Tag: GroupM

Six months ago, Vikram Sakhuja quit GroupM to join Madison Media as Group CEO, Madison Media and OOH and Equity Partner, working closely with his former professional rival Sam Balsara. Bursting with ideas on how to take both Madison and its business forward, Sakhuja opens up to Pradyuman Maheshwari about his move out of the global role at GroupM and into Madison, his regard for Balsara and his plans for the agency network. Excerpts from the interview

Six months at Madison last week. How has the journey been so far?

In a word, fantastic. It’s everything I expected it to be, and perhaps a little more. But this is the long haul. So when one is entering into this thing, it’s with a Test match mentality, and not with the sensibility that things are broken and I have to fix them. If Sam [Balsara] has found a role for me to join him in leadership, it is probably to help with the next stage of evolution at Madison.

So I think that’s the way I have approached it, and though I have been slow about it, purposely, it’s because I have been trying to drive a few agendas. In this interview I don’t think you will get too many silver bullets. You won’t even get any bombastic statements. But there will be a flow of thought, and you will see a process unfolding.

You were familiar with the scene in India and at Madison having been out of the country for just a few years. Was it different from what you had expected it to be when you came in?

Not at all. I had a fantastic time running GroupM’s South Asia operations for six years, and Mindshare before that. I have loved every bit of my WPP tenure in India. It was interesting because I was doing South Asia and then I was a part of the Asia Pacific management team but based in this part of the world. So after that, to suddenly do a global thing, a few things struck me.

The GroupM role was more of an organisational enabling role. While we were building GroupM’s superstructure, a large part of it was to make the agency stronger — whether it was buying and trading, or putting in place; whether it was digital infrastructure or talent. A large part of that was about still enabling clients. But I had started noticing, in my early years at GroupM, that my client contact had gone down even though there was a lot of other exciting stuff happening. When you get to a global role, it becomes even more rarefied. Maxus, at that point of time, had more local than global clients. When you have local clients doing their job, you don’t want to get in the way. You have the standard ceremony and meeting clients and stuff, but you’re not adding tangible value. So the way you add value at a global agency leadership level is to set direction, drive P&L, drive the product and those kind of things. It is very internal.

So you missed getting your hands dirty?

Absolutely. At GroupM in India I wasn’t missing that because it was familiar turf. Even though I was not involved in client work per se, a lot of clients were old friends. So I have always had that steady contact and a relationship with clients at some level. That became a bit removed in the global Maxus setup, and even more when I was doing global strategy for GroupM.

There was a sentiment that your leaving Maxus was very abrupt…

It probably was. It was my boss who felt it would be better if I got out of the role and got into a strategy role, since they were doing something in the area of digital, data and stuff, and wanted me there. Even I felt it was abrupt.

Even at GroupM, there was a fair amount of shock about your sudden exit from the Maxus top job.

Yes, it was abrupt, and made me revaluate what I should really do. I had a feeling the global GroupM strategy role would frustrate me. The vision was interesting but the implementation would have been too slow for a person like me.

And then this whole thing happened with Madison. How did you think of joining Sam because – even though he has been a friend and you have had some collaboration — at the end of the day, he is somebody whom you have fought so much against in the media agency battlefield. It’s almost like sleeping with the enemy…

Actually way before we were competitors, we had a seven- or eight-year partnership. I was the one who started the practice of AORs in India when I was in P&G. I was in research and media at P&G when I heard the word AOR. When I asked my then-boss Vivek Bali about it, he suggested that instead of working with various agencies, we consolidate our media efforts. We organised a pitch and the [duties] were awarded to Sam. Then I moved to Coke, we got a pitch on there too. There were two pitches in that four-year period I was there, and Madison defended both.

So I would say that my respect and affection for Sam has been there right from the beginning, even before I was a competitor. And it’s not only with Sam. We are blessed that in our industry, we have a mutual respect for other agency heads. Many of them are very good friends of mine, but we have no problem separating the professional from the personal.

What are the things you are trying to bring in, at Madison?

There are three things on the agenda. First, is this entire thing of outcomes. Then there is a piece about agency management, which is the way we want our people to conduct themselves and build teams. The outcomes piece, simply put, is that in the last 25 years, media has been about efficiency over effectiveness. Everybody coasts on impact, and the science of intelligently spending your marketing money to grow business, has become weaker. Today, you are able to not only measure output but also, to some degree, behavioural outcomes. So this is something I am hoping you will see a bit more of, in the coming months. I can’t announce it today but we have identified a chief strategy officer who will join us and I am very excited to have him. There is also a large outcomes-based thing I am trying to do since I have always believed that organisational culture is a total of all the conversations that happen in our workplace. So if I can get conversations going in corridors about what we are doing to grow the business of the client, I think it will make a qualitative and profound difference.

For me, the biggest joy has been that I have come back and now almost 70 per cent of my 14-hour day involves client work, as against my earlier setup where it was less than 10 per cent of a 12-hour day.

Are new businesses a part of your agenda?

Yes, and we have won eight or nine [accounts] since October. Last April- May we won Snapdeal, which comes with Freecharge, and fills up a very large hole. The BJP remains an active client, and with all the Assembly elections, not insignificant.

Is there a pressure on new business?

Who is there to put pressure? Sam and I have to put pressure on ourselves. We watch the space; there are some categories in which we want to have some businesses. We would love to get a good car client or a telco…

Was it expected of you, or did you think you could pull some clients from GroupM? Or was that not a part of your agenda?

We all have certain non-poaching clauses relating to good clients and people in our contracts, so I was mindful of that. As per my contract, I was not allowed to work for six months, which I didn’t, and a few months after that, I was not allowed to poach people and clients.

One has seen you interact with your former colleagues from GroupM at forums like Goafest. You are still very friendly and comfortable with each other…

I have had a very close relationship with them and I am very fond of them. Some of them are like extended family. But you separate professional and personal relations. Firstly, they have to have a place in Madison. And second, everyone takes a professional call and I am not just going to [hire them] because they are friends. But if they feel that the way I lead or the way I am going to envision things can attract people then I don’t mind. Just because we are good friends will never be the reason.

In your six months [at Madison], especially in your early days, did you feel that things were better here, or there [at GroupM]?

Things are definitely better here. I was getting very frustrated in the global setup, by the lack of delivery that I had to show for. I had a good time at Maxus where I was driving a few agendas. Fortunately, in the two years that I led, Maxus saw fantastic growth.

When you were at GroupM, especially in India, you were the boss and reporting to the Board etc. Here, Sam has a larger-than-life role in the organisation. Does that affect your day-to-day working?

In the last six months, I have had no reason to feel constrained. Sam has given me all the space, but I also realise the kind of power that Sam brings to a party, is enormous. At GroupM, I was taking all the calls and it ended with me. Here, the responsibility is divided and it’s a very comfortable zone of working. He gives me all the space, and is very patient and receptive to what I have to say. So from that standpoint, he is my Martin Sorrell.

You are comparing Sam to Sir Martin Sorrell?

I am serious. In terms of capability, both are on par. Sam has a very well-honed sense of intuition that comes with having done something many times. He can break down complex issues and get to the heart of the problem. Martin Sorrell is also like that. He also gets to the heart of a complex problem and solves it…

So you have the space? And you don’t feel stifled in any way?

Yes, the space is there. I have a mentor to look up to. I have a boss that I can go up to and gets things validated. So I think it is very good. No, I am not feeling stifled in any way. Not at all.

Everybody wants to know if and when Madison is going to sell out. You are still something of an outsider, so what is your view on this? Do you think Madison should be aligned with an international network?

Because I have run a global agency, I have seen how difficult it is for global to impact local. I don’t believe any extra value can be added, apart from in the structure [in aligning with an international partner]. Even if I have quality talent, I will never be able to replicate the talent of a local agency. At the risk of sounding immodest, I believe that if an agency had to have pedigreed leadership, like with Sam and me, can that be replicated?

But then it happened with Mondelez moving to Dentsu Aegis because of an international alignment…

Yes, these are very frustrating, and for that reason alone, I think we should consider it. But that said, I don’t think there is a tearing hurry. It’s got to be the right value, the right partner. And frankly, it’s not a question you should be asking me. You should be putting it to Sam. But my view is exactly that: If there is the right value and the right partner, then why not?

So what are you looking at over the next six months?

I had mentioned the three agendas which I want to drive, like outcomes, One Madison [which is about integration] and internal agency management. Our ability to holistically look at clients’ requirements and present integrated solutions, makes for outcome-based thinking. On the consolidation side, buying is the obvious piece. I am trying to put a central buying unit in place which is going to drive a few agendas, and I would not like to talk about them right now. Automation is the third thing. These are all things that come under [an entity called] Madison Next.

In terms of size, is there something you are looking at? Do you want Madison to be the same, or 1x, 1.5x or 2x bigger?

I am definitely looking at pretty aggressive growth. At this point of time, we are the second-largest standalone agency after Mindshare, so we would definitely like to retain our position. We have to do whatever it takes to drive growth in the market.

The part about agency management is, according to me, one of those critical values I can bring into this place. It has been run very entrepreneurially, and I would love it if we can get the spirit of entrepreneurship one or two levels down, so our divisional heads could become mini Sams. Then nobody will be able to stop us. But this is an HR piece and requires a talent game that you need to play. It starts with aggressive growth targets and comes down to a business plan, on the back of a [good] team that will deliver it. The part I think most agencies struggle with, is the empowerment of people who are the managers of managers. So there are two areas where empowerment is required: One is running the agency and the ability to take calls that a head of an agency does at an office level. And second is to be managers of managers so that when a junior person comes to you with a problem, plan, buy or whatever, you don’t just do the job but actually mentor and help the guy do the job.

So in my next six months I’m going to put into place performance management in a very profound manner by setting up a training club programme in the agency which is going to develop people in a number of areas. And I will personally oversee one or two of them. Another part of Madison which would be a bit of both outcomes and bit of talent focuses on people. I am pleased we had Deboo Mohanty join us from the Asia Pacific for ITC. I am going to bring in a CSO who is going to be a gamechanger, so hopefully when we announce it, the market will also see that. A digital piece is something I’m doing now where I have restructured it and broken it up into two parts within Madison, with two people handling different parts which I oversee to gauge how that can be developed as a clear focus on digital. So I have given targets of what percentage of our billing needs to be going into digital because I just feel that we need to be more aggressive than we are right now and in the last six months, that has moved up considerably.

Is there anything that is causing you an anxiety about the business?

Staff turnover always causes me anxiety, especially at the junior levels. Even though that is normal in the industry, it causes me anxiety. I am a firm believer in something called an employee value proposition. I believe employees like to work for an organisation that stands for something good, with leadership you can look up to. They want to do good work, want to see growth and of course, want to be rewarded. You need a place where the culture is in sync with them. So the culture part we have to work on backwards, and I am fixing that by trying to figure the kind of conversations you want to have at the workplace and drive those.

If you talk about leadership, I think we are blessed with people like Sam who is an icon. Madison is an agency people look up to. But I think all of this needs to be dialed up. So whether it is on the awards front, or whether it is a new business front people like to be associated with or just recognising and rewarding good work, those are the kind of things that we are trying to do to build a great organisation. Our systems are not bad, but we are putting in place things which will help develop performance, management, training plans, career plans and such. The minute an organisation is able to recognise and reward merit, respect for that organisation builds. So that’s a huge play for me.

This interview first appeared in dna of brands on April 25, 2016