common sense, wisdom, imagination and literacy. Why literacy? Because most communication between agencies and clients is in writing. I don’t suggest that you have to be a poet, but you won’t climb the ladder very high unless you can write lucid memoranda. I persuaded two of my 1 partners to write a book on the subject. I commend it to you. Look for young men and women who can one day lead your agency. Is there any way of predicting the capacity to lead? The only way I know is to look at their college records. If they were leaders between the ages of 18 and 22, the odds are that they will emerge as leaders in middle life. Make sure you have a Vice-President in charge of Revolution, to engender ferment among your more conventional colleagues. Crown Princes Spot the comers on your staff, and plan their careers. Royal Dutch Shell has found that the most reliable criteria for selecting what they call Crown Princes are these: 1 The power of analysis. 2 Imagination. 3 A sense of reality. 4 The ‘helicopter quality’- the ability to look at facts and problems from an overall viewpoint. John Loudon, the distinguished former head of Shell, believes that when it comes to picking people for senior jobs, character is more important than any of these qualities. Dare I confess that I have come to believe in graphology as an instrument for assessing character? It is regarded as fakery in the United States, but is widely used in French business. Before accepting my offer of marriage, my wife had my handwriting analysed by two graphologists. Their reports were consistent – and accurate. Promote from within or hire from outside? ‘Mr. Morgan buys his partners,’ said Andrew Carnegie; ‘I grow mine.’ In the early days of Ogilvy & Mather, shortage of cash obliged me to pay peanut salaries. Pay peanuts, says Jimmy Goldsmith, and you get monkeys. I chose not to promote my monkeys, but to fill senior openings from outside, with stars