David Droga on Droga5's recent departures and Accenture Song's future

Susie Nam's departure from Droga5 made her the latest exit among a number of notable executives who joined the agency during its founding years and helped build it into a formidable creative force and undisputed industry leader. The departures are seen as unusual for the agency founded by David Droga, which has been widely acknowledged as a magnet for attracting and retaining the best talent in the business. They come in the wake of Droga5's 2019 acquisition by Accenture Interactive (which has since rebranded as Accenture Song) and led by David Droga as CEO. Read more: Susie Nam departs Droga5 Some of the executives were absorbed into Accenture Song, including Sarah Thompson, one of the agency’s earliest employees, who became global communications lead in January of last year, but has since left the company. Nam worked at the agency for 14 years, most recently as CEO, Americas. See all of Ad Age's 2023 Agency A-List winners here Thompson, in addition to Nam, was part of a founding trio with Jonny Bauer, global chief strategy officer for Droga5, who exited after 13 years to join Blackstone as global head of brand strategy and transformation. Other senior departures include Tim Gordon, who left after 14 years to open a New York office for Canada’s Zulu Alpha Kilo in July 2022; Felix Richter, also co-CCO, who exited for Mother London in March of that year after seven years at Droga5, and Droga5 London’s Chief Creative Officer David Kolbusz, who left for indie agency Orchard after a 7-year tenure. Ad Age spoke with David Droga about the group of departures, what it means for the agency and how Droga5’s culture has evolved since its acquisition nearly four years ago. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is your view of what has been happening at Droga5? Obviously I'm invested and very emotional about Droga5 for lots of reasons, and not just because of what it represents within Song. I hold us to a higher benchmark than other [agencies]. Things are going well. It's growing, it's producing work that clients love and people are proud of. It's getting the notes right. But there's movement. There’s obviously a reshuffling, and I feel like it's not something that hasn't been expected. When we did the deal and we expanded and grew I knew that there'd be a next generation of people moving through. I don't think anyone is shocked by the fact that some of the previous generation has now exited. I feel like one of the greatest privileges of Droga5— and I've said this from day one—it shows in the people we have that our depth of talent is very fast and deep. Why are Droga5 executives moving over to Song rather than staying? The fact that they moved into broader Accenture and Song is very validating and important because we are trying to assimilate. They're not out there on an island. They're playing in a different thing. My brief to them, and the reason for this deal, is to not just repeat what they did for the last 15 years. We are trying to break new ground and create new relationships and do different things. And that's harder. There are stumbles along the way. Things happen slower, but there's also bigger victories. Can you address Nam’s departure? I'm sad about [Nam leaving], but I think that she's done amazing things and, as I expected, and it's part of the regeneration of Droga5. We have to take it up a notch. We have to challenge ourselves. On all the metrics that most agencies judge themselves on, Droga5’s doing really, really well. I want Droga5 to do even more. …We grew more than most agencies. We did work that was celebrated more than most agencies. But that's not all I expect. I expect us to do more. That's because [Droga5 employees] are doing things at a bigger level. They're involved in bigger deals with clients across Accenture and Song that don't have the normal bells and whistles, but their impact is greater. So if you're asking me what's going on at Droga5, I'd say what it's always done has been moves and new leadership and evolutions. Read also: Susie Nam on celebrating race and identity Other senior executives from the very early days have also left. The main three players that were there for the beginning were myself, Sarah and Johnny—obviously everyone's in a different position now. It's a shame to lose Susie. Susie was great. Dan [Gonda, Droga5 president who moves up to CEO, North America following Nam's exit] has been at the heart of some of the most famous and celebrated things we've done there. So him ascending into that role is natural and great. Particularly he and Scott Bell, the chief creative officer, have worked on a lot of that great stuff together. They have a deep history and a deep understanding of what makes Droga5 tick. There are some people that want it to be what it was. And there are some people who want to live off the glory of what was in a sort of different era. And there are some people who are up to change and redefine this new era. It is harder. I actually get proud and excited when stars that worked with me and partners go on and do great things. It's not physically possible to keep all the best people. What it is possible for me to do is to promote and elevate all the best people, which is one of the sort of lifebloods of Droga5. I'm collecting best in class across the industry—Nick Law [former global lead for design and creative technology and creative chairperson at Accenture Song], Sean Lyons [global capabilities lead for Song], Kristen Kelly [Accenture Song global head of media], James Temple [co-lead of Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum Group], these are people who are absolute ferocious leaders and icons and have done fantastic things. Read also: What Jonny Bauer is up to at Blackstone Some have speculated that people have left because the culture of Droga5 has changed. Is the culture different? It's different because the scale and degree of difficulty is much harder because we're asking them to do much more. But the reason I stepped into this role is because I didn’t want to just repeat what I've done. I'm trying to see if we can challenge and show up for where our clients need us to be, which is a much harder and broader challenge than we've ever had before. But we have the talent to do it. People will whisper and gossip and I can't keep everyone, but what I can say is I would put our bench up there today with any agency in the country, any agency in the world. I can't keep everyone great. It would be selfish to think I could, it would be fool-hearted to think I could. But as I said, the agency was built by us evolving, not setting everything in stone. People seem to be paying attention because the agency historically had very little turnover and people were banging down the doors to get in. We're a company now, we're no longer an island. I loved being a benevolent dictator when I was running Droga5. We really tried to do great things. We were really fighting to do the very best work for our clients in the industry. And it was us against everybody. We were trying to create these new benchmarks, and I was so lucky. I had people in the trenches who wanted to be there with me shoulder to shoulder. But we've decided to take on something bigger, which is we are trying to assimilate and be the tail that wags a much, much, much bigger dog now. Look at Song. We've grown, our last earnings, we were $16 billion in the last year. The trajectory is looking good. Now, even more important than that is what we are doing for our clients, the types of clients we're winning, the shape of the deals we are doing, and the quality of work. I'm just banging the drum more. I just want our work to be better. I want the impact to be bigger. How exactly has the culture changed under Song? You can't be a $200 billion company and have the culture of a 700 person creative startup in New York. It just doesn't work that way. It could still be done with integrity and can still be done with mission-based. I’m still obsessed with the mission over the metrics. That is still my obsession, but I've gotta make sure that I do it with responsibility because there's so much at stake. … I’m just trying to do it from a different vantage point and give us a bigger future. And the best thing I can do for Droga5—those that see the challenges and who want to be architects of this new world—is to give them a position and a platform where they can be these people who reinvent and create things. There's this next generation of people taking the reins. And it’s for them to decide the culture. I'm not glossing over [the fact that there’s] a culture change. We are not a precious flower. We're a feisty entity. And Droga5 is part of something bigger. The scale is so vast and we're actually building things from the ground up as opposed to just more the the narrative side of things. And that moves at a slower pace. And there are more decision makers, more people to bring along. So it's not as instant as what we are used to. Also read: Accenture Song hires new global metaverse lead Today it was reported that Annette King, CEO of Publicis Groupe UK, joined on as global lead of communications at Accenture Song. How are you recruiting big-name talent? What makes people who can get a job anywhere or be these leaders the icons of individual companies—people who hail from Magic Leap [Temple] or people from R/GA [Lyons] and Apple [Law]—they are icons. They see the opportunity here. And the first thing I say to them is, “Look, the opportunity here is greater than anywhere we've ever been. The degrees of difficulty are harder than anywhere we've ever been. If you've got the tenacity, the patience and the vision to be one of the people out the front, then let's do it.” It seems to be working, because the rest of the industry is shrinking and is going off an old playbook and their way of growing or winning is marking down things and discounting things and all that. That's not our game. We are not in that game. What would you say to people wondering about the executive changes at Droga5? Droga5 is just one component of who we are. It’s probably the most talked about part because of what it's done and what people's expectations of it. And so I don't get upset that people have an opinion on us because it means that people have highest expectations. If they didn't notice when things weren't perfect, I'd be worried. Every single person at the agency has earned the right to do anything they want. I always say that to anybody who's ever left. I never begrudge anybody for going off to do what they really believe. I just hope that they go and do something that's worthy of their talents. I'm only ever disappointed if they do a lateral move. But anyone that goes off to do something that wants to cash their Droga5 success card in and take on a new leadership role—you've earned the right. I have to trust you. I respect you. I'm grateful. And I've always believed—maybe that's my naivety or arrogance—I've always believed that we are bigger than that. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs I feel like I'd been blessed with great people and if I could've kept everyone I would have, but you can't. It's not possible. So knowing that you can never do that, the next best thing you have to do is raise up the next generation or attract the other best in class from other places, which we're doing. Look at the people we're attracting. They're not coming for me. They're coming for something that's an opportunity for them. But it's not for everyone. We're asking people to redefine things. Some people want to land in an environment where it's all done and the only job is to just do the next great version of what's already been done. And some people are like—we are actually going to define something new.

David Droga on Droga5's recent departures and Accenture Song's future

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