Y&R's Stringham: Email Suggests Enfatico Is a Problem That Needs Fixing

Y&R Brands chief Peter Stringham referred to Enfatico as a “challenge” in a recent mass email to the Dell shop’s staff, and hinted that some of what the agency was doing “hasn’t been” working for Dell.

The email was a welcome message to Enfatico staff as Enfatico is folded into Y&R Brands under Stringham. While most of the email was positive, there were some darker notes between the lines. Stringham wrote:

I want you to know that we take a long-term view of all of our challenges, and that will certainly be the case with Enfatico.

Advertising managers use the word “challenge” so reflexively it’s been drained of its meaning. It used to mean to demand a fight, but the MBA crowd has tortured the term into a politically correct word for “problem.” Is Stringham suggesting Enfatico is a problem for Y&R Brands? On one level, of course it’s a problem; he now has to integrate yet another agency into his portfolio. But that’s a problem in the same way that Rubik’s Cube is a problem — not one worthy of a statement to the masses and some speeches. So there seems to be some indication that Stringham sees Enfatico as something broken that needs to be fixed.

Stringham also notes:

… we all know that our job right now is to thoroughly examine what’s been working for Dell and what hasn’t been.

It’s official: Enfatico’s new corporate managers don’t believe that the agency is doing everything right. That ain’t news — it’s a truism that starting a new international agency from scratch will have teething troubles. But we’re way beyond Enfatico’s birth pangs, so this has to be interpreted as meaning that Y&R sees Dell as being at risk of leaving if everything isn’t “working” at Enfatico.

… in the weeks and months to come, we will tell you how we reinforce this with our range of training and development initiatives.

Translation: “We are the Borg! Lower your shields and surrender your ships! We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own! Your culture will adapt to service us! Resistance is futile!”

OK, it’s not quite as bad as that. But put it this way: Y&R increased its revenues 10.7 percent in the U.S. last year, when the average growth was less than 4 percent. Clearly, if you admit that Enfatico is a problem, then your best odds of fixing it would be to make it more like Y&R. Which is what is happening here.

We are confident that Enfatico will be positioned for long-term growth.

“Will be positioned”? Meaning it’s not currently positioned? Make of that what you will.

Here’s the full text of Stringham’s memo:

From: *Peter Stringham
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:52:40 -0400
Subject: More on Young & Rubicam Brands and Enfatico

April 22, 2009

Last Friday, Hamish McLennan (Chairman and CEO of Y&R), David Sable (Vice Chairman and COO of Wunderman), Mitch Caplan (CMO Y&R and Young & Rubicam Brands), Celia Berk (Chief Talent Officer) and I met with your senior managers.

We all agreed that it was a constructive and productive meeting, and that I would share its highlights with you in this note.  But I want to first tell you how meeting members of Enfatico’s team reaffirmed our excitement at your becoming part of the Young & Rubicam Brands family. We learned a great deal at this first meeting and left feeling impressed by the depth of your management bench. We are all looking forward to working together.

One of the things we wanted to do with our visit was to better explain how Young & Rubicam Brands works.  And I’ll share that with you now, too. We always describe it in the phrase, “Best Alone.  Better Together.”  What that means is that we respect and encourage each company’s corporate culture.   We appreciate that sustaining the uniqueness of each brand is how you advance your state of the art.  Enfatico remains an independent company within our group. At the same time, we are organized to be “Better Together.”  That means that the Young & Rubicam Brands companies are structured and practiced at coming together and melding our resources and talent on behalf of our clients.  And in the weeks and months to come, we will tell you how we reinforce this with our range of training and development initiatives.

These are the early days of our working together.  We have a tremendous amount of respect for the ambitious agenda that you have been trying to achieve.  That said, we all know that our job right now is to thoroughly examine what’s been working for Dell and what hasn’t been.  Then, together, we will determine how we can use all of our combined resources to deliver great work and great results.

I want you to know that we take a long-term view of all of our challenges, and that will certainly be the case with Enfatico.  We are confident that Enfatico will be positioned for long-term growth.  We also completely understand that change is unsettling.  So I promise you that we will continue to communicate with all of you, so that you are informed and hopefully inspired by the progress we can make collaboratively.

If you have any immediate questions, please reach out to your global B.U. or regional leaders.  They have already formed lines of communications with Young & Rubicam Brands counterparts.  While we develop an extended contact list, also feel free to turn to Mitch Caplan (email address redacted), who is serving as the bridge between Enfatico and Young & Rubicam Brands.

Once again, welcome to Young & Rubicam Brands, and thank you for your commitment to our clients and colleagues.  In the weeks ahead, we will tell you more about the ways we encourage collaboration among our capabilities.  For now, we hope you find this brief overview of all of our companies interesting. Click here <http://www.enfatico.com/emails/20090422/YRB_overview.pdf>  to see.

Peter Stringham
Chairman and CEO
Young & Rubicam Brands

• See previous coverage of Enfatico:
• Enfatico: Y&R’s Stringham Gives Staff 90-Day Deadline on Dell
• The Enfatico Fiasco: Isn’t This All Dell’s Fault?
• Enfatico is Wrapped Into Y&R; Layoffs Expected; Dell Looks Elsewhere
• Enfatico to Lay Off 8% of Staff; Dell Gave Agency the News Back in January
• Enfatico CEO Boone: Dell Ain’t Everything — We’re Pitching New Clients
• Advertising Roundup: Cliff Freeman Loses Bonefish; Ogilvy CEO Q&A; Freelance Troubles at Enfatico; More …
• Dell Ad Chief Jarvis Got $1.2 Mil. Severance Deal for Not Producing Ads
• With Second Dell Client Gone, Enfatico Must Prove Itself in 2009 — Cheaply
• Dell’s Enfatico Is a Rare Misstep for WPP’s Sorrell
• Dell’s Custom Ad Firm Enfatico Names Talent Chief, Gets Shellacked By Ad Blogs