IPG Mediabrands CEO Shashi Sinha’s successor will be an internal candidate

Shashi Sinha is a true Media Maven of India’s advertising industry and one of the key figures shaping its future, not only in terms of cultivating next-gen talent but also helping define the rules by which media companies play. Sinha is the CEO of leading media investments group IPG Mediabrands which has firms like Lodestar, Initiative and BPN, driving media planning and buying for the country’s biggest advertisers. He is also the current chairman of industry body BARC which is the Broadcast Audience Research Council. In a special candid chat with Storyboard18’s editor Delshad Irani, Sinha revealed his succession plan for the first time as he shared his outlook on cultivating and fostering talent. He also shared his take on the sweeping changes disrupting advertising and the media landscape.

The advertising industry is witnessing a talent bleed. What is your approach to cultivating and fostering talent?
There are two parts to talent – quality talent and culture, and they are intertwined. Quality talent is how you compensate and the truth of the matter is that compensation in agencies is under pressure right now. We’re competing with ourselves and we’re undercutting each other. As a result you’re not able to get the right talent and pay them well and retain them. The industry association led by PK (Prasanth Kumar of GroupM) has realised that and we are moving towards asking for what is rightfully ours from clients, and clients will also give, if you explain to them this is what it takes to have quality talent. But that’s a long haul.

What are some of the steps?
We undercut ourselves. We say, “Listen, I will give it to you cheaper.” How do you get cheaper?… So, we are saying that there has to be some table stakes and you don’t go below table stakes. We’re working on it. But the other important part is culture.

We have leaders who have been with us for years. The culture fosters it. Given half a chance I will promote a person from inside rather than get someone from outside.

They play together, they work together, you’re building teams, and that’s true for the entire organisation. We were in a very large client review and we put up a slide saying in the last five years, 95% of the people on the account have been constant. So the team has gone up on that account from 40 to 80. But the old people are not gone, they’re still there. That’s a remarkable story to tell in this day and age.

Someone could have said ‘but you’re not getting fresh thinking’. I say the fresh thinking is there because there are new people coming on, but the leadership has been there, and that provides continuity. So there are two ways of looking at the data.

Rightly or wrongly, as I said, in my mind, I will always pick up an insider whether they are 80 or 70 percent ready rather than someone from outside. There are some clients who believe that and some who don’t. Many clients like Amul see the value in such continuity. They’ve had changes from their side, we’ve had changes from our side, but they are all insiders and we’re all insiders. To some clients (like startups) it doesn’t matter.

It’s a large market. Those who believe in what I am staying will work with us.

What do you think of succession planning? Have you thought about it?
Without getting into names, I did speak to our global team and I said, it is for you to decide but this is the way I see it. We have charted out a future and I have said ‘there has to be someone from within, you let me know and I am happy to handle the transition’. Hopefully, if all goes well, we will come back to you and talk about it. We have a plan. Whether the plan fructifies or not, depends on how the global environment is. StoryBoard18