Published in 2009, the definitive biography of David Ogilvy by Kenneth Roman, who spent 26 years alongside him and later became chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather. Roman drew on Ogilvy's personal papers, private memos, and photographs to trace how a former farmer, chef, and door-to-door salesman built the most famous advertising agency in the world.
This is the only biography of Ogilvy written by someone who ran the company with him. Roman had access to internal memos and private correspondence that no other biographer has seen, making this the definitive account of how Ogilvy thought, hired, wrote, and built.
For a founder, the book is a case study in how one man's habits — writing a sales manual before he had a single client, insisting on research when everyone else relied on instinct, building a culture where creativity served sales rather than awards — turned a $6,000 startup into a global institution. Ogilvy's methods for hiring "gentlemen with brains," managing client relationships, and building a brand that outlasted its founder are directly applicable to building any ambitious company.