David Jones is global CEO of Havas (and one of its divisions, Euro RSCG Worldwide), the French advertising giant that came up with such recent hits as the Charles Schwab’s “Talk to Chuck” campaign and the Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world.” Jones is also a tireless advocate of corporate social responsibility and travels across the country speaking to fellow business leaders about social media and how to use it properly in crisis. Coins2Dayreviewedhis book on these subjects this year. Jones also founded the One Young World summit. He’s an ideal “expert” for the new Coins2Day Fantasy Sports Executive League. (Anyone can play, and scoring depends, in part, on how closely the player’s picks match those of experts like Jones.)
Because Jones is a consumer-outreach and social media advisor, he’s also a candidate for the CMO position in the game itself. Jones spoke to Coins2Day’s Daniel Roberts about the logic behind his Dream Team picks. Here is an excerpt of the conversation.
David Jones: My overall philosophy was to have people who understand the new world and where the new world is heading. I had three criteria for my team. First, I wanted a big focus on people who get technology and social media. Second, I wanted a mix of diversity both in terms of country and sex, so my team is female-dominant, but also has people from China and Japan, recognizing that those parts of the world are increasingly important. And third, I wanted a mix of proven stars and maybe more interesting, edgy people.
It was sort of difficult as I went through because I kind of went back and forth on a few people.
My non-executive chairman is Sam Palmisano. I picked him because if you look at IBM (IBM), they are one of the very few companies in the world that have managed to reinvent themselves from being on the wrong side of the digital revolution. People still think they make computers but they’ve moved on, reengineered themselves as one of the backbones of the global economy.
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Chief strategist, I have Jennifer Li of Baidu (BIDU). I just think when you have a business of that size, in China, with all the things that are going on there, you just need a very strong voice in what is potentially the world’s most important economy.
My utility player is Tadashi Yanai. If you look at Uniqlo — the other big theme for everybody is design — and if you look at what they’ve done and how quickly, it’s absolutely brilliant. The innovation, the way someone described it was sort of Banana Republic quality, Gap (GPS) design, and Old Navy prices. You go into the store on Broadway [in Manhattan] and it shows a brilliant eye for design. He’s somebody who completely understands the Japanese culture, a great member for the core team.
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CIO is Cadir Lee from Zynga (ZNGA). That was a hard one, but I just think this theme of people who get tech and digital is something that is critically important. I just think Zynga is a smart, clever business and having this guy on the team is critically important.
My designer/engineer, I could have almost gone with Jack Dorsey to be original, because I’m sure everyone picked Jony Ive, but Jony Ive has done such an amazing job that it’s hard to name anyone else as your designer/engineer. The only thing is, I might have put Zuckerberg in this slot if you had him there [he’s a CEO option].
My CMO is Beth Comstock, I think she really gets it, she’s incredibly smart, also gets the whole social responsibility piece, and is a great person.
For CEO, I went with GinniRometty. I wanted a female CEO. I was not convinced by Meg Whitman, and not really aware of Ellen Kullman, but I have a lot of success in my business working with women CEOs who have done great things. And IBM having a woman play such a key role in its transformation is very good.
My CFO is Karen Hoguet from Macy’s (M). My other favorite was Patrick Pichette, but in the end, he lost out because I wanted a woman. Otherwise, he would have gotten the nod. But also Hoguet is a retail person, so she knows cash. She’d be terrific on the team.
Finally, my COO is SherylSandberg. I know Sheryl well, and she’s such an amazing talent. What she’s brought to Facebook (FB) and what she did to Google (GOOG) prove she’s a brilliant operations person. I’ve been quite vocally supportive of Facebook, not because I‘m on their client council — this sort of advisory board — but because I think they’re brilliant and I’ve seen all of the ROI data and what they’ve done is compelling. They’ll succeed.