Blamer knows that getting the agency back on its feet is imperative.
Without a properly functioning UK arm, FCB cannot claim true credibility in Europe. Nor can it gain the confidence of the multinational clients it seeks to attract.
Looking back over FCB's history reveals a communications group that often seemed so trapped by its past that it failed to plan adequately for its future. For too long it possessed a Midwestern insularity, making it a nervous and accident-prone player when it ventured belatedly on to the global stage and into an ill-starred alliance with Publicis.
FCB chiefs never understood their London office, which they ruled by remote control. Even now, it's impossible not to wince at those misguided attempts to "buy" business to compensate for London's loss of the British Airways account in 1982. The Creative Business and Smedley McAlpine were both acquired with large cheques but their business simply melted away.
Blamer, with an impressive track record as a senior manager, is shrewd enough to know that anyone failing to learn from past mistakes is doomed to repeat them. That's why he will almost certainly resist the attempt to buy a ready-made solution. His plan will be to hire a figure of stature on the UK scene and allow that person to cherry-pick a team. Equally importantly, the executive he chooses to run London will have a place at FCB's top table with influence over the direction of the network's global strategy.
All well and good. But it will be a brave person who wants to take on the job of returning an agency that now barely figures on most clients' radars to its former glory. In the end, the emotional pull may prove most irresistible to someone whose reputation wouldn't be harmed by taking the challenge, and who can exploit the latent affection that those who remember FCB at its best still have for it.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
