盖伊•海沃德(Guy Hayward)承认，如果一名有才华的年轻员工想跳槽到另一家领先的广告公司，他会痛苦万分。“我会发现很难说‘别这样’。我自己就曾跳过槽，所以知道这会增值。”
海沃德现任JWT UK首席执行官，今年46岁，于1987年以毕业培训生的身份加盟该公司（原名J. Walter Thompson），同年，该公司被苏铭天爵士(Sir Martin Sorrell)的WPP收购。
他能说一口流利的法语和西班牙语，从1990年开始在JWT巴塞罗那分公司工作了两年，正巧赶上巴塞罗那主办1992年奥运会。但那年年底回到伦敦后不久，他就决定另谋出路。
“我感到自己想要一个能得到更快发展的地方，”他表示。“我希望接触到更多东西，不一定要被吓着，但是要有人交给我事情，让我去做。”
他回忆道，当时，JWT对年轻的新员工保护得非常周到，甚至是过于周到了。他表示：“我这么说有点苛刻，但当我开始毕业培训生计划时，我确实花了很多时间学习倒咖啡和叫出租。”
去年11月，海沃德回到JWT担任首席执行官一职。他表示，他发现情况发生了很大变化：“我会和毕业培训生一起开会，而以前，我是没机会参加这些会议的，因此（培训生）接触到了更多东西。”
无论如何，在目前更为紧缩的经济环境中，毕业培训生的才能不能浪费在倒咖啡上。“他们到这里是来工作的，这肯定是件好事，”他表示。“去年的培训生看上去非常积极，我不断问他们：‘你们接触的东西够不够了？你们有事情做吗？’他们的答案都是肯定的。”
在离开JWT后的17年里，海沃德的事业欣欣向荣。他最初供职于阿姆斯特丹的Weiden+Kennedy，为耐克(Nike)工作，并学习创意在广告中的重要性。
他表示，正是在那里，他的企业家精神也开始了流动。“那里会出现这样的机会，比如说，‘你想为德国一流的足球队做一场广告宣传吗？’我会说：‘好的，我们怎么做？’”
“因此，我要学习很多很多东西才能理清头绪，然后着手去完成，而在一个更成熟的广告公司，有时你会指望系统会帮你做这些。”
海沃德1998年离开了Weiden，成为阿姆斯特丹另一家广告公司——180的创始人之一，但想办法解决问题的过程仍在继续。然后到了去年，在180工作逾10年后，他认为是时候离开了。“我问猎头伦敦的情况，他告诉我，我的第一家公司正在招聘这个职位。我们一致认为，那里很适合我。”
回到JWT后，他意识到，如果当初他留在那里，就永远不会获得这个最高职位。
他离开公司后才掌握的创业技能是关键所在。他充分利用了这些技能，在上任后头6个月，为公司赢得的新业务就比之前两年还多。他还精简了公司结构，以鼓励创业精神。
这位新首席执行官惊喜地发现，在他返回伦敦时，JWT UK已变得非常现代，它接纳了数字渠道，并将数字业务整合进业务的核心，而不是作为单独的部门。
当今的毕业培训生能比海沃德等以前的培训生做得更多，数字通信的这种重要性是另一个原因。他表示：“我刚开始毕业培训时，如果你要求我编写并创作一个情绪视频，我都不知道从哪里入手。”
“但现在他们都能做到，部分原因在于，他们是与这些媒体和技术共同成长起来的。他们会用Mac来鼓捣出点东西，因此，从很多方面来说，他们更有创造性，也能够更有创造性。”
因此，他表示，这是进入广告行业的绝佳时机。“如果你所进入的行业是做创意性工作，构建品牌，那么现在是绝好的时机，因为有那么多不同的渠道。一些人对此感到恐惧，但其他人，尤其是年轻人，会感到非常的得心应手。”
他表示，经济衰退也突显了该行业的重要性：“广告人不一定受到高度尊重，但我们是为数不多的将有助于重新启动经济的服务之一，因为我们在帮助构建品牌。”
有一点没有改变，那就是JWT UK毕业培训生计划的实力和声望。在其它广告公司减少毕业生招聘之际，该公司每年仍会从700至750名申请者中招聘4到8名毕业生。招聘的数量取决于应聘者的素质，而非经济状况。
海沃德承认，这让该公司变成了竞争对手挖人的首选场所。但该公司会努力跟踪离职人才（像海沃德）的职业发展，以便在日后可以重新把他们召唤回来。
他表示：“我们非常希望人才回归，他们永远是受欢迎的。”
●我的重大突破
在墨西哥花光了身上的钱之后，1986年，百无聊赖的我成为了Mexico City News的世界杯(World Cup)编辑。这表明，我喜欢做人们可以看到的事情，它还帮助我进入了JWT。
●最喜欢的广告创意？
在180为阿迪达斯(Adidas)工作时，我与一位创意总监的谈话，让我创作出了由大卫•贝克汉姆(David Beckham)和强尼•威尔金森(Jonny Wilkinson)参演的“Kicking it”广告片。这部广告片非常受欢迎。
●最大错误
在之前工作过的一家公司，我知道我们需要改革创意领导层，但我没有勇气进行。
●你更想做什么？
体育记者——尽管我在墨西哥那美妙的世界杯经历不会做得更好，而且我确实不是一个天生的作者。
译者/梁艳裳
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034898
Guy Hayward admits he would be torn if a talented young employee wanted to move to another leading advertising agency. “I’d find it very hard to say ‘don’t do that’. Having made a move myself I know it adds value.”
Mr Hayward, chief executive of JWT UK, is 46 and joined the company – previously known as J. Walter Thompson – as a graduate trainee in 1987, the same year it was bought by Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP.
A fluent French and Spanish speaker, he spent two years from 1990 at JWT Barcelona in a spell that coincided with the Catalan city’s hosting of the 1992 Olympics. But after returning to London briefly at the end of that year, he decided he had other fish to fry.
“I felt I wanted somewhere I could move a bit faster,” he says. “I wanted to be exposed more – not necessarily to be scared, but to be handed things and told to get on with it.”
Young recruits to JWT were very protected then, he recalls – if anything, over-protected. “This is a little harsh but when I started in the graduate trainee scheme, I did spend an awful lot of time learning to pour coffee and hail taxis,” he says.
Returning as chief executive in November last year, Mr Hayward says he discovered things had changed considerably. “I find myself in meetings with graduate trainees that I would not have attended in the old days, so [trainees] are exposed more,” he says.
In any case, in today’s tighter economic conditions, the talents of graduate trainees cannot be wasted pouring the coffee. “They are here to work and that’s got to be good,” he says. “Last year’s group seems highly motivated and I keep asking them: ‘Are you exposed enough? Are you doing stuff?’ – and they are.”
Mr Hayward flourished in his 17 years away from JWT, first at Weiden+Kennedy in Amsterdam, working on the Nike account and learning about the importance of creative work in advertising.
It was here that his entrepreneurial juices started flowing, too, he says. “There would be an opportunity, such as ‘do you want to do an advertising campaign for Germany’s leading football team?’. I would say ‘yes, how do we do it?’.
“So there was an awful lot of learning to figure things out and then getting on and doing them, whereas in a more mature agency sometimes you expect the system to do it for you.”
Working out how to make things happen continued after Mr Hayward left Weiden in 1998 to become one of the founders of 180, another Amsterdam agency. Then last year, after more than a decade at 180, he decided it was time for a move. “I asked my headhunter what was happening in London, and he said my alma mater had got this job going. We agreed it had got my name written all over it.”
Coming back to JWT, he has realised that he would never have got the top job had he stayed there.
The entrepreneurial skills he developed away from the company made the difference and have been put to good use winning more new business in his first six months than in the previous two years, while structures have been simplified to encourage a spirit of entrepreneurialism.
The new CEO was pleasantly surprised to find on his return to London how modern JWT UK has become, embracing digital channels and integrating its digital side to place it at the heart of the business rather than a separate unit.
This importance of digital communications is another reason why today’s graduate trainees can do more than their forebears, such as Mr Hayward: “If you’d asked me to write and create a mood video when I started graduate training, I wouldn’t have had a clue,” he says.
“But now they all can and that’s partly because they have grown up with these media and this technology. They get on the Mac and knock out something, so in many ways they are, and are enabled to be, more creative.”
As a consequence, he says, there could not be a better time to go into advertising. “If what you are into is doing creative work to build brands, it’s fabulous now because there are so many different channels. Some people are scared by it but others, particularly younger people, feel completely at home with it.”
He says the recession has also underlined the importance of the sector: “People in advertising are not necessarily held in high regard, but we are one of the few services that is going to help reboot the economy, because we’re helping build brands.”
One thing that has not changed is the strength and reputation of the JWT UK graduate trainee scheme. While other agencies have cut back on graduate recruitment, JWT UK still takes between four and eight people each year from 700-750 applicants. The decision on how many to take is based on the quality of the candidates rather than the economy.
Mr Hayward accepts that this makes the company a prime hunting ground for rival agencies. But it tries to track the careers of talented people who, like Mr Hayward, leave so that it might reel them back in later.
“We’re very keen to get good people to come back – they are always welcome,” he says.
●My big break
Bored and running out of money in Mexico, I became World Cup editor for the Mexico City News in 1986. It suggested I enjoyed doing things that people saw, and helped me get in at JWT.
●Favourite idea for an ad?
At 180, working on the Adidas account, I had a conversation with a creative director that led to the hugely popular “Kicking it” commercials with David Beckham and Jonny Wilkinson.
●Biggest mistake
At one of my former companies, I knew we needed a change in creative leadership but didn’t have the balls to go through with it.
●What would you rather have been?
A sports journalist – although I would never have bettered my amazing World Cup experience in Mexico and I’m not really a natural writer.
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