61: Phillip Rubel, former CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon/ Beacon Communications

Phillip Rubel shares his extensive leadership experience in the
US, Canada and Japan in various fields including advertising and
consulting. Mr. Rubel is originally from Canada and moved to
Japan in 1997 on a three-year posting but returned multiple
times. In total, his career in Japan ran for over 20 years. Mr.
Rubel experienced working in various roles and fields such as
marketing, business licensing and acquisition, strategic planning
and account management. Mr. Rubel was recruited by McCann
Erickson in 1997 as the Senior Vice-President and Manager of one
of the company’s division. There, Mr. Rubel dealt with global
clients and helped form new partnerships. Prior to working at
McCann, Mr. Rubel co-founded an agency in Canada. Mr. Rubel then
moved onto other prominent leadership roles including becoming
CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon, CEO of Beacon
Communications, Partner at KPMG and Director Marketing &
Communications at Philip Morris Japan. He has currently returned
to Canada as the Managing Partner of Song Sparrow Advisory &
Executive In Residence at the University of Victoria.


 


On his first leadership role in Japan at McCann, Mr. Rubel
recalls how Japan at the time was struggling with the burst of
the economic bubble, and was hesitant in engaging with global
management and leadership practices. Mr. Rubel says having people
look at thing with a “fresh set of eyes” and motivate them to
take risks was a new leadership style compared to what he had
experienced in Canada and the US. He adds: “I think one of the
challenges for any new manager to Japan is to determine how to
instigate a change without being revolutionary and more
evolutionary.”


 


After McCann Erickson, Mr. Rubel became the Japan head of Beacon
Communications, an advertising agency formed by merging different
companies of Publicis Groupe and Dentsu. Mr. Rubel recalls the
merger process as a “life time opportunity.” He sought to define
the purpose of the new organization and create a common culture
for all employees coming from the different agencies. On day 1,
Mr. Rubel went into the office in casual attire and asked the
team to take off their company lapel and start thinking as one
company. Mr. Rubel encouraged those who he felt were the most
engaged and motivated from the start to implement their ideas. He
also spent time talking to each employee on a one-on-one basis or
in small groups so people felt their voices were heard. Mr. Rubel
says having a transparent two-way communication process and
providing explanation over and over made people more open minded
and engaged.


 


On innovation, Mr. Rubel points out that creativity is a commonly
misunderstood phrase. He says: “it's not about being artistic or
anything like that…it's actually a disciplined approach. And if
you look at, for example, all of the work that's been done in
design thinking, which is a very big passion of mine is all about
experimenting upfront and mitigating risk, but still allowing
risk and failure to happen.”


 


During his time at Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon, Mr. Rubel says
his leadership approach did not change much, although the scale
of his team had changed from his time at Beacon Communications.
He explains: “Obviously scale has a big impact onto what you can
do and how you can do it. But from a leadership perspective I
don't think that principles changes all that much. It's about
knowing and understanding all the stakeholders. It's about being
empathetic and inclusive. Also in Japan [it is particularly
important] to show the way, demonstrating, not just talking about
it and then also making absolutely sure that any commitments that
you make, any promises that you say that you keep and that you
follow through.”


 


On advice to foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Rubel first
recommends to take the time to understand the organization and
all the stakeholders before taking action. Secondly, he advises
to come to Japan with an open mind instead of thinking one has
all the answers, but also not try to act Japanese but to “be
yourself.” Mr. Rubel explains: “I think if you just stay
open-minded and just be yourself I think you can really enjoy
yourself in Japan. It's an amazing culture. It's an amazing
business society. Now this is my second time leaving Japan…The
lessons from Japan still are relevant to daily business here.”