Aug 10, 2026 · 14 min · 7 segments
Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media, and Chris Foster, CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Group, discuss how strong leadership drives successful…
What's one of the most important lessons you've learned about industry consolidation?
I'd say the biggest lesson I've learned is that integration is fundamentally about people, right? I think the financial and regulatory transactions happen in due time, but building one organization takes time.
It's about creating trust with employees, maintaining confidence with clients, and being clear about where you're headed.
Clients expect us to deliver you know, while we're integrating, right? So every decision should answer one question, I think, right? Does this make us a stronger partner for our clients? And if we keep people and clients at the center, the rest of the integration tends to follow.
But let me unpack, if I can, just one of those things real quick, because there is another lesson I've learned.
Integration's also a leadership exercise, not a financial one, right? I mean, people don't follow organizational charts.
They follow leaders who can communicate clearly and make decisions with confidence and clarity.
So if you get the leadership right, I think some of the financial and operational synergies actually get easier to realize.
I know you're extraordinarily influential, but it's almost like making sure everyone feels like they have a leadership role throughout the organization.
So if you want to pick up with some of your other points, but I just thought that was something that I think is an important sort of take.
And, you know, one of the things in integrations or mergers or whatever, whatever you may be managing is there's uncertainty.
And we have to lead and inspire teams through that uncertainty, which takes, you know, it's a different skill set, but it also does require it's all hands on deck for leaders across the business.
So I think that's a really good point around extending leaders across organizations in these times.
What's one of the most important lessons you've learned about industry consolidation?
I'd say the biggest lesson I've learned is that integration is fundamentally about people, right? I think the financial and regulatory transactions happen in due time, but building one organization takes time.
It's about creating trust with employees, maintaining confidence with clients, and being clear about where you're headed.
Clients expect us to deliver you know, while we're integrating, right? So every decision should answer one question, I think, right? Does this make us a stronger partner for our clients? And if we keep people and clients at the center, the rest of the integration tends to follow.
But let me unpack, if I can, just one of those things real quick, because there is another lesson I've learned.
Integration's also a leadership exercise, not a financial one, right? I mean, people don't follow organizational charts.
They follow leaders who can communicate clearly and make decisions with confidence and clarity.
So if you get the leadership right, I think some of the financial and operational synergies actually get easier to realize.
I know you're extraordinarily influential, but it's almost like making sure everyone feels like they have a leadership role throughout the organization.
So if you want to pick up with some of your other points, but I just thought that was something that I think is an important sort of take.
And, you know, one of the things in integrations or mergers or whatever, whatever you may be managing is there's uncertainty.
And we have to lead and inspire teams through that uncertainty, which takes, you know, it's a different skill set, but it also does require it's all hands on deck for leaders across the business.
So I think that's a really good point around extending leaders across organizations in these times.
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