*Image from Adweek
Now Reading | How Leo Burnett’s CEO and CCO Built a Creative Powerhouse in Ten Years.
I’ve had my share of business partners over the last 15 years and have learned through many situations, both good and bad, that good communication skills and similar core values are critical to success. I found myself nodding my head many times over as I read this Q&A about Leo Burnett. How blessed Tutssel and Bernardin are to share a similar passion for creative and such a great mutual respect for each other. I pulled a few excerpts here and have the link to the entire discussion below.
Adweek: After working together for 10 years, what’s been the key to maintaining a successful partnership?
Mark Tutssel: We have a very strong human relationship. We like each other, and we have the utmost respect—mutual respect—for each other. But from a business point of view, we truly do subscribe to the same standards. We have exactly the same goal. And more importantly, we have a passionate belief in the power of creativity, and this is our shared focus and our shared passion. It’s something we spoke about Day One, the first time we met as individuals, and we’ve spoken about that subject every single day for the last decade. It drives us forward, because at the end of the day, we are in the business of creativity, and our role is to not only solve marketing problems, we solve business problems today with class creativity.
How long did it take for you to both be comfortable working together?
Tom Bernardin: That was very early in the relationship because … we had common goals, and we supported each other. I think that Mark [Tutssel] knows that my whole career I’ve always had the back of the creatives. It was fast. I mean, there wasn’t any big, long period of getting to know each other and getting to work successfully together.
Tutssel: I think at the beginning, it was working together on real problems—on real business problems. And the first problem that we were confronted with together was the General Motors, Pontiac and Cadillac. We worked together literally day and night, night and day for two weeks in Detroit, producing a great campaign for the Super Bowl for that brand. So, this acid test is always working together on real problems in real time, and immediately you realize that you have so much in common, and you subscribe to exactly the same things. The relationship was hatched there and forged there and has continued to grow and flourish over the last decade.
Read the entire article here: here: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/qa-how-leo-burnetts-ceo-and-cco-built-creative-powerhouse-10-years-168671
