Conquering the Business World With Kindness

Feb. 5, 2007 — -- This is for those unlucky people who have ever had a toxic boss, an undermining co-worker or an office environment that seems designed to crush your soul. Two titans of New York's business world say the era of mean has past. They insist the way to get ahead in business these days is, surprisingly, by being nice.

"The reality is mean doesn't work any more. Mean is so last millennium," says Linda Kaplan Thaler. She and her business partner Robin Koval, divas of the advertising world, are using their marketing savvy to spread that message with their new book, "The Power of Nice."

"Nice actually makes financial sense," says Koval.

"The old adage, 'it pays to be nice,' literally really works," says Kaplan Thaler.

Kaplan Thaler and Koval, dervishes of high energy, run the Kaplan Thaler Group, one of the fastest growing ad firms in the nation with more than $1 billion in billings last year. Their firm has clients any agency would envy: Revlon, Office Depot and AFLAC. They are the masterminds behind the AFLAC duck and they're challenging the business world to adopt their niceness strategy.

"Look at the books out there, 'Swim With the Sharks' and 'Business Tactics of Attila the Hun,'" laughs Kaplan Thaler. "What's next, 'Backstabbing Your Co-workers for Dummies'?"

"Nice has an image problem. Nice does not mean being naïve; it doesn't mean being a marshmallow. It means knowing how to get what you want without having to necessarily step over everybody in your wake," says Koval. "Real successful people are the ones who get everybody to say, 'you know, I'd follow that guy off the deck of a ship.'"

Their clients insist they practice what they preach.

"I think they're disarmingly nice to be honest with you," says a client from Liz Claiborne, who believes the women's niceness helps their bottom line. "It makes you want to develop the relationship further and develop other things with them."

Employees seem to be thrilled to be part of the "nice" team. One gushed, "I come to work wanting to be here. Every office has its fights but people don't hold onto stuff here."

According to Kaplan Thaler and Koval, mean bosses get all the media coverage, especially when they're women. They point out that society loves to see powerful women, such as Carly Fiorina, Martha Stewart and even Naomi Campbell, brought to their knees.

In the movies we love to hate the evil female bosses. Sigourney Weaver's character in "Working Girl" is a prime example, as is Faye Dunaway's shamelessly ambitious news executive in "Network." And still there's the villainous female ad exec played by Heather Locklear in "Melrose Place." And, of course, Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada."