INTERVIEW: Ogilvy's Fiona Gordon takes on Singapore role

Recently promoted to group chairman Singapore, Fiona Gordon replaces Stephen Mangham who will now lead PT Indo Ad's ambitious growth strategy in Indonesia. The company describes the management change as a bid to accelerate revenue opportunities in these two important markets.

Gordon's previous role as Hong-Kong head of GBM and client growth saw her lead Ogilvy's brand management community region – which is basically the network's top 20 to 25 clients globally.

"That was really helping our global clients figure out how we could help them grow their businesses in Asia," says Gordon.  "(We're) working with the leads of those businesses and indeed the global leads of those businesses who might sit in London or Paris."

She says that what the agency is starting to see in Singapore is that the team had already started to hub many of Ogilvy's international clients from Singapore, "And we really do want Singapore to be that gateway into Asia for our global clients, many of whom have their regional offices here already, and also gateway out of Asia for big local and regional clients."

Gordon says she hopes to bring her extensive knowledge of the Ogilvy network, being acquainted with its senior clients, and knowing how big complex businesses run to the fore in the new role,

She continues, "One of the things we’ve tried very hard to do to drive our clients’ agendas over the past few years regionally among the GBM community is to make sure we have core practices, bringing in experts. We’re upping our talent, bringing in senior planners like Mark Sinnock, and thought-leaders and making sure that we’re ready to help our clients face the future. And I think that we already have fantastic talent in Singapore so I think we’ll be able to build on the talent we already have and we can also in the future look to think how we can make this a really world-class hub and what does that require to help our clients meet their needs."

On the importance of Indonesia, Gordon describes it as a vital market for many of Ogilvy's global clients that she speaks to. "It faces lots of opportunities but also a lot of challenges such as it’s a big country, with so many islands, so therefore distribution can be a challenge; making sure you have the right marketing mix... so we really wanted to make sure that we put in place someone from within Oglivy who understands how to manage the complex challenges but provide real focus so they can really give that helpful advice to clients. Which is why we thought Stephen (Mangham) was perfect casting, based on the job he’s done in Singapore so successfully and based on the previous experience he’s had in emerging markets in Eastern Europe – so bringning those skills together seemed a perfect fit for Indonesia."