CEOs who take over existing companies scale faster by auditing before acting. The mistake most incoming leaders make is treating inherited success as a problem to fix. The better move is to read what worked, then build from there.
Glenn Gow, The Scaling Executive Coach and host of The Scaling Executive Podcast, sat down with Devon MacDonald, President and CEO of Cairns ONeil, a media agency named a finalist for both Strategy’s Media Agency of the Year and Campaign Global’s Media Agency of the Year. Devon has led major agencies inside global networks, including Mindshare and the founding of 360i Canada. He is a different kind of scaler: someone who walks into established organizations and drives growth without blowing up what already works.
This episode is for CEOs who have inherited or taken over an existing company and are trying to scale it without losing what made it work in the first place.
Key Takeaways:
- CEOs who take over existing companies make their first mistake when they assume everything must change. The better move is to audit what works, then build from there.
- The employees most likely to scale with you are not the most experienced. They are the most curious. Curiosity signals readiness to change.
- Devon MacDonald’s standard at Cairns ONeil: principles only matter when they cost you money. If your values never create friction, they are not real values.
- You cannot plan your business based on what the industry looks like today. You must identify where white space is emerging and build toward it.
- Devon MacDonald’s AI roadmapping at Cairns ONeil starts with where clients actually are, not where they wish they were — because comfort with AI varies widely across regulated, nonprofit, and commercial organizations.
CEOs Who Take Over Established Companies Scale by Assessing Before Acting
Devon walked into Cairns ONeil after its founders spent a decade building a strong mid-sized media agency. They were ready to retire. They needed a CEO who could scale what they had built. Devon’s first move was not transformation. It was inventory.
He looked at capability. He looked at the client base. He looked at where the market was heading. Then he mapped the gap between where the agency stood and where it needed to go.
He describes it as a needs assessment across distinct pillars of the business. Not a theoretical exercise. A practical scale of one to ten, applied to each area.
“If you’re at a five, the next best step is to six. You can’t go from five to ten. It’s impossible.”
This is the discipline most incoming CEOs skip. They arrive with a mandate to change and interpret that as permission to transform everything at once. Devon’s approach is different. Identify what works. Identify what does not. Build incrementally across each pillar. The transformation happens, but it happens in a way the organization absorbs.
“When you come into a company as a leader, whether you’re taking over for founders or taking over from an existing structure, there is a lot of good things that have happened in the past. It is not time to throw everything out.”
If you are stepping into an existing company or inheriting a team, this is where you start. Not with your vision. With their reality.
CEOs Identify Which Employees Will Scale by Looking for Curiosity
Scaling an organization almost always surfaces a talent problem. The people who built the company to its current size are not always the people who will take it to the next level. Devon sees this clearly and has a specific filter for it.
“The ones who can scale or the ones who can change will put their hands up, will ask for opportunities and are hungry to look for more.”
He looks for curiosity first. Not credentials. Not years of experience. The willingness to learn. Devon admits he was not a strong student when he was young, but he has always loved to learn. That trait is what he selects for.
When a new leader arrives with new skills or new services, employees read that as a signal that their existing skills may not be enough. The ones who lean in are telling you something important. The ones who pull back are telling you something important too.
Devon’s approach is to meet people where they are on a readiness scale. He does not write anyone off immediately. He looks for what each person can contribute to the next stage of the company and tries to pull that contribution forward. But he is also clear about the other end.
“There does come a time though when you might have to make tough decisions, when you’ve given people chances, and you might have to move on.”
Ask yourself who on your team right now is raising their hand. Who is asking for more. Those are your scalers. Identify them. Invest in them.
CEOs Who Scale Ahead of Disruption Plan for Where the Industry Is Going, Not Where It Is
Devon operates in media, one of the fastest-changing industries on the planet. He has a clear view on what separates the agencies that scale from the ones that stall.
“If you’re planning your business to succeed based on what it is today, what the industry is today in an industry like media or in any real industry that’s going through change, you’re going to have a hard time growing.”
He is not talking about predicting the future with perfect accuracy. He is talking about reading what is already visible. The macro trends are there. The white spaces in the market are there. The leaders who struggle are the ones reacting to what just happened instead of planning for what is coming.
“The signs are there. Don’t be scared of them and run towards them.”
For Devon, this shows up in knowing where the agency excels within its competitive set, then identifying the emerging spaces where demand is going to appear. He builds toward those spaces before the competition arrives. That is how you stop reacting and start leading.
If your planning process is rooted in your current product, your current clients, and your current revenue mix, you are planning for today. That is not a growth plan. That is a maintenance plan.
CEOs Translate Values Into Business Decisions by Letting Those Values Cost Something
This is where Devon’s leadership gets concrete. When Elon Musk took over Twitter and policies around hate speech and misinformation became a concern, Devon did not wait.
Cairns ONeil reached out to the platform to ask directly how they planned to address those issues for the safety of their advertisers and those advertisers’ consumers. They did not get a satisfactory answer.
“We came out first to say we’re no longer to advertise on Twitter until they change the policy and are proud of that stance.”
That decision cost money. Devon knows it. He does not minimize that.
“Principles only matter when they cost you money.”
That sentence is worth sitting with. Every company publishes values. Almost no company tests them. Devon’s view is that values only become real when they create friction, when they force a choice between the principled path and the profitable one.
For Devon, that alignment between values and decisions is also a talent strategy and a client strategy. The right clients want to work with an agency that holds a line. The right employees want to work for a company that means what it says.
If your values have never cost you anything, examine them. They may be marketing copy, not principles.
CEOs Build an AI Roadmap by Starting Where Their Clients Actually Are
Devon MacDonald, President and CEO of Cairns ONeil, runs a media agency, which means his clients are asking him about AI constantly. His approach is disciplined and grounded in the same incremental philosophy he applies to scaling.
Internally, Cairns ONeil has built a cross-functional AI team working on agents, generative AI, and machine learning to improve output for clients and efficiency across the organization. Devon describes it as exciting and worth exploring.
But when it comes to clients, he is direct. Every CEO wants AI now. Most do not know what they want it to do.
“As a services provider, we know we have to step up to the plate and lead clients.”
Cairns ONeil uses a roadmapping framework that assesses where clients are currently applying AI and related technologies. Then, using the same good-better-best or one-to-ten scale Devon applies to everything else, they identify what operational opportunities will drive return, what the path to implementation looks like, and whether it happens this quarter or next year.
Devon’s observation about readiness is precise: comfort with AI varies widely depending on whether an organization is regulated, a nonprofit, or a commercial enterprise. The roadmap must fit the client’s actual position, not an idealized one.
“It’s a fit by client by client basis to understand how you can grow using a technology like AI.”
If you are trying to figure out where to start with AI, start with an honest assessment of where you are now. Not where you think you should be. Where you actually are.
Scaling Principles Devon MacDonald Applied at Cairns ONeil
| Principle | What It Means in Practice | Named Evidence from This Interview |
| Audit before you act | Assess each pillar of the business on a one-to-ten scale before changing anything | Devon applied this at Cairns ONeil to identify what the founders had built and where he could add capability, enabling him to scale the agency into a finalist for both Strategy’s and Campaign Global’s Media Agency of the Year |
| Hire for curiosity, not just credentials | The employees who will scale with you are the ones raising their hands and asking for more | Devon applied this filter at 360i Canada, where it shaped a founding team that launched Canada’s first data-driven digital agency |
| Let values cost you something | Principles only matter when they create real friction and financial consequences | Cairns ONeil paused all Twitter advertising and came out first publicly with that decision, accepting the revenue loss as the only choice consistent with the company’s stated values |
| Plan for where the industry is going | Build toward white spaces before competitors arrive, not based on where revenue comes from today | Cairns ONeil’s foresight strategy produced back-to-back awards-finalist recognition from both Strategy Magazine and Campaign Global — a competitive outcome Devon attributes directly to building toward emerging demand before it surfaced in the competitive set |
| Meet clients where they are on AI | Every CEO wants AI, but adoption varies. A roadmap must fit the client’s actual readiness | Cairns ONeil’s roadmapping framework for clients, applied on a client-by-client basis across regulated, nonprofit, and commercial organizations |
Quotes from This Episode
- “When you come into a company as a leader, whether you’re taking over for founders or taking over from an existing structure, there is a lot of good things that have happened in the past. It is not time to throw everything out.” — Devon MacDonald, President and CEO, Cairns ONeil
- “If you’re at a five, the next best step is to six. You can’t go from five to ten. It’s impossible.” — Devon MacDonald, President and CEO, Cairns ONeil
- “There does come a time though when you might have to make tough decisions, when you’ve given people chances, and you might have to move on.” — Devon MacDonald, President and CEO, Cairns ONeil
- “It’s a fit by client by client basis to understand how you can grow using a technology like AI.” — Devon MacDonald, President and CEO, Cairns ONeil
- “We came out first to say we’re no longer to advertise on Twitter until they change the policy and are proud of that stance.” — Devon MacDonald, President and CEO, Cairns ONeil
Frequently Asked Questions
How should a CEO approach taking over an established company without destroying what already works?
CEOs who take over existing companies scale faster when they audit before they act. Devon MacDonald’s approach at Cairns ONeil was to assess each pillar of the business on a practical scale, identify where the company already excelled, and build incrementally from there. The mistake most incoming leaders make is treating inherited success as a problem to fix rather than a foundation to build on. You cannot move from five to ten without going through six.
How do you identify which employees will scale with the company as it grows?
The employees most likely to scale are the ones who raise their hands when new skills or new services arrive. Devon MacDonald looks for curiosity as the primary signal, not experience or credentials. When a company grows and changes, it asks employees to change too. The ones who lean into that ask, who seek out opportunities and want to learn, are the ones who will grow with the organization. Those who pull back are telling you something equally important about where they are on the readiness scale.
How should a CEO balance taking a principled public stand with the financial pressure of running a business?
Devon MacDonald’s approach is to assess alignment with your stated values first, then act publicly and consistently. When Cairns ONeil paused advertising on Twitter over unresolved concerns about hate speech and misinformation, Devon MacDonald accepted the direct financial consequence publicly — announcing the pause before competitors did and absorbing the revenue loss rather than waiting for the platform to change. Principles only matter when they cost you something. CEOs who hold a real line on values attract the clients and employees who respect that line, which over time strengthens the business rather than weakening it.
CEOs Work with Glenn Gow to Scale Their Companies and Careers
Glenn Gow is The Scaling Executive Coach. He coaches ambitious executives into the CEO seat and CEOs into successful exits. With 25 years as a CEO and 5 years in venture capital, Glenn helps leaders scale their companies by scaling themselves first. If this conversation was useful, you can apply for executive coaching with Glenn Gow or apply to be a guest on The Scaling Executive Podcast.
