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WPP, on a mission to unravel the structure of the holding company and rebuild it for growth, is changing the way it gives out bonuses.
Agencies had previously operated as individual businesses, competing sometimes against other agencies within WPP, and with its staff rewarded on performance of that team.
Now the new CEO, Cindy Rose, wants the whole company to work together, to collaborate, to build a stronger winning mindset and disincentivise the past siloed way of working.
She seeks to unlock collaboration and frictionless resource sharing. "It's about performance management and feedback to allow us to build that culture of accountability and greater talent mobility and career progression opportunities," she said.
Rose outlined the change in incentives during a marathon briefing of analysts after releasing full year results, again revealing red ink.
The advertising group, once the world’s largest, posted full year 2025 revenue of £13.55 billion, down 8.1% on a reported basis and down 3.6% like-for-like.
Rose wants to get the company, now the third largest global advertising group, back to organic growth sometime in 2027.
She has re-designed incentives to help get staff, now numbering 99,000 after an 8% cut last year, and likely more ahead with GBP 500 million in savings planned, fully behind the restructure.
“Basically, if you're sitting in an operating unit, your incentives are 50% tied to your operating unit and 50% tied to WPP,” she said in response to questions.
“If you're in WPP as part of a corporate function, you're 100% WPP. If you're a GCL (global client leader), you're paid on your client growth.
“It's that simple, and it's dramatically different from where we are today, where, if you're in an agency, you're paid on your agency results primarily.
“That is very, very different and that's where I think it's going to unlock very different behaviour, much different collaboration.
“In the past, our agencies competed with each other. That was the model. Today, when we go into a pitch, we cast the right resource for the right client at the right time, and it enables that. It enables a much more client centric approach to the business.”
Julien Roch, managing director at Barclays Capital, asked Rose if moving from a holding company to a single company meant one P&L per country?
“Or will you still have separate P&L for the new four entities? Or will you still have separate P&L per agencies?” he said.
CFO Joanne Wilson said each of the new four divisions -- WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production and WPP Enterprise Solutions -- will have their own P&Ls that will roll up to WPP overall.
“We have redesigned our incentive model so that it's much more aligned -- everybody is much more aligned on a WPP outcome, and we struck that balance right where it's still incentives that people can really influence as well. So a much simpler P&L structure,” she said.
Cindy Rose said the enormity of the change shouldn’t be underestimated.
“We're moving from hundreds of stand-alone operating companies to four operating units across four regions,” she told the analysts.
“And this common incentive that is linked to WPP's overall performance is going to change behaviour in very dramatic ways.
“It's going to take all the friction out of the organisation. It's going to make us much more client obsessed.
“It's going to enable us to put the right resource in front of the right client at the right time.”
Rose said structural changes will enable WPP to build on current momentum, recent wins, and champion a stronger winning mindset.
She wants to embed a high-performance culture to attract and retain the world's best talent, grounded in “collaboration, client obsession, humility, accountability and a hunger to win”
She said she knows from experience that culture can be the biggest differentiator and competitive advantage.
“Talented people choose to join companies and stay at companies that have strong cultures where they can thrive in their careers and be their authentic selves,” she said.
“I also know that changing culture takes time and persistence, and it's about both winning hearts and minds.
“I think winning hearts is about inspiring people with a new mission that feels fresh and relevant and clear. It's also about creating an environment that feels safe and inclusive, where creativity, where intelligent risk taking are valued, where failure is treated as a path to learning and continuous improvement is celebrated.
"Now, winning minds is about getting the basics right. So that's about clear communication and active listening to people, investments in learning and development.
“We've got to ensure that our people are building new capabilities with a focus on AI so they can deliver what our clients need from us.
“It's about common incentives across the company that just unlock collaboration and frictionless resource sharing. It's about performance management and feedback to allow us to build that culture of accountability and greater talent mobility and career progression opportunities.
“But what I really want is for people to have a world class employee experience and feel proud to be on a winning team and proud to be part of WPP.”
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