Martin Sorrell, CEO of S4 Capital and former CEO of WPP for three decades, said it comes down to whether the business “would be better off being dismembered into its still standing constituent parts or consolidated elsewhere.”
“Companies that were once part of WPP, such as Kantar, VCCP, FGS, and Globant have thrived as independent companies,” Ahmed pointed out. “The question is, could WPP realize the value in some of its assets before it’s too late, or does it want to merge and consolidate its agencies further internally?”
2. Developing a clear strategy
If the board does want to pursue a future for WPP in this current state, Rose needs a clear strategy and point of view for the business—something observers agree has been lacking.
“The big concern for shareholders and employees isn’t just the structure; it’s the absence of a clear, credible plan,” Ahmed said. “For a while now, it’s felt like WPP has been making it up as it goes along.”
For Wieser, that challenge gets to the heart of an existential industry issue: “how do you organize a modern agency group, and what should the agency services industry look like?”
While Read merged agencies under WPP to streamline its unwieldy operations, he hasn’t gone as far as his peers in operating the company as a single brand. Instead, he’s touted the importance of agency brands as levers for attracting clients and talent, Wieser said.
But that approach has drawbacks for WPP, including adding “layers of non-billable overhead both at the central level and within the agencies,” as well as “tremendous duplication of services,” Ahmed said. “Ogilvy has become a holding company within a holding company, which isn’t exactly simplification.”
Wieser agreed that agency mergers weren’t a real strategy. “That was desperation,” he said. “There’s a recognition these will be loss-making entities on their own, so let’s do the bare minimum.”
Coming in as an industry outsider, Rose will have to quickly develop a point of view on the role of agency brands and identify the right structure to take WPP into the future.
“Being both a holding company and a client-facing brand at the same time as managing dozens of agency brands with their individual cultures, leadership teams, and operations is confusing, and this model hasn’t worked for WPP,” Ahmed said.
3. Making WPP Open pay off
Under Read, WPP invested millions of dollars into WPP Open, its internal AI platform. It will be Rose’s job to make that bet pay off—and set WPP up for an AI-powered future.
“The significant investment into WPP Open hasn’t yielded the growth that was hyped a couple of years ago,” Ahmed said.
According to Jay Pattisall, principal analyst at Forrester, WPP chose a tech executive with an AI background for exactly that reason: “The selection of Rose is designed, in part, to further commercialize WPP Open,” he said.
Ahmed agreed that Rose’s experience at Microsoft, which “hasn’t exactly been shy about reinventing themselves over the years,” will be useful in pushing WPP to adapt to automation.
