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Rochelle "Shelly" Lazarus likes a challenge.
The Smith College graduate started her business career as one of only four women in a 275-member class at Columbia's Graduate School of Business in 1970. Today, the 44-year-old executive has the formidable task of revitalizing Ogilvy & Mather's New York office.
Once the crown jewel of an international advertising empire known for its creative strategic work, the flagship office of Ogilvy has been struggling for years. In 1991, billings dropped nearly 7% to $705 million from $755 million the previous year. Its recession-stressed business was dealt a highly public blow when the agency lost its prestigious $60 million American Express green card account, as well as several other large clients.
"We have lost some big chunks of business," admits Ms. Lazarus, a self-proclaimed optimist who became president of the agency last May. "But the agency is filled with a group of talented, energetic people committed to building a great agency."
Sitting in Ms. Lazarus' frog-strewn corner office it's easy to catch her enthusiasm. However, others have come before her and failed to re-ignite the agency. The pressures of being part of financially strapped WPP Group Ltd. of London, dealing with impatient clients and being bogged down by an internal bureaucracy have kept the advertising agency out of the creative limelight that is now enjoyed by exceptional large agencies such as BBDO Worldwide New York and Chiat/Day/Mojo.
"Ogilvy keeps going up and down and up and down," says Judy Wald, whose namesake company does executive recruiting for advertising agencies. "People worry that there is no future there because it is a...