Looking Beyond Sir Martin And The Legacy He Leaves Behind...

WPP agencies and clients in India unlikely to be affected by his exit; some rival agency honchos relieved that that they will ‘no longer be up against Sir Martin Sorrell’s personal charisma and involvement in business’

- Srabana Lahiri

Eversince news broke last week that Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and CEO of WPP, the world’s largest marketing and advertising conglomerate, was stepping down on the back of allegations of ‘personal misconduct’ by the WPP Board, it has been a week of solid speculation in the industry as to the fallout of this unexpected exit. The turn of events itself is said to have been machinated by the Board, unhappy with Sir Martin’s massive salary and allowances and his autocratic stance, while the company’s shares dropped by more than 30% in the last 18 months. In fact, an industry insider, who did not want to be named, said, “When things came to a head, and share-holders exerted pressure, the Board levelled charges against him that caught him on the wrong foot, but at the same time were not serious enough to implicate the Board itself.” That WPP is being tight-lipped about the exact nature of those charges adds credence to this theory and stokes the rumour mills. But at the heart of the entire crisis is of course the reduced ad spends and reinvention of the advertising model by the likes of Unilever and P&G,and the advent of companies like Accenture, Amazon, Facebook and Google, that has af