This month, The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC) obtained a brand new CEO—however it looks as if there received’t be a lot of an adjustment interval.
Susan Howe stepped into the chief government position on the communications company on Dec. 2, and since becoming a member of almost 29 years in the past, she has held successive management roles operating the gamut from regional normal supervisor to international head of shopper advertising. She succeeds Gail Heimann, a advertising legend in her personal proper, who introduced her retirement earlier this yr.
With a tenure roughly equal to Heimann’s, Howe entered the C-suite in 2017, holding two much less generally seen C-suite titles—these of chief collaboration officer and chief development officer—earlier than ascending to company president in 2021. All through her development on the company, she has adhered to a tenet of optimism, utilizing pleasure and laughter as instruments in her problem-solving arsenal.
Howe sat down with ADWEEK to debate the by means of traces and particularities of her profession journey, the endurance of TWSC, and her ideas on what’s energizing in regards to the state of communications as we speak.
Her phrases have been edited for size and readability.
Choosing up items
I’ve chosen to construct my profession at Weber as a result of it has at all times afforded me the possibility to zig and zag, be taught and develop. I feel to some individuals, it’d look fairly linear as a result of I’m so lengthy tenured in a single company, however in reality, [I] was selecting up abilities and alternatives each step of the way in which. You don’t know what piece you’re selecting up till you get all of it collectively and also you want it for the following factor.
Once I was earlier in my profession and partnering with shoppers, I discovered the right way to give and take, push again, and develop concepts. Once I ran a pair workplaces, it was about the right way to put individuals in the appropriate position on the proper time. Once I was capable of tackle some international experiences, it was all in regards to the context round me, and the way native context and tradition influences the work we achieve this basically.
A significant a part of our story—and I feel that is true for my story as nicely—is that this collaboration “muscle” that’s so intrinsic to how we function. Once they named me chief collaboration officer, I feel it was a first-of-its-kind C-suite position. It was the popularity that we wanted to vary the sorts of groups we introduced collectively.
