South Asia leadership changes most in JWT history – Regional CEO
View(s):The recently announced leadership shake-up encompassing the Indian and Sri Lankan offices of advertising giant J. Walter Thompson (JWT) has been the most number of changes in maybe the international network’s long history, according to Colvyn Harris, the Chief Executive Officer of the agency’s South Asia region headquarters.
Joy Chauhan
Speaking to the Business Times alongside Joy Chauhan, the new President of the JWT Group Sri Lanka, Mr. Harris said, “This is at the centre of what we do. We wanted to deliver to our clients an upgraded version every year… Towards that end we are always in the search of adding skills and talent where there is a need. Now, what’s the role of an agency firstly, it is to provide clients with solutions so that, in the marketplace, they continue to do well and grow and achieve their leadership ambition. Our role as an agency is to ensure we deliver to that task. So, I think that even in the history of JWT, we have never made so many announcements so quickly. But it was all with the need”.
Additionally, he also commented that he judged the Sri Lankan operations a little differently, and that it was never about how much money was made. It was about, first, providing a full service offering of this global agency and, second, showing that the local office was there to serve clients which work with them across the world. Also added, it was finally about the Sri Lankan office writing its own success story and building a sustainable long-term offering that also extended into the future. Making his first public comment since officially taking up his new post less than two hours prior to talking to the Business Times, Mr. Chauhan outlined some of his immediate priorities, as well as even future plans. Stating that he was not a believer in change for the sake of change, he signalled that, as the local office had a good mix of international and local clients, his first goal was to understand local clients and people. He also added that he was not a proponent of winning awards and it was more important to him to foster work that won in the market place. He also noted that his top priority was looking at ways to offer a better product.
Mr. Chauhan also opined that one initiative that he would like to promote was to get as many existing clients as he could to move to the creative retainer model, which already accounted for half of all of his agency’s clients currently. It was also his view that this model would better the work because it afforded the agency the opportunity to provide adequate resources to clients. He also indicated that this model would free his creative talent pool to focus more on the work itself, because that was what would show its worth ultimately.
Meanwhile, elaborating on the sequence of events that lead to Mr. Chauhan’s new appointment, Mr. Harris noted: “We moved somebody from our Bangalore office (into the Mumbai office) because we felt that the Mumbai office could do with that particular, leadership style which he has. Similarly, (Himanshu Saxena, former President of JWT Sri Lanka) has done three years, he’s added value to this company, and now when he goes back to Bangalore with his new skills, his new learning, he’s able to add a new dimension there and Joy’s case is the fundamental of what we do, which is, for our clients, we want to develop our product, and as he rightly said, great ideas, if they are able to work in the marketplace, and help a client deliver his ambition, then we succeed. It’s only about that success which we worry”.