She had been a marketing star and loved leader at old-line General Foods which morphed into still old-line Kraft. In 2003, she was hired by struggling advertising/media company Young & Rubicam which needed to be more entrepreneurial. BUSINESS WEEK, in a cover story, questioned if this was going to work. Today, Y&R announced that Ann Fudge "is retiring at year's end."
A former employee of "The General," as General Foods used to be called, I knew Fudge. She got results because she listened and was accessible. We wanted her to succeed and she did.
Unfortunately, she was, as we all are, a product of that organizational culture. And that culture was and is slow, cautious, tradition-bound. Kraft is continually in the news for not making progress in turning itself into an entity that can survive the volatile global tech-driven marketplace.
The odds were against Fudge being able to reconfigure her mindset and skills to the needed job of creating and implementing a bold new direction at a professional services firm. Shame on Y&R for hiring her. And double shame that when she started to stumble, as she quickly did, they didn't seem to parachute in the right help for her. A top-tier management consultant and a blunt executive coach might have been able to save the day.
I know. They helped me put together a new niche business in social media after my old-line executive communications boutique tanked. Somehow I could make the transition for old economy to new.
Lesson learned: The old guard can't learn new tricks, at least not w/o the right help and maybe even then, maybe not fast enough.
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