The Team & the Ruthless Edge

The Laws

1. 28

   Keep only A-players

   Every hire either raises the bar or lowers it. There is no neutral hire.

   Every hire either raises the bar or lowers it. We hire people who make us better, not people we're better than.

   Why it matters

   We run a small team on a full book of accounts. Every seat faces clients, so there is nowhere to park a weak hire. So every person we bring on has to make the team better, not just fill a seat. We never ask "can this person do the job." We ask "does this person make everyone around them better." A weak hire never stays hidden. It shows up in your account within a month. That's why we're strict about who joins.

   If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants.

   The lesson

   Good hiring isn't about hoping someone has good taste. It's about turning "hire well" into something you can actually check. A person can pass every interview and still drain energy out of a team. So we check for that on purpose, every single time, instead of hoping we get lucky.

   How we do it

   1. 01Before we open any role, we write down exactly what edge this person needs to bring that nobody on the team has yet.
   2. 02Every interview includes a real check for energy, not just skill. We listen for whether someone lifts people up or drags them down.
   3. 03We check in with every team member regularly. The question is simple: would we fight to keep this person if someone else tried to poach them.
   4. 04We never fill a seat just to relieve pressure. An empty seat costs less than the wrong hire.
   5. 05We judge people on real results they own for real clients, not on how easy they are to manage.

   How you’ll know we hit it

   Every person on our team keeps clearing that same bar, again and again. The moment someone stops, we deal with it fast, not months later.

2. 29

   Set the standard, hold everyone to it

   The standard doesn't bend for the newest hire or the best performer. It's the same line for everyone, every day.

   Good today doesn't buy a bad tomorrow. The standard applies hardest to our best people.

   Why it matters

   A rule that only counts when someone feels like enforcing it isn't a rule. It's a suggestion. You don't see our average week. You see whichever week you happen to be watching. One late report, one missed detail, and that one day becomes your whole picture of us. So the standard has to hold every single day, even the quiet ones nobody's checking. And it has to hold hardest for our best people, because everyone else watches them to see what's really allowed.

   We never allowed a bad training session.

   The lesson

   A real standard is never left to memory or mood. It gets written down, made specific, and checked the same day, not shrugged off. The clearer and narrower the standard, the easier it is to check and the harder it is to fake.

   How we do it

   1. 01Every task we repeat for you has a written standard for what "done right" looks like. It's never left up to whoever's doing it that day.
   2. 02We check the work against that written standard, not against how busy someone looked doing it.
   3. 03Our best people get more scrutiny, not less. Being good at the work never earns a pass on the basics.
   4. 04We catch a slip the same day it happens. Left a week, it turns into a habit.
   5. 05We fix problems fast and in private, and we recognize good work out in the open.

   How you’ll know we hit it

   We don't measure perfection. We measure speed. The time between a slip and us catching it stays at zero days.

3. 30

   Be ruthless when required, with care

   Cutting fast protects the many. Dragging it out to spare feelings is not kindness, it's cowardice with a nicer name.

   Ruthless with the problem, caring with the person. We name it, give one honest chance, then act.

   Why it matters

   A losing campaign that stays live costs you money every day it keeps running. A bad-fit client relationship helps nobody. Letting either ride never stays contained, it just gets more expensive the longer we wait. Avoiding the hard call can feel kind in the moment. It isn't. Real care means telling you the truth fast, even when it's uncomfortable, so we can fix it or end it before it costs you more.

   I would call lack of candor the biggest dirty little secret in business.

   The lesson

   What makes a hard call fair, not brutal, is that it's never a surprise. Name the problem early and honestly. Give one real chance against a clear deadline. If nothing changes, act, fast, and with real care in how it's done.

   How we do it

   1. 01The moment something isn't working, a losing campaign, a bad-fit relationship, we say so plainly. No vague hints, no waiting.
   2. 02We give one honest, written chance to fix it, with a clear deadline and clear terms for what "fixed" means.
   3. 03If nothing changes by that deadline, we cut it. We don't let hope drag it into another month.
   4. 04Any hard call that involves a person comes paired with real care: honest reasons, fair terms, respect in how it's delivered.
   5. 05We check ourselves both ways: are we avoiding a hard talk to spare feelings, or delivering it without care. Neither is acceptable.

   How you’ll know we hit it

   Once we confirm something isn't working, we act in days, not months. And nobody is ever surprised by a hard call, because we always flag it clearly first.