NEW YORK – Here’s a blast from Wunderman’s past! Mac Cato, founder of Cato Johnson, recently visited Wunderman’s New York headquarters. For some well-versed industry pros, the “Cato” name may be familiar—Wunderman joined forces with Cato Johnson in 1992 to form Wunderman Cato Johnson. Cato is also the author of the seminal Go Logo! A Handbook to the Art of Global Branding: 12 Keys to Creating Successful Global Brands.
“We’re too busy to think about that. What we want the government to do is keep order and let us get on with our lives and our business.”
We caught up with the marketing veteran and entrepreneur to talk about his upcoming book project and reminisce about working with Lester Wunderman.
Here’s an excerpt below:
Q: When we think of your name, we think of it as synonymous with “creativity” and “design.” What were your observations about creativity in China?
A: From my observation of others, it is true that, yes, the Chinese are good at collective thinking—but it doesn’t mean some great things don’t come out of that! There are some industrial engineers that are coming out and finding new things to do, and some of the stories are fantastic. I think that the whole trend line will now continue.
The government is not going to step back. Therefore, they are not going to do legislation to step on entrepreneurship. [While in China] I got to know people who run small companies and they are doing fine. I said, “As a Westerner, I have to ask, ‘Don’t you worry about stepping on privacy and on toes of individuals?’” And they said, “We’re too busy to think about that. What we want the government to do is keep order and let us get on with our lives and our business.” That’s not just one or two people—I heard this over and over again in seminars we did in Beijing and Shanghai.
I think it’s an inexorable tide and we’d better look out. They’re going to continue and they work so hard. There’s none of this nonsense where we have slackers and Generation X and so on. They’re so connected, as you know. Everybody talks to everybody else.
Read the full interview on wunderman.com.
About Wunderman
Advertising Age ranks Wunderman as the #1 global digital agency network. Wunderman is a member of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY) and part of Young & Rubicam Group. For more information: http://www.wunderman.com/.
