For my Leadership Portfolio I decided to interview the CFO for Latin America and the Caribbean of one of the most important media agencies in the industry, Mediaedge:cia, Mr. Larry Fishgold. Currently Mr. Fishgold is working out of the Miami/ Latin America headquarters of the company on Brickell Key, Miami, Florida. On 2007 Mediaedge:cia was named the top Media Agency in the United States according the top advertising publications like AdAge ad Adweek.
Mr. Fishgold has a Bachelor on Business Administration with a minor on Marketing from CUNY University. He started his career in the accounting department of Young & Rubicam Advertising as a staff accountant. This advertising agency is also under the umbrella of WPP the “mother” company who has Group M and there your can find MEC and there Mediaedge:cia. Some of the clients in the Miami office for Mediaedge:cia are Dell, Sony Ericson, Sony Vaio, Colgate/ Palmolive, Hershey, Caterpillar, DHL and Schick Quarto.
After working in the accounting department of Y&R, when he graduated from collage, Mr. Fishgold was offered the opportunity to move to the finance department where he worked his way up until 1998 when he was offered the opportunity to become the CFO for Group M Latin America and move its headquarters from the New York offices to their current offices in Miami, Florida.
Within the Group M group of agencies for someone with an interest in the entertainment business he thinks that where they would be most comfortable working is in the MEC Access agency given that they work with what they call the “below the line media”, which basically is the link between sponsorships and content of the client with entertainment and sports celebrities. According with Mr. Fishgold the best ways to get a position within this company is to have a background on the television or movie industry, have contacts and network with the people that work within the industry and on the company because that way they see you as a bridge between the two worlds.
When I spoke with Mr. Fishgold about what he thought were the shortcomings of the new crop of employees coming right out of school to work for the company was that they lacked what he called the “360 degrees vision”. He thinks that students nowadays come out of collage specializing in one thing and one thing only and they loose the perspective of how what they learned or did not learned to do in school affects everything else in the company. If they study advertising, like it was my case, our knowledge of accounting and finance is none or very limited so we don’t really see the real economic impact of our actions within the company. He thinks there should be more preparation of both the creative and analytical side so when they enter the working world they would have what he likes to call a “360 degrees perspective”.
Right now, because Mediaedge:cia and all the other companies under WPP understands about this shortcomings in their new employees they basically train them form scratch, right out of collage, so they can learn along the way to create that “360 degrees vision” they are looking in the perfect employee.
I think this gives them an advantage over its competitors, companies like Starcom MediaVest Group and OMD Worldwide, because they know that their employees will manage their clients with a complete understanding of their work and how it will affect all areas. Its because of this top quality work that Mediaedge:cia has huge accounts and its has been considered as one of the top media agencies in the industry; because they know how to bring to the table complete quality service for their clients.
According to Mr. Fishgold, the company in the last year, like all companies world wide, has been affected by the current economic situation. They have lost some accounts, and others have reduced their marketing budget. As a result of all of this they have had to let go a considerable amount of employees from their offices around the world and make other adjustments so they could keep operating doing the same quality work that is their staple. He feels hopeful that the economy, slowly but surely, is on a rise again and that they will not be more affected by it.
I honestly think this was a very good interview because it gave me another perspective on what are my options when I graduate and what do I need to have to be competitive enough so I can achieve them. On one hand I have the possibility of opening my own business and be own boss if I decide to apply all my knowledge of my Masters into it or look for my dream job with the industry. Either way, Mr. Fishgold help me understand how important are classes like this one so we can really understand the implications of our day-to-day decisions against the company and its clients.
Resources:
• Interview with Mr. Larry Fishgold on December 7th 2009 at 9:30am.
• www.mecglobal.com
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