Cindy Rose briefing analysts.
Cindy Rose, with WPP facing client losses and fading new business, has spent her first 60 days as CEO building a turnaround plan to be revealed early next year.
She thinks the global advertising group, once the world’s biggest but soon to be third placed, hasn't moved fast enough to change.
She describes her decisions so far as “bold and decisive”. More of that to come.
Expect also more appointments as she builds a leadership team around her.
She gave hints of her direction when briefing market analysts on September quarter results, which again herald more negative growth as 2025 comes to a close.
She wants to simplify and integrate the client offering, harness a data and AI advantage, improve execution, build a high-performance culture, expand the addressable market through enterprise and technology solutions, and improve financial performance through efficiencies and a disciplined approach to capital allocation.
“I've been moving at pace to identify and understand the problems,” she told analysts.
“Fundamentally, I believe WPP has been moving in the right direction, but we just haven't gone far enough or fast enough in adapting to the evolving needs of our clients.
“I've now met with most of our largest clients, and they were generous with their feedback, most of it incredibly positive.
“Some of our clients indicated that there was more we could do to generate value and to be a better partner to them.”
Rose said clients say they want WPP’s offer to be simpler, more integrated, powered by media, data, and AI, efficiently priced, and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes.
“This feedback provides an excellent blueprint for what we need to do differently going forward,” she said.
“In addition, it's clear that we need to significantly improve our execution with singular focus on client acquisition and service delivery excellence, strengthening our go-to-market, dramatically simplifying how we organize ourselves internally, as well as systematically building a high-performance culture.”
She has already “begun” to reshape the leadership team, with Devika Bulchandani appointed chief operating officer.
Laurent Ezekiel has been appointed global CEO at Ogilvy and Michael Frolich global chief marketing and corporate affairs officer.
She promised “many more changes".
“I also believe we have an opportunity to leverage our data and AI advantage to expand our addressable market by pushing harder into enterprise and technology solutions,” she said.
“Technology partnerships are critical to our future success and a clear source of competitive advantage.
“I will personally be leaning into these relationships to ensure we're maximizing our opportunity.
"For example, earlier this month, we announced a new expanded agreement with Google, an incredibly strategic and ground breaking partnership that provides us with preferred access to Google's advanced AI models and tools, resources to co-innovate customised AI solutions for our clients, and enhanced AI skilling for our people.”
Rose described the moves so far as “bold and decisive” and that the market should expect “more of the same” in the months ahead.
“My team and I are hard at work on our roadmap for the future, and we're planning to give you all the details of our strategic plan, as well as our financial framework, early in the new year," she said.
“Between now and then, my management team and I will be working at pace to improve our performance with a real sense of urgency while building a detailed plan for future growth and success.
“My ambition for WPP is sky-high. We are committed to doing the hard work it will take to turn this business around.
“We know it will take a bit of time to do so. We also know what it takes to win. We're optimistic, we're energised and we're confident that we're building the right plan and the right culture to secure a bright future for WPP, our people, our clients and our investors.”
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