Just a few days after taking over the majority stake in Mudra Communications, John Wren, the chief executive officer and president of Omnicom Group, the world’s second-largest advertising network, spoke to Surajeet Das Gupta and Priyanka Singh on their plans in India. Edited excerpts:
You are No. 2 in the world, but not even in the top three in India. How do you plan to catch up with your rivals?
There are three sets of clients and opportunities that I see in India. First, our global clients, whom I serve everywhere. Second, more than any other, India is a developing industry that not only serves domestic markets but also globally. The third opportunity is in the domestic companies looking for servicing in the domestic markets. Most of my global clients, over a period of time, choose my services. In terms of servicing local companies, from being ranked very low now, my target is not to be No. 2, but No. 1.
What was the thinking behind acquiring majority stakes in Mudra and Sampark? What kind of structure would it look like?
What’s most important about Mudra is it’s a strategic partnership with a lot of intangible benefits along with legal ownership. I don’t focus on legal ownership but on the quality of people and the management, so that I can serve my clients the best. Those are my primary motivations in getting this done. We have had a wonderful relationship with Mudra for over 20 years. It’s a natural step; the partnership will evolve over a period of time. There is no timetable of formulas that are necessary.
Will you go for acquisition? Looking at your moves, you are taking majority stakes now; will that be your strategy to bridge the gap?
We have almost 200 business platforms. I only have eight deployed in India. We will grow through a combination of organic growth, attracting clients and hiring the best people and major acquisitions. It’s going to take a combination of these to fulfil my long-term objectives.
Will you bring in more of media buying companies in India, since you have a whole variety of them? You have a very unique reputation management company, for instance; would you like to bring it here?
All of them are major brands. Almost all of them had made plans and requests to aid them in extending their services in India. One of our recent efforts is to put up a sophisticated financial structure headquartered in Singapore. So there can be quicker responses to the request the divisions.
Would you look at India as among the top three markets?
Absolutely. I have quite a number of people focused on quite a number of things. India is certainly in the top three markets in terms of my focus.
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You have eight major platforms here, which are the other businesses you are planning to bring into India in the next four years?
There are several opportunities and they come in different forms. We can be more supportive in our PR and advertising business and in terms of our retail operations. What will drive our day-to-day action is us catering to the needs of our largest clients and provide them with services that they would like to have.
A lot of the advertising and PR groups are trying to integrate within themselves rather than competing. Outsiders say OmniCom has left these advertising and PR companies very independent of each other. Do you see more integration happening across various properties and companies you have in India?
A client’s needs are the primary concern, then you worry about your problems and when you do that, you are successful and create opportunities for your people. If I had to sum it up in a world between culture and strategies, culture wins hundred per cent of times in a people’s business.
How much do you think is the potential in India for outsourcing?
We have studied it from time-to-time. We have worked with a few of our clients in that sphere. It’s a tremendous upside opportunity. Clients want services cheaper, better and faster.