Porter Novelli: Senior Leaders Depart
It’s nothing new that Porter Novelli (PN), one of the many large PR firms in the stable of holding company Omnicom, has been struggling. Much of the agency’s senior team has departed or been asked to leave.
The PR business is competitive enough without a massive holding company of bean counters constantly demanding greater revenue stream at the expense of careers and morale. But it was a comment made by PN’s departing chairperson that I found to be … well, shockingly unprofessional from someone who supposedly is a leader.
PN chair Helen Ostrowski, who is stepping down at the end of the year, told Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter in an email, “there is more to life than PR.”
Wow, what an inspiring thing for Ostrowski to say publicly. No matter how bitter she might be, one would think she’d keep such comments to herself. Just consider the impact of her words on all those talented and smart young PR people who are slaving away long hours each day at Porter Novelli in order to meet their billable hour goals. I would imagine that for some, it would seem like an undeserved gut punch. Also consider how her words might be greeted by clients who might think they had made a poor choice of a PR agency.
If I were Ostrowski’s boss, I’d tell her it’s okay for her to leave … now. Just get out. It’s just another sign, in my opinion, of a very broken business model which breeds uninspired leadership.
Filed Under: Featured • Personal notes • Public Relations
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide.
Hello David,
I know Helen Ostrowski very well, and have had the privilege of working with her for many years. Believe me, there were many more “shockingly unprofessional” comments she could have made, but chose not to.
The bean counters at Omnicom are not to blame for “much of the agency’s senior team” departing or having been “asked to leave,” rather it’s PN’s own inept senior executives who are to blame.
We can quibble back and forth on what Helen should have said or should not have said, but the fact remains, the “talented and smart young PR people who are slaving away long hours each day at Porter Novelli in order to meet their billable hour goals” are more demoralized day in and day out as a result of bad management than they are by the relatively tame comments from the departing chairman.
Helen is right, there is more to life than PR, especially the way it’s done at Porter Novelli.
P.S. PN’s clients should consider the fact that they’ve made a poor choice in agencies.
@An ex-PNer,
I appreciate your comment and actually believe we are on the same page. Omnicom is a slave master, and that revenue-insane model strips the joy and sense of accomplishment from agency work. Yes, young PR people are slaving away to bill clients as much as possible, and it’s not fun.
So, I ultimately blame at least the model of Omnicom for driving otherwise good agencies to the brink.
David