Profile: Peter Biggs
By Katie Cincotta | theage.com.au | 22 November
Peter Biggs is happy he chose to engage with life. Picture: Simon Schluter
It was the moment I realised that I didn't have the deep abiding certainty you need to be a priest," says Mr Biggs, who now heads up the Melbourne office of advertising giant Clemenger BBDO.
Institutionalised by boarding school, the seminary and university, Mr Biggs couldn't have chosen a more dramatic transition to working life - moving from an unpaid, spiritual vocation to the colourful commercial world.
"Looking back, I'm really pleased that I chose to engage with life rather than retreat from it," he says. "I got a job in public relations at Shell and that led to a career in marketing and advertising, which has been great fun."
Mr Biggs believes his success in advertising has a lot to do with his religious past, as he doesn't approach running an agency like a business.
"I take commerciality seriously but not that seriously," he says. "The financial performance of the agency comes out of the energy, the generosity and the talent of the people there. The task is to find wonderful people, nurture them and create an environment where they're incredibly happy and fulfilled. Most of my time is spent dealing with stuff like that, for which the seminary was - as my wife would say - a 'wonderful finishing school'."
As a man who never had to worry about money, Mr Biggs has done a fine job of thriving in the commercial world, bringing in $100million worth of business to his agency last year.
"You don't worry about the money - that will come," he says. "All you have to worry about is the people. Most financial people find that hideously scary but that's how it works."
To enrich his staff emotionally, he started the "9 o'clock news" on Monday mornings, where the company gathers in reception to hear one person offer a "moment of truth" insight.
Mr Biggs once used the talkfest to profile Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, and what he regards as one of the world's greatest ads - a tiny classified that read: "Men wanted, hazardous journey, outcome uncertain."
"It's one of the best recruitment ads of all time; it got 5000 applicants all wanting adventure. And the thing I learnt in the seminary was that people join things for an adventure, for something that is about their soul, and you have to provide that."
What the 50-year-old misses about his religious life is the time and energy he once devoted to learning - the intellectual pursuit, the solitude, the ability to think, write and lecture. He still calls himself a Catholic, and attends mass on occasion, but not to listen to the sermons.
"I sit down the back with a book of poems usually," he says. "I like the comfort of the ritual."
The father of four is passionate about the creative arts and has a habit of sending people he meets a book - although one client sent back a biography of Stalin because he found it too depressing.
While he admits the ad industry can be "maddeningly shallow", the calm MD has no regrets about leaving the church. In fact, he uses his momentous career shift to advocate the importance of risk. His CV includes a quote from author Katherine Mansfield: "Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on Earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."
Want to be an advertising guru?
Search for executive jobs in advertising now
First published by TheAge.com.au on November 22 2008
Visit theage.com.au for the latest news updated throughout the day
