Women are significantly underrepresented in company leadership, particularly in the media industry, and research shows that it’s women in leadership positions who are switching companies at some of the highest rates.
One of the core reasons is that more of us are looking for purpose-driven workplaces that prioritise people’s wellbeing, and there are a number of actions and policy changes that companies can take to retain female talent who expect this.
One company taking decisive action on social impact is also proving that women should finally dominate in the upper echelons of media.
WPP is the creative transformation company, with the brand tagline of using the power of creativity to build better futures for people, planet, clients and community.
In January 2022, Rose Herceg was appointed WPP’s President in Australia and New Zealand. With an extensive background as an entrepreneur, Herceg says she came into the company ready to do things by her own rulebook.
Part of this was applying a small business mentality to a global company, which Herceg describes as, “getting people to do their jobs to the best of their ability, getting them to go the extra mile and never asking of somebody what you would not do”.
“There’s nothing that I would ever ask of a leader that I myself would not do,” she says. “In any kind of business, there’s hierarchy and layers and we’re trying to get rid of as many of them as we can.”
For Herceg, leading at WPP is not dissimilar to leading in small business. “Take responsibility, set clear KPIs and have exceptionalism everywhere,” she explains.
“Buzzwords aren’t helpful and corporate speak doesn’t work for me. I try to cut to the chase.”
Speaking to the importance of placing people above all else in company objectives, Herceg says she was “enormously proud when WPP was the first business to pull out of Russia” as well as helping “pull people out of Ukraine” when Russia’s illegal invasion began.
“You know you can’t hide in the fringes of this stuff. Life is not that simple anymore, and our world is complicated, so we’re taking real steps,” she says.
For Aimee Buchanan, CEO of GroupM – WPP’s media investment group– it was WPP’s commitment to sustainability that drove her to take the job.
“The higher-order ambition around climate change that WPP has – it was one of the main reasons I took the job,” she says. “To be honest, it felt like the whole company had a purpose beyond profit, which I think is something quite special.”
WPP has committed to reaching net zero in their value chain by 2030, and their operations by 2025. They’ll also use electricity that’s 100 per cent sourced from renewable sources by 2025.
“When it comes to digital media’s impact on sustainability,” Buchanan says, “There’s carbon at every single turn.”
“As soon as you know about it, you have to do something about it,” she adds. “For me it’s about the action. Everyone’s talking about this stuff and no one really has it all figured out.”
“And that for me is probably the thing that we’re trying to instil in our people – is to find better ways to solve these problems, to reduce these outcomes that we’re all contributing to.”
In another area of WPP’s network, the agency Ogilvy is using creativity to inspire brands and people around the world. Their CEO, Sally Kissane, has been with the company for more than 20 years and says that what’s kept her there for so long is its dynamic and people-focused culture.
“Ogilvy is a really great place to work and it’s built on a culture of being good to the people who work there, celebrating and supporting people’s careers,” she says.
Understanding that women still face structural and systemic barriers to leadership, especially in media and creative agencies, Kissane says the Ogilvy team is doing a lot to pinpoint these areas and improve support for women.
“This is an industry wide challenge,” she says, adding that “there’s a real opportunity for us to create a stronger mentoring environment for females travelling up through the chain in the creative departments.”
And, based on her own extensive leadership experience, Kissane encourages other aspiring leaders to “have a point of view, have an opinion and have something to say”.
“It doesn’t have to be right, but also, it’s on us to create the right environment where people feel safe to contribute and feel heard.”