When I first heard the name Nicola Bell, she was just a year into her position, featured on the cover of Her Magazine, which I was designing at the time. When the cover photos came through, her optimistic, warm smile and smart heels made it immediately apparent that she is not your typical corporate. She had made it through her first year in the position of CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand and completed a restructuring that she says was handled 'organically'.

Restructuring is a risky business, especially when driven by a newcomer. But when Nicola Bell took it on, she handled the task with the confidence and style. Two years later, Nicola is at the Trinity Wharf Hotel, hosting a Q&A session run by the BOP Marketing Professionals Group, giving an insight into how she successfully overhauled the company with a creative edge.

After a decade at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, Bell took on Saatchi & Saatchi NZ with the goal to get the most out of people, and she has. Restructuring allowed her to evaluate every role in the office and mix together various departments, to breakdown silos in the business. She took what she terms an organic approach to people, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. In a large business, she finds it better to use an integrated approach that is not homogenised. Her focus is on what each person can do, not what they don’t have, and bringing talent together.

Even though Nicola is used to big business, she had three great pieces of advice for SMEs. The first is to trust your intuition to gauge people and situations. If someone has talent but the wrong attitude, or can't fit with the team culture, they don't make the cut. "I'd never hire on talent alone now" she said when discussed the necessity for fit.

Secondly, remember that creativity is what sets you apart in advertising. Bringing together a mix of executive, planning and creative roles and asking questions like, "what does everybody think?" will lead to balanced decisions.

And third, which is probably the secret mantra of all successful companies through a recession: brands that advertise always come out on top. Companies that stay in the public mindset appear healthy to customers and will be remembered for longer.