As CEO of Starcom USA, one of the largest and most cutting-edge media agencies in the business, Lisa Donohue ’83 keeps her finger on advertising’s racing pulse by surrounding herself with talent on all levels, and staying on top of an ever-changing technological and media-savvy world. From her Twitter presence (@ldonohue), to walking the floor at the annual CES conference, to meeting with start-ups, Lisa brings an entrepreneurial spirit to an industry that is changing rapidly, driven by technology that is constantly shifting consumer behavior.
“On a regular basis, I need to learn,” says Lisa, who was named the 2011 Executive Media All-Star by Ad Week. “Some people think, ‘You’re a CEO because you know everything.’ But this is one of the heaviest times of learning in this industry, and you have to keep your eye on things. I have to be comfortable saying, ‘I don’t know that. Come sit down and talk to me about it.’ All of the entry-level people I hire are digital natives. They don’t have preconceived notions about technology. I’m a digital immigrant. Learning from them is reverse mentoring, which is a powerful tool in the arsenal.”
What began as a young girl’s fascination with ads turned into a senior project at Milton, where Lisa completed a six-week internship at a local ad agency. After graduating from Brown University, she entered the training program at Leo Burnett, a Chicago-based agency. She started off in the media-buying department and loved it. At the time, ad agencies were “full service,” offering both creative and media services. In the late ’90s, however, media departments began breaking away from the creative and forming independent companies. Lisa’s media department became Starcom USA, now part of Publicis Groupe. Lisa’s career progressed through the ranks before she took over the helm in 2009.
A typical day demands the ability to change gears quickly. Lisa might start off in a conversation with Samsung, and then attend a meeting with Allstate Insurance, before meeting with Bank of America. And that is just the client side of the job; there are tremendous financial responsibilities at a firm with $11 billion in annual billings.
“On a daily basis, I deal with a lot of information. I need to be able to listen to it, synthesize it, summarize it, and then figure out the two or three things we need to do to move forward,” she says. “When I pitch a piece of business to take on a new client, it’s almost like getting a doctorate if it’s a new category for us. You have to go from 0 to 60 and learn that category right away. I give a ton of credit to Milton for giving me the skills to handle what I do every day. It was a big part of what I took away from my education there, from the range of classes to learning how to think, how to assess situations, how to look at all the information and come to your own conclusions. I learned these core skills at Milton.”
Lisa also spends plenty of time on the talent in her organization of 1,300 people spread across four cities—Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York.
“We sell what our people create, so I have to make sure we have the best talent in the business,” says Lisa. “Starting with the entry level: How do we find the best students graduating and bring them in? I also need to have and incredibly strong executive team. My executive team has to be good at driving client relationships and helping innovate for the future, as well as developing the people underneath us. I monitor attrition very closely, at all levels, and look at how we are trending. When we lose people, to whom are we losing them? When we pull new people in at mid- or upper levels, where are we successfully recruiting them from and how successfully are we integrating them into the business?”
Lisa, who is based in Chicago, is very attuned to the fact that many of her entry-level hires are “millennials” and think outside of the traditional corporate box.
“New hires don’t come in with a notion of a hierarchical progression of a career,” she says. “They come wanting a great experience, and then another great experience that might be different. They are not focused on the endgame such as, ‘Did I go up a level in hierarchy?’ but rather, ‘Did I learn something cool, was it fun, and did I make a difference in what I did?’ It’s a very different mindset—one we are still adapting for. I call it making our organization ‘millennial ready.’”
Starcom recently partnered with University of Iowa, where students are helping them understand the definition of “millennial ready.” Lisa looks forward to seeing their results early this spring. Seeking different perspectives from external partners is what makes Lisa’s leadership innovative and sharp in a business that at one time was very black-and-white.
“The media services industry traditionally attracted linear thinkers because it was all about numbers,” Lisa says. “Today it’s not linear, and things are gray. You don’t know what is coming next, but you can’t wait to figure it out, because something is going to change. You must be comfortable making the best possible decision with the existing data and then adjusting as you learn more. We call that ‘life in beta,’ and it’s a cultural and mindset shift for the organization. Part of that means hiring more conceptual thinkers, and part of that means instilling different types of training programs like lateral thinking. Again, this goes back to the heritage of Milton’s curriculum, where it was, ‘Go wide. We’re going to teach you to think and then you can think about anything.’”
Professional development is important to Lisa—from entry level to executive level. From a 20-day training program for entry-level talent, covering the basics of the media/communications industry, to individual classes focused on management skills, to a weeklong leadership development program called “Top Gun,” focused on building a future talent pipeline, Lisa makes sure all employees have a range of opportunities to continue learning and growing.
“When you’re in a business where talent is so important, finding them and hiring them is critical,” she says. “But that, at best, is 35 or 40 percent of the battle. How you foster and develop the talent is critical. For progression in anyone’s career, you need training, not only in the specific work you are doing, but also management and leadership training. It’s an investment on the company’s end, but having strong training, mentoring and coaching programs pays dividends.”
Lisa says clients will ask how she and her staff motivate employees. “I always tell them that the people who work for you want to know they made a difference,” she says. “They work long hours and work very hard. Sometimes they give up a weekend or part of a holiday, so at the end of the day, they want to know they made a difference. Giving that feedback is crucial.”
In addition to formal recognition programs, she makes sure managers have the freedom and time to take their teams and go have fun. And what does this busy CEO do in her rare moment of downtime? Her Twitter bio says it all: “Sports fanatic. Lover of all things Boston. At home on the first tee. Excited about marketing in a connected world!”
Lisa’s connection to Milton stays strong by serving on the School’s board of trustees. She is also on the Advertising Women of New York (AWNY) board of directors, the 4A’s board of directors and Media Leadership Council, and is a member of the Chicago Network.
Liz Matson