When Dianne Wilkins was growing up in Medicine Hat, she never dreamed of becoming a hard-driving advertising exec. All her hard drives, she figured, would be on the fairways. At 40, Ms. Wilkins is now chief executive officer of Critical Mass Inc., a digital marketing agency whose client list has, over the years, included Mercedes, Infiniti and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The company, now 54 per cent owned by U.S. ad giant Omnicom Group, maintains its head office in Calgary – with 250 of its 530 people – but has no clients in the city. It operates satellites in places like Toronto, New York, Amsterdam and London.
Were you really a golf pro?
For a while, all I wanted to do was to play on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour. Golf turned out to be a great way to go far away for university and have it paid for. Then I had chronic wrist problems that were ruining my hopes of a golf career. Truth be told, I wasn’t good enough anyway.
By my junior year, I was really struggling with my wrists; by my senior year, it was cortisone shots and that sort of stuff propping me up. I knew the playing wasn’t going to fly.
How did you end up at Critical Mass?
I got an MBA and I ended up teaching professional golf management and being a golf instructor. In the end, it all comes back to golf. One of the founders of Critical Mass, Ted Hellard, married a friend of mine who was also a golf pro. We all had wings and beer and watched the Olympics together, and they were talking about this potential Saab deal. Three months later, I got a phone call saying, “Hey, Ted wants you to go to Sweden.”
Was that the style – go with your gut?
It’s instinct-based. It worked out for Ted and for me. We each took a chance. At Critical Mass, we were able to do so much of that then. A lot of companies have a no-nepotism policy. We have a policy of “Feel free, bring your brothers or sisters or uncles, whatever. You’re not going to recommend them to us if you don’t firmly believe they are going to succeed.” You’re not going to do favours for people who are going to ruin your career.
What did Ted see in you?
He was looking for people he could trust to send over there. It happened in accidental fashion. There was no leadership in that Swedish operation, and I can’t stand it when there is no one in charge. I don’t do well on a rudderless ship – I have to take control.
It’s never been “I want the title.” It’s just that leaderlessness drives me crazy. I ended up as CEO of the entity over there. In the end, Ted realized he didn’t want to do the travel and couldn’t run the company by phone any more. So he called and said, “Get back here [to Calgary].”
How do you keep that style with a big outside shareholder?
Omnicom is a fairly hands-off holding company, certainly when it comes to anything cultural. They will hold us to our financial targets. They’re going to call us on client satisfaction blips, those kinds of things. But basically if the numbers don’t go south. they’re going to trust that we’re doing the rest of the business.
What do you lose sleep over?
Some days it is the little things. For all this great strategic planning and all this talent we have acquired, the problems arise because of typos.
