Is Cindy Rose good or bad for WPP?

A lot of the old timers in advertising are in shock (and despair) after Cindy Rose was named CEO of WPP. Shock because she’s a complete outsider to the advertising business (no, no being an Independent Board Director at WPP still doesn’t make her an ‘insider’ or even an ‘outsider-insider’). Despair, because, it could well be the precursor to all future CEO appointments in the advertising & media domains, and could well mean curtains for the careers of all those who have spent decades working towards the top job at the agency – from agonising endlessly on client briefs, ferrying artworks, to working all nights on pitches and campaigns. All that ‘experience’ in advertising seems worthless today; all the hard work feels redundant – because the coming in of Cindy Rose signals that advertising tomorrow will be vastly different from the advertising of yesterday – and the mantle of leadership will belong to those that understand data better than design layouts of ads or storyboards of commercials. Sigh!

Following managing director roles at Vodafone and Disney, Cindy Helen Rose worked for tech giant Microsoft for nine years, serving as its UK CEO between 2016 and 2020. Revenue at Microsoft’s British arm surged during her tenure, rising from £2.14 billion ($2.9 billion) in 2018 to £2.85 billion ($3.87 billion) in 2019 and £4.03 billion ($5.47 billion) in 2020. That role saw her dubbed “the most powerful woman in the British tech sector” before she was promoted first to Western European president and later the COO role at its global enterprise business, in 2023. So Rose comes armed with a tremendous track record of success – a proven leader. The British-American citizen holds a JD from New York Law School and a degree in Political Science from Columbia University. She was awarded an OBE in the 2019 New Year Honours for her contributions to UK technology. 

But Rose’s announcement as WPP CEO comes following a bruising period for WPP. Only recently, the company released a dire trading update cutting its expected 2025 organic revenue from -3% to -5%; and Mark Read cited “intensifying” macroeconomic headwinds, and lack of new business pitches further muddying the future. And last month, the likes of Barclays downgraded its rating to “underweight” underlining investors’ ebbing confidence in the group’s prospect. Much of this pain has been felt most in WPP’s media business, the once-reliable engine of exponential growth, that’s now seen to be sputtering. It has been in the firing line, losing marquee accounts like Mars and Coca-Cola over the last 18 months – a reminder that even the most lucrative parts of the business aren’t immune to market shifts.

In Cindy Rose’s appointment, the first question that needs answered is whether cross-industry experience works better for CEOs? A 1996 Academy of Management Journal study found that CEOs with “medium or moderate experience” in an industry performed better than CEOs with high industry-specific experience. CEOs with cross-industry experience are often curious and ask questions to understand the systems and structures. They are free from preconceived notions and ideas since they come from a different industry. They are adaptable and open to learning and exploring. Cross-industry experience also helps C-suite executives to take the best of everything and discard the rest. It helps them think from multiple perspectives and promote out-of-the-box thinking. CEOs from the same industry often tend to think from a similar perspective and use with routine tried-and-tested tools and techniques. In contrast, CEOs with cross-industry experience demonstrate adaptability and flexibility and explore new leadership tools and techniques. 

The flip-side is that when CEOs change their industry, they must learn the jargon of the new industry and understand its products and processes – mere satellite views, even helicopter views don’t help at the actual ground level. At times, they lack contacts in the new industry – and in advertising, especially, networking has always been important. Setting these concerns aside, mostimes CEOs with cross-industry experience can perform better than those from the same industry. When you look at Lou Gerstner of IBM, Meg Whitman of eBay, and Alan Mullaly of Ford, for example, they added value to their new organizations from their previous industry experiences. 

Why would WPP have preferred an outsider?

• A big driver today is the volatility and faster pace of change across industries like tech, consumer goods, and health care, which are seeing the highest rates of external CEO appointments. In health care, 53% of new CEOs were external hires, while tech and consumer goods each reported 50%.
• Boards are today prioritizing leaders who can navigate sustainability demands, adapt to rapidly shifting consumer behaviour, and drive transformation amid high-speed disruption.
• External CEOs bring objectivity and a fresh approach, allowing them to assess challenges more clearly because they aren’t emotionally tied to past decisions or ‘long-tested’ strategies. This detachment can make them more effective change agents.

So, what is the ask from Cindy Rose? Methinks it is adaptability, agility, authentic leadership and strategic vision, though not necessarily in that order.  But what are her real challenges? First and foremost, she will have to fix inertia. The advertising industry has always resisted change. The shift from print to TV meant that an entire generation refused to learn new tricks, and faded away. No agency really succeeded in digital – despite millions in investments, the mother ships had to finally buy-out nimbler new competitors to build their digital practices. Technology driven media created Google and Meta – the agencies just reduced themselves to being buyers, not the drivers.

Cindy Rose’s arrival coincides with AI knocking on the doors of advertising. Her biggest problem is going to be client servicing and creative that doesn’t understand what AI means, what AI can deliver – moreso the reluctance to learn or adopt. Inertia, too much inertia. All across, and deep down. Also the belief that AI is still experimental and tentative. All wrong assumptions that Cindy will need to fix – and do so in a hurry. It is going to be difficult. Very difficult. Under Mark 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.

Will agencies have to build a SaaS-type business to survive for tomorrow? Quite possible. WPP is at best a services company, not a software company.  “Modernizing WPP” as it reconciles automation and change, will be no small task. It will mean getting rid of thousands of ‘nay-sayers’ and that will trigger issues of morale, employee turbulence and possible client angst. Ongoing layoffs and a botched ‘return-to-work’ mandate have  already led to discontent and anxiety among staff all across WPP. 

Mark Read’s mergers at WPP weren’t really a strategy – in hindsight, they were just desperation. Instead of solving anything, look at what he did at Ogilvy. Ogilvy has become a holding company within a holding company, which isn’t exactly simplification. Being both a holding company and a client-facing brand at the same time, and managing dozens of agency brands with their individual cultures, leadership teams, and operations is confusing, and this model hasn’t worked for WPP. Cindy Rose will need a magic wand to fix it all.

Last word? As Martin Sorrell succinctly put it, “Would WPP be better off being dismembered into its still standing constituent parts or be consolidated elsewhere?” Companies that were once part of WPP, such as Kantar, VCCP, FGS, and Globant have thrived as independent companies. The question therefore is whether WPP should realize the value in some of its myriad assets before it’s too late, or should it merge and consolidate its agencies further internally? So it is more about what’s right for WPP rather than whether Cindy Rose is right for WPP.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com. 

Dr. Sandeep Goyal is Chairman of Rediffusion, India’s largest independent agency. He has worked at JWT and Young & Rubicam – both once WPP agencies.