Associate Strategy Director / Strategy Director
You are a trusted co-conspirator for great creative and business leadership on your team. You are learning to teach the next generation of strategists and developing your voice as a thought leader.
As an Associate Strategy Director / Strategy Director, you are a leader who helps frame opportunities on the account. You’re partner with account, creative and delivery. Through directly managing or mentoring junior strategists you reinforce your own skillset. You aren’t just delegating; you create opportunities for people around you. You have a perspective on brands & consumers and you speak from knowledge and experience: granting you authority.
Your focus as an Associate Strategy Director / Strategy Director:
- Leading a mid–sized client or being the second lieutenant on a large client(s).
- Establishing yourself as a trusted advisor to clients and a critical part of the client-facing leadership team from the agency.
- Fronting pitches and knowing how and when to determine a direction for new projects.
- Running different types of workshops (e.g. Big IdeaL and Fusion) as well as being conversant enough on other types of strategy such as engagement, social, data to be in the discussion and spot opportunities
- Seeking to inspire those around you to create and deliver ever better strategic work
- Coaching and developing more junior strategists in your team and supporting the broader agency strategy team to evolve and grow
The skills you learn and apply:
- Acquiring new hard skills is less vital, you just need to apply them in higher profile and higher stakes settings. “Soft” skills become increasingly important including how to give feedback, prioritize and manage work streams.
- Learning to be a leader; supporting and inspiring those around you to achieve their goals, be they different types of strategists or from other teams
- Being able to flex your own approach according to different situations and audiences
- Coaching others to shape their arguments, not over-writing them with your own
- Becoming more commercially aware, and able to spot opportunities for growth for both clients’ businesses and the agency
- Scoping, able to shape, resource and price projects profitably
The qualities that will make you successful:
- Manages people and helps them shine
- Direct high-level client exposure
- Commercially astute and accountable
- Runs accounts & pitches
- Strong stage presence
- Contributes back to the dept
- Takes accountability for work on the account
- Approx 9 -15 years’ experience
You’re ready to move up when you are considered expert who can be a resource for the team at large. You have proven results, and everyone recognizes the value you bring. You understand Ogilvy and what we do beyond your day to day. You can inspire and command a large and complicated team.
