Women to Watch Greater China 2022: Emily Chang, McCann Worldgroup

Emily Chang

CEO
McCann Worldgroup China
Shanghai

Before landing at McCann Worldgroup China as CEO, Emily Chang spent the past two decades as a strategic business leader working on the client side, where she led change and organisational renewal, cross-cultural team engagement, and innovative brand-building. In the last 10 years, she has established the face of Apple Retail in Asia, built data, revenue strategy and digital teams for InterContinental Hotels Group, and brought O+O experiences to life for Starbucks like the Shanghai Roastery, and Starbucks Delivery, as well as squeezing in time to author an Amazon-bestselling book. 

It comes as no surprise that Chang's transformative approach continues in her current role. In her first year at McCann Worldgroup, Chang hired 11 new executive leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds, upgrading nearly 80% of the leadership team. She has assisted in bringing in 15 new clients with new business contributing to 30% of revenue, while, overall, the business hit a five-year record margin high. Under Chang's leadership, McCann Worldgroup in China has begun partnering with noteworthy new brands like The North Face, Starbucks, Adidas, and Alibaba. And for the first time, the Beijing IOC selected an ad agency to launch the Winter Olympics and selected McCann. Through all this change, employee satisfaction improved 17% overall. 

As a leader, Chang is firm believer in the benefits of employee engagement activities. At McCann she has introduced a raft of these, including monthly happy hours to bring her teams together, where she can be found serving food and drink. She has also created celebratory rituals like employee anniversary celebrations with commemorative gifts to help everyone feel valued and appreciated for their commitments. Chang has also bolstered training, introducing a monthly training calendar, partnering across IPG agencies to offer 15 open training sessions, three of which she personally led herself.

In addition, Chang is a champion of DE&I and is committed to creating a culture of belonging at work. She went as far as creating a ‘Yes& Bar’, a common meeting place for different agencies where everyone is welcome. She’s also undertaken an ambitious agenda to enable mental and physical wellness including free, confidential counselling 24/7, privacy pods on every floor, gym memberships and in-office TCM service.

Chang has transformed the fortunes of McCann Worldgroup China in just over a year with enthusiasm and drive. Beyond smashing business targets, it's clear she has also focused on injecting ‘positive spirit’ back into the attitudes, behaviours and direction of staff with employee satisfaction increasing significantly, proving, as ever, that she is the consummate leader.