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Publicis GroupePrograms & Workshops

Two hours inside a client launch going wrong, for three cohorts of agency leaders

Agency leaders spent two hours inside a made-up EV launch going wrong: voice notes from its C-suite, a plan to build against the clock, and a client who might walk.

Character cards for the made-up EV brand Horizon's C-suite: Elena Richter, CEO, Marc Duval, CTO, and Sofia Lopez, CMO

89%would recommend, first cohort

A voice note. One of your business leads has been ignoring the cross-agency model for weeks, and now the client's EVP wants to know why the plan isn't holding. You reply out loud, and you don't get to rehearse first.

The challenge

Le Grand Studio is the group's program for its most senior people: VPs, SVPs, EVPs and managing directors from agencies across the network. None of them needed telling that influence matters. Their work runs across agencies, markets and brands, and nobody in the chain owns all of it.

What they rarely get is somewhere to practice that, with a client watching and the clock running, where getting it wrong costs nothing. The ask was two hours, online, for about 75 people at a time.

What we built

Two short frameworks first, each with its case studies, from Airbus to big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara. Then straight into a drill, the Leadership Flex Test: six to eight minutes, solo, on your phone or laptop.

Two paths through the drill

  1. Sense-Respond-AdaptFor when the situation moves fast. The Campaign Curveball: two regional leads drop out, a creative wants to change direction, and there are two days left.
  2. Adaptive LeadershipFor when people pull different ways. The Quiet Undermine: a business lead going around the cross-agency model, and the client noticing.
  3. Then the other oneEach path is a voice note, a choice, a spoken reply and a question about what you noticed. At the end, the other path opens.

Then Horizon: a made-up EV challenger from Munich, a five-market launch, and a C-suite that doesn't trust holding companies. We built the lot from scratch. A launch brief and a spec sheet. Profiles of the CEO, CTO and CMO, each with their own idea of what matters. A group chat of voice notes where they disagree. An email from the CEO that ends with a threat.

Teams of four had 40 minutes: a cold open, quick intros, five minutes with the materials, then 25 minutes to build a one-page plan for leading the launch across agencies, on a shared Miro board. Not a media plan, not creative. How the group would lead it as one.

Two phones: a group chat called Horizon C-Suite full of voice notes from Elena, Marc and Sofia, and an email from Elena Richter headed Agency update.
The C-suite group chat. Voice notes from three people who don't agree, and an email from the CEO: one launch, one story, or they rethink the agency.
Three profile cards: Elena Richter, CEO, Marc Duval, CTO, and Sofia Lopez, CMO, each with a motivation, a signature quote, a working style and a quirk.
Three leaders, three agendas. One wants a single strategic lead, one wants startup speed, one wants the brand to feel iconic everywhere.
A quote card from Elena Richter, CEO, beside a mock Torque magazine cover about Horizon's battery.
The stakes. “If Publicis can't prove it can lead as One Groupe, we walk.” And a trade-press cover on Horizon's battery.
Horizon Mobility's strategic launch brief and the spec sheet for its Avara SUV.
The launch brief. Five markets, a deadline, and a list of what Horizon won't tolerate: silos, slow decisions, agencies in conflict.
The scenario board: Setting the Stage, The Mission, Deliverables and Instructions, with Elena's quote card.
The scenario board. Everything a team needs on one screen, with 30 minutes on the clock.
Two candidate cards for the pitch team, Harper Mitchell and Diogo Almeida, each listing strengths and weaknesses.
Pick your pitch team. A brilliant creative who burns bridges, or a data lead who's impatient with creatives. The Americas cohort had to choose.
Two cards for the Americas cohort: Setting the Stage, about Horizon's US, Canada and Mexico launch, and Your Mission.
Rebuilt for the Americas. A new launch, three markets, and the same question: can the group lead it as one?

How a session ran

One session · two hours on Zoom

  1. Setting the stage15 minutes: the group's L&D leads open, then us
  2. Frameworks and the drillTwo frameworks, then the Flex Test, solo and out loud
  3. Horizon40 minutes in teams of four, building the plan on Miro
  4. The showcaseThree teams pitch in two minutes, then take objections at three levels of heat
  5. In pairsFive minutes with someone new: what pattern showed up in how you led?
  6. The wrapWhat Elena made of the plans, and a feedback form

In the showcase, a random team gets two minutes to pitch its plan. Then the objections come, mild, spicy and extra spicy, with thirty seconds to answer each, while everyone else adds "yes, and" in the chat.

Each team's board: roles first, then influence, the collaboration model, tactics, a wildcard and what could go wrong, each on a timer.

Before and after

It started before anyone joined. Everyone got a short primer, and answered a few questions ahead of the day. Howard and Fernando Franco hosted every session.

Afterwards, each cohort got a packet to keep, with the frameworks and the scenario. After the Americas sessions, the packet went further. We ran every choice teams faced through our own playtesting, to show what Horizon's C-suite would have picked and why. The pattern it found: Horizon's C-suite consistently rewards systems that enable courage, not courage that ignores systems.

Three cohorts, one rebuilt

APAC ran the spring session again. For the Americas, the group told us the room would be more senior: more presidents, more agency and brand C-suite, and a wish to go deeper on adaptive leadership. So we rebuilt it.

It opened with teams of four on a plan that had met reality the hard way. Then two sprints on a new Horizon launch, across the US, Canada and Mexico. The first was about strategy and people: who to win over, and who goes on the pitch team. The second was a pre-mortem. It's six months from now. The launch has failed. Each team worked through challenges, each built on one adaptive leadership idea.

  1. Challenge 1The BacklashThe Holding Environment: keeping people together while the pressure is on.
  2. Challenge 2The Rogue TalentIndividual brilliance against collective coherence.
  3. Challenge 3The Systems GapFrom the dance floor to the balcony: stepping back to see the whole pattern.
  4. Challenge 4The Underwhelmed ClientCompeting commitments: what people protect when they say they want change.

What shifted

The first cohort was polled as the sessions ended. Of 122 people who joined live, 89% would recommend it, 91% found it relevant and 85% said they could act on it.

  • “The format of the exercise is very well thought, it's engaging, it pushes you to think fast and collaborate and the overall "game" format is very enjoyable.”

  • “Interactive, forced me to make fast decisions, most team building activities, most exchange.”

The group booked the session again for APAC, then a third, for the Americas.

Leaders who know the theory and need somewhere to practice under real pressure? Book a 20-minute call →

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