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FCB SA named Worldwide Centre Of Excellence

Reaffirming the importance of its African operations to its international business success, FCB Worldwide has named FCB South Africa as one of its newly formed Centres of Excellence.

In addition, FCB South Africa CEO, Neil van der Weele, has been appointed to the global agency's International Management Board, which will oversee the activities of the 12 Centres of Excellence falling outside North America. The Board will also report directly to new President and CEO of FCB International, Rafael de Guzman.

FCB Worldwide created the Centres of Excellence to replace its historic regional-centric structure. The criteria it used to identify which of its offices in 109 countries would perform best in this new role included an excellent creative product, superior local management, a fully integrated offering, a strong local market positioning and an existing global client base. Only 12 satisfied all five criteria: FCB South Africa and FCB Worldwide's operations in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Greater China, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom as well as The Horizon Group of the Middle East.

Other factors that contributed to FCB South Africa's selection as a Centre of Excellence included its ability to gain and retain clients. For example, Toyota South Africa has been with the agency since 1964 and Vodacom since it launched in 1995; Distell, media24, Shoprite, Adcock Ingram, Siemens and Elizabeth Arden - among others - are also longstanding clients.

According to FCB Worldwide's President and CEO, Steve Blamer, the new structure based on the Centres of Excellence concept will increase the autonomy of the operating offices. At the same time, it will produce significant cost savings that can be reinvested in areas of the business that will enhance FCB's offering to clients and help generate growth in the individual offices. Importantly, the Centre of Excellence structure will help foster and facilitate an overall focus on the quality of the global creative product.

He said: "Today's global marketplace is changing rapidly. Old school agency networks and structures simply don't work anymore. Agency networks need to adapt. Our global clients want better integrated creative solutions and a delivery system that makes it happen. The most significant element of this new structure is that it will allow us to target our resources closer to where they're of most value to our global and local clients."

Van der Weele expressed great pleasure in FCB South Africa's appointment as a Centre of Excellence, which he said was affirmation not only of the quality of the team at FCB South Africa and its creative abilities, but of Africa's importance in the future of global brand players.

The news of FCB Worldwide's restructuring and FCB South Africa's role in this comes hot on the heels of Vodacom CEO Alan Knott Craig awarding FCB South Africa the Vodacom 'CEO Award of Excellence' in appreciation of its "outstanding achievement and excellence in contributing to the success of Vodacom far beyond all expectations".



Editorial contact

C-Cubed Communications
Petra Peacock
(021) 852-7198

12 Dec 2005 09:39

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