"Never set limits for yourself, or you will kill good ideas,” says Shenan Chuang, the Taiwan-born CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Greater China. The advertising mogul’s creativity knows no boundary, a fact that has helped her shape Ogilvy’s success on the mainland.
When Chuang was assigned to Beijing nearly 10 years ago, she found many people tended to see simple things as “impossible”. She says: “I asked a waiter to put a slice of lemon in my water but he told me it was impossible. I would understand if they didn’t have lemon. But it’s not impossible. All he has to do is to cut a lemon and give me one slice.”
Chuang is renowned for her passion for creative leadership and innovative management, having set up a “creative floor” to knock down intangible walls among different disciplines and encourage co-operation within the company.
Her brainchild, O Gallery, a special art space inside the Beijing office, is another effort to make the workplace a creative environment while sponsoring local artists.
Named one of the “Top 25 Business Women in China” in 2010 and 2011 by Fortune China magazine, Chuang also co-founded the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of China (4A) and has been elected its chairman three times.