OGILVY & Mather (O&M) offices worldwide will soon begin recruiting additional staff following the acquisition of the estimated US$500-million IBM advertising account.
Mike Murphy, Hong Kong-based president of O&M Greater China, which will now handle the account in the region, said : ''Obviously we will have to 'staff up' for this. Landing such a huge account doesn't happen very often, so this success will probably require a big reorganisation.
''Frankly, it will be a big headache, but one I will happily learn to cope with,'' he said.
At a worldwide level, O&M will use a specialist human resource allocation consultant to advise on the redeployments and additional staffing required.
But Grace Atkinson, chairman of J. Walter Thompson Hong Kong (JWT), formerly the lead agency in Asia for the prestigious account, warned: ''O&M may find it quite hard to locate suitably qualified and experienced people here. It's an account where the technical aspects are vitally important.
''Losing this account is very emotional for JWT because we set up a special business-to-business division, called Enterprise, about eight years ago exclusively to handle the IBM account,'' she said.
