Q&A with Jeff Davidoff ‘89, President with Walton Isaacson
Jeff Davidoff is the president of Walton Isaacson advertising agency in Chicago. His career path has included positions at Orbitz, Donuts Inc., Whirlpool and Bono’s One Campaign. Davidoff talks with Kellogg about how he has incorporated a social impact perspective into these roles, and what advice he has for Kellogg students and other alumni wanting to make an impact.
How does social impact play into your work?
Advertising is woefully undiverse and you often hear the most terrible excuses as to why. I like to think of Walton Isaacson as concrete proof that it can be done if you actually cared to do it. We are 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian. We are 65:35 female:male. My leadership team is 80% female and of that 80%, that again is 80%, African American. And I will tell you that we have the fiercest, best, top-tier talent of any place I have ever worked. I think that, not only is it a better place to work, I am confident we get better ideas.
In what ways does social impact play into your business acumen?
I would say it plays into my business acumen in a couple of ways. One is this belief that diversity applies to everything, which is diversity of people, but also diversity of thought and ideas. I think that I am a better marketing professional, better advertising professional, a better manager and a better leader, because I honestly have gotten to the point where I don’t care where the idea comes from, it doesn’t matter what level of seniority, it doesn’t matter what color or gender you are -- ideas are ideas. It takes a lot of work to foster that in an organization, it also takes, I think, a lot of work to foster than in yourself. It is work to get there. I am a better professional because I care about the people.
When did you become interested in social impact? And how has that played out in your career or philanthropic trajectory?
I was certainly raised with the notion that we are in this sort of social contract together, and that as a human being you’ve got some responsibility in the world, but I think that in a lot of people that was, in my mind, separate from my work.. Not that I was a bad person at work, I didn’t see how they were related. I had a very transformational experience when I was at Whirlpool. We had a relationship with Habitat For Humanity, where we donated a refrigerator and a range to every Habitat home in America, but we never told anybody. So I made a decision one year to instead of having it be like a small thing we talked about on the side, to putting it as the center of the brand. We spent the bulk of our money promoting that story. Long story short, in the 100-year history of that company, the ad that sold the most washing machines was the ad that did not have a washing machine in it! I also had a chance myself to go on a lot of these Habitat builds. And I was in Anniston, Alabama, on a week-long build with a single mom, mother of 2, and we are working away, it’s hot, the house is going up. On day three, at one moment she just bursts into tears. And I went over to this woman and said, “What is wrong?” and she said, “I just can’t believe people came from all over the world to build my house.” That was for me that real moment of epiphany where I realized, I am either an active part of the solution or I am the problem and that in between was not a place I could be anymore. And that just sent me on a different path, a couple of years later I was a full-time do-gooder working for Bono trying to save the world from extreme poverty and it is a part of my professional life and personal life permanently now.
How did your Kellogg experience shape your social impact path?
My Kellogg experience made it clear that my professional life would be about community. To me, one of the most striking takeaways from Kellogg was you are absolutely part of this community, you part of an ecosystem, and you are responsible to give things to it. I was very young and think I had in my mind that business was to be a pretty cold and calculating proposition and that was not at all what my Kellogg experience was like. My Kellogg experience was professional and competitive, but it was also compassionate and it was a real community to me.
How do you engage with other Kellogg alumni in your career and life? How does that influence your social impact engagement?
Two ways. One is, I just have my close friends and we send each other mocking notes and connect in cities around the country and around the world whenever we can. Secondly, I get a lot of solicitations from Kellogg graduates at the companies I have been at. I will always talk to someone from Kellogg and have never been disappointed to do so. I remember pretty much every person in my career who took the time to talk to me when there was no good reason and because of that I feel like I can always find 30 minutes to talk to somebody. That is the fun little thing about social impact, you do something when you aren’t required to because you think it is the right thing to do. I am pretty certain that the world doesn’t need another billionaire, I am also pretty certain that the world could use a bit more compassion.
What would your advice be to prospective and current Kellogg students interested in a career that includes social impact?
I think my first piece of advice would be: it is a false choice to think that you either have to have a successful capitalistic career or do good. The truth is, every day is an opportunity to do both almost everywhere. When I worked at Whirlpool, it was a big company in a small town and it was not a particularly wealthy town so we would do things like, adopt families over Christmas and collude with the parents to find out what the kids wanted from Santa. That counts. So does, working full-time for the One Campaign trying to fight extreme poverty. One of the great myths of our business time is this notion that the sole goal of the company is to provide the greatest value to its shareholders. That is not true. When you employ people, you have a responsibility to those people. When you work in a community you have a responsibility to that community and to pretend otherwise is wrong and foolish.
What are the challenges for the future of social impact in your industry?
The agency business is a tough business. It is very competitive, there are lots of ups and downs and I think it is easy to lose sight of the opportunity and responsibility of doing good. To think that just because you do one pro-bono campaign a year that you’re doing good, is doing something, but probably not doing everything you can. Everything factors into social impact, from the kind of people you hire, to how you treat those people, to what kind of community you create within your own agency, to the pro-bono work you do, to the work you do in the community. It is all social impact. I really believe that, in addition to being a great advertising agency, Walton Isaacson is a brilliant anti-racism company. That to me is it's sort of highest order and that isn't about us doing great pro-bono campaigns, we do some real beautiful ones, don't get me wrong. But just by existing the way we do, I think we create a very positive social impact.
Any final thoughts for Kellogg students?
With great power, comes great responsibility. You’re at Kellogg, you’re literally the elite of the elite. Pretty much anything you want to do with your career, you can do. There is more to it than just making money. To me that is not just an option, I actually think it is an obligation. If you want the world to be a better place, make the world a better place. It is not much more complicated than that, but the saying it and not doing it, isn’t a great practice in any part of your life.
