Analysis: Mike Sheehan on Taking Over

Respect for a founder's unique role in company culture is key to preserving the best of it, says the CEO of Hill Holliday

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Mike Sheehan, who rejoined Hill Holliday in 2001 and became CEO in 2003, recognized that to take the company to the next level of growth, he had to preserve the culture that founder Jack Connors had forged while being a true leader in his own right.

"In taking over the company, I saw two paths," says Sheehan, who insists he never aspired to be CEO—of Hill Holliday or anyplace else. "The first path—and I understood it and I appreciated it—was to continue the cultural platform that Jack had built here." That culture is characterized, says Sheehan, in no small part by the familial feeling that Connors had fostered, with both employees and clients, and the commitment to pro bono work and charitable contributions. In fact, Sheehan takes great pride in telling people that Hill Holliday is the only ad agency in the country with a community relations department.

"Part of the interest in coming back here was I liked working in that culture and I wanted to continue that. By the same token, I wanted it to change," he says. "I thought that to grow it appropriately and to reach its full potential, the next generation had to be about a team of people who worked well together and could grow the agency."

Emphasizing the Team

Indeed, in taking over for an iconic leader, Sheehan saw certain challenges. "Jack is a very team-oriented person, and he was great about passing on the leadership to me and to others," says Sheehan. "But there was always that perception that Hill Holiday equaled Jack Connors. It wasn't necessarily reality, but perception is reality, so in effect it was."

That's in part why Sheehan puts so much emphasis on the idea that the new leadership is about the team, rather than him. "I am very, very aware of the difference between what I do and what Jack did," says Sheehan. "Jack started from nothing. I came to Hill Holiday when it was successful and established. I think it's why the transition worked. A founder, an entrepreneur who starts something from nothing, gets a great deal of respect from everyone here."

Sheehan himself is quick to credit Connors for his part in making the transition smooth and successful, by knowing when to support Sheehan and when to let go. "I certainly felt the presence of Jack side by side [when I first returned], and then over the course of the next few years, he made sure that he took a step back."

If Sheehan were to pick one incident that encapsulates the change in leadership, it would be his decision to move Hill Holliday from its headquarters in Boston's inconic Hancock Tower to new headquarters on State Street. "I thought it would be a good idea to coincide with the transition of leadership to move the agency from where we were," says Sheehan. As convinced as he was that moving the agency closer to downtown was the right thing to do and would send all the appropriate signals, he admits to having some concerns about telling Connors.

"I was afraid that I would offend him," Sheehan says. "It was his vision to go to the Hancock Tower. But he didn't hesitate when I told him. He said, 'That is a great idea, you should move. It's time.' He knew for all the right reasons why it was time to move on."

Sheehan says that when the time comes he hopes he will handle his own transition as gracefully as Connors did, though he won't be following Connors into the role of chairman. "There will only ever be one chairman of Hill Holiday, and that's Jack," he says. "I think as the founder, he deserves that."

Patricia O'Connell is Management Editor for BusinessWeek.com.