As the new chief executive of the world’s largest media-buying agency, Lou Schultz’s first directive when he took over the big office on Wilshire Boulevard was this: Dress casually, everyone. Forget the ties and high heels.

His next directive: No more politics.

Schultz’s statements were welcomed with a round of cheers by the seasoned advertising executives, media buyers and administrative staff at Initiative Media North America, formerly Western Initiative Media, formerly Western International Media, whose upper management has changed as frequently as its name.

Initiative Media controls some $12 billion in international media spending, meaning it enjoys enormous clout in the advertising world. Yet the giant company’s recent history has been a troubled story of the merger of two highly disparate corporate cultures, upper-level power struggles and plummeting morale.

Along the way, as announcements of name changes or new chief executives poured out seemingly on a monthly basis, it has also been unclear where, exactly, the company’s North American headquarters was located. Initiative maintains a large office in New York where the last CEO, Larry Lamattina, was based. Schultz’s presence in Los Angeles seems to indicate that the company’s center is now back where it was born at least in a previous incarnation.