascaded the “Butterfly in Colombo,” he said. What’s interesting about the butterfly is its simplicity and reducing the whole process of discovery and strategy-making to something very clear & comprehensible.”

Busting blocks
At the JAIC Hilton, Ian Strachan presented a program titled “Busting Blocks”. This programme was essentially to guide people on how to get past hurdles and blocks and taught them techniques that were extremely relevant and useful in their day-to-day life.

Strachan has been associated in the field of training for over two decades and was till recently the head of Training & development for Ogilvy Asia Pacific. Ian continues to be associated with Training for Ogilvy conducting programmes for Ogilvy across all offices in Asia. Finally the shorter version of Butterfly was conducted by Strachan for the company’s junior staffers at the Phoenix Auditorium.