FOCUS: 2001 PREVIEWS: The Saatchis secret to success: just keep doing the right thing

What does 2001 hold for us? Like many of my peers, I believe it will be tough - like any other year. We will have new challenges to test us just like the dotcoms did last year. Saatchi & Saatchi has come through a wonderful year, and I believe that the best thing we can do in 2001 is to keep doing the right thing. "Right Side Up" It's easy to rattle off a company mission statement at presentations. Or to sing it loud and long with a skinful at the Christmas party. Much harder to truly live up to it, to actually make it happen. Especially for Saatchi & Saatchi, because we're not an advertising agency any more. We're now an ideas company. We stage marches in Tokyo for our client that gets covered on CNN. We make documentaries for broadcast in China. We produce street theatre in Hong Kong. And yes, we make great advertising campaigns too with strong ideas in them. And that's what our new mission is all about. To quote the mantra we've become "a hothouse for world changing ideas". Not because it sounds feisty, but because we know how great ideas make a real difference to our clients. It's quite a transformation and it's the right thing to do. "Divine Discontent" That's what the famous All Blacks rugby team call it. It means that you can't get better without challenging the status quo. Pull your game apart and rebuild it. So we did. We've refocused all our energies on generating the great ideas for clients. Not as the exception, but as the rule. And not just in a couple of offices, but right around the region on every single client. We've got flatter and faster with only one organising principle - best ideas win. Less process, more product. We've re-rated intuition as highly as intellect. We've moved key advocates into leadership roles around the region. We've coached and trained ourselves to forget what was in favour of what can be. We've introduced new ways of planning and briefing projects. And every time the going gets tough we asked ourselves one simple question, "what is the right thing to do?" The result? A company culture with integrity. We live and breathe for great ideas. They are our raison d'etre. They are the only things that make a profound difference to our clients' businesses. Great ideas work wonders. And that, for every one of us, is a cause worth fighting for. Risk nothing and you risk even more. Seismic shifts always have risks. Not every client has embraced the new order with enthusiasm. Most, even big ones like P&G, saw the merits of it immediately. Some have been slower converts. For a couple, the jury's still out. And yes, a few have chosen a more familiar path. But for every one of those who have left the fold, we've won other bigger kindred spirits. Like-minded companies that see ideas as the currency of the future - that want work that works wonders. In fact last year, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and China have all won some of the biggest pitches in their markets - Hutchison-Priceline (regional), DBS Bank (regional), PLDT and Netease respectively. Enough to grow our business by 13.5 per cent. Something's working. "The Tip and the Iceberg" Then there are those necessary evils called "awards" we believe are worth considering. For all their failings, award shows are the best barometer of creative quality we've got. While lots of agencies have a day in the sun, "one swallow does not a summer make". Last year, Saatchi & Saatchi consistently outperformed other networks in the region. We won MEDIA's Best of the Best (and 27 other awards) at the Asian Advertising Awards. Hong Kong won the Kam Fan for the second successive year and four out of our five Greater China offices also got walks on the night. Singapore won the Golden Gong for the third year in a row and dominated the entire evening. The Philippines won 4As Agency of the Year on top of their first place finish at the Creative Guild awards. Our Unicef work won China Creative Ad of the Year at MEDIA's Agency of the Year and a gold at the China Times Asia-Pacific Awards. And our Immodium print campaign won the Best of the Best at the China Times Asia-Pacific Award in Taiwan. It's the same story at the major international shows. (Even Vietnam got up five times internationally for P&G). Best of all, there's not a hairdresser or restaurant client among the winners. Instead, you'll find multinationals, market leaders and category innovators. And now we've been named Agency of the Year by MEDIA magazine, not to mention being voted Most Creative Agency in the region by our peers. Of course, there's still a long way to go. (Remember "divine discontent"? It's an ongoing attitude, not a one-off event). But for all the reasons we've mentioned we believe 2001 will be good to us. And why shouldn't it? We're just trying to do the right thing.

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