Brushing aside established norms, Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific boss Miles Young has tapped into a market that defies control and categorisation JUDGED SOLELY ON appearances, Miles Young is not the stereotypical advertising executive. Dressed in a chequered shirt and cords rather than the ubiquitous sharp dark suit, the British chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific looks more like a university academic than a media mogul. A glance around Mr Young's Peak home does little to alter the perception with its neat piles of art magazines, impeccable antique furniture and the beginnings of a collection of Chinese sculptures. And then there is the black 'guard' dog, whose slightly fearsome looks hide the softest of characters. How many would think to name him 'Coluche', after the French comedian famous first for his biting satire against the establishment but later for his tireless work for the homeless? Understanding that all is not always as it seems is something Mr Young first learnt as a history student in Oxford and a principle he adamantly maintains is just as applicable in his chosen profession. 'History is an unbelievable training in how to weigh up evidence,' he said. 'You're looking at the same event but from different angles and perspectives, with layers of documentary evidence ... It makes you realise that whenever you are confronted with a situation, you have to probe beneath the surface and understand why. If you're given a point of view, you have to assess it in the context of other points of view.' Mr Young moved to his current post in 1995 after 12 years working for Ogilvy & Mather in London. Given 24 hours to accept the offer by his boss - 'not long enough to make up a list of pros and cons that would have left me indecisive' - he said an interest in Asian cultures and sense of adventure lay behind the decision to come to Hong Kong. 'Asia is notoriously difficult to categorise and to manage, so understanding the distinctions - and liking the countries you work in - is a prerequisite to enjoying this job,' he said. Those distinctions are apparent not only in Ogilvy's client mix across various markets but also in the company's new recruits. As a result, Mr Young often has to train employees to be able to think creatively and to think in a way that often goes against cultural norms. In Japan, for example, he took a group of new employees to a remote farmhouse in Tokushima prefecture renovated and managed in traditional style by American Alex Kerr, author of Lost in Japan. 'They were astonished because it offended everything they had been taught about Japan - that it was a homogenous, unitary state and that Japanese had always been spoken all over Japan. After all the post-Meiji propaganda, they found it very difficult to see that there was an alternative view, not to mention the fact that the person who had spent so much time and effort to restore the house was not Japanese.' There is little doubt from listening to Mr Young that this kind of cultural exchange and how culture affects the marketing of a product, is one of the key pleasures of the job. Ogilvy's progress in Japan has been hindered by the predominance of Dentsu and Hakuhodu in the market. But Mr Young said the company would benefit from the slow shift among Japanese clients towards a more western approach to branding and advertising. Until recently, the zaibatsu legacy - giant corporations such as Mitsubishi founded with political patronage in the late 19th century to industrialise Japan - had overshadowed more 'western' concepts of product branding. 'It didn't matter what industry you were in as long as you were large and the brand was therefore the same as the corporation,' he said. 'Separate product brands underneath that corporate umbrella were very difficult for them to grasp.' The same is not the case in China, where Ogilvy has benefited from the 'religious' acceptance of the concept of branding. 'What has driven the belief in China is that the market has opened up, so branding is seen as a defence against foreign products coming in. It is connected with how to defend market share and you certainly don't just want to do that on price,' Mr Young said. Ogilvy's clients have developed from state-owned enterprises insecure about working with foreign agencies 10 years ago, to more progressive companies such as China Mobile - 'as dynamic and marketing savvy as any of its international peers' - according to Mr Young. In fact, Ogilvy's client list reads like a who's who of Chinese companies tipped to become the country's first so-called global brands, such as Lenovo, TCL and Haier. So does Mr Young think they have what it takes? 'Chinese companies tend to be led by people who have come up through the production system,' he said. 'If they are CEOs, they are highly intelligent people, and they will realise they need a brand but their organisation will not be geared towards that at all. These globalising Chinese companies are going to find it difficult to cope because their mindset is production-oriented not marketing-oriented.' That said, Mr Young predicts the top-tier companies will be giving Korean and Japanese firms a run for their money within 10 years, based on better management flexibility and the global acceptance of so-called Brand China. 'There is no need for Chinese brands to be stigmatised as cheap and cheerful and occupying the high volume, low-cost segment of the market,' he said. 'There is tremendous goodwill globally towards Brand China so the firms needn't go through the agony that the Korean firms went through.' It is not just companies getting involved. Ogilvy is also helping the Chinese government modernise its public perception and improve crisis management through a faculty for public branding established by Ogilvy at Tsinghua University. 'The government has an increasing problem with media relationships, contrary to public belief,' Mr Young said. 'In certain respects, the media in China is very free and certainly very feisty, and in their drive for circulation, they are quite sensationalist, so sometimes it is very difficult for the government to get its message across. 'In that situation, what the government has to do is to train its staff in media relations which is somewhat counter-intuitive in a system where you are supposed to control the media.' All, you see, is not always as it seems. Biography Miles Young studied modern history at New College, Oxford, before embarking on a career in advertising that has spanned Lintas, Allen Brady & Marsh and now Ogilvy & Mather. He moved to Hong Kong in 1995 to head the firm's Asia-Pacific operations. Before coming to Asia, Mr Young was an active member of the 'London First' project to rebrand the capital and also helped the London Chinatown Association to rebrand itself. In addition to collecting Chinese sculptures in his spare time, Mr Young is currently restoring a cinnamon plantation near Matara, Sri Lanka, and a 17th century nunnery in Anhui province. He is a visiting professor of Xiamen University and of the Wanli Ningbo University.