Wonderboy returns: what’s McLennan going to do?
So Australia’s advertising wonderboy is coming home from his New York-based global gig at Y&R.
At about 2am this morning, WPP cranked out a statement announcing Hamish McLennan was stepping down as worldwide chairman and chief executive of Y&R to return to Australia.
For any postulating Australian troopers, McLennan has no intent to play with his old Australian toys, namely George Patterson Y&R. Actually, conventional advertising is right off the radar - he made that abundantly clear in a conversation from New York this morning.
McLennan was equally robust in explaining why his retreat from the international stage was not linked to Y&R’s performance, which of late - in the US at least – has lost some large, long-standing accounts. MetLife, 7UP and Hilton Hotels have all exited Y&R’s US operations in recent months.
“That’s absolute nonsense,” he says when asked about a faltering US division. “The massive account wins we’ve had far outweigh any losses in North America. They represented 0.5% of our global revenues. Profits last year were up massively. 2008 was a record year for us and 2010 was our second best year ever.”
McLennan, who can turn grumpy at times, particularly when his reputation as a hard driving boss man gets too much airtime, certainly sounds upbeat about his return home. The trusted explanation for many an exit of senior brass - family reasons – is McLennan’s line although it does come as a surprise.
He’s ferociously ambitious and considered a protégé of WPP’s boss, Sir Martin Sorrell. And McLennan has in the past flirted with the idea of running WPP although there are forces within the British communications monster that will be seriously happy about McLennan’s exit from the world stage.
At first glance, it appears there is no animosity between Sorrell and the Australian – if there is it will take a little time to filter out. Indeed, McLennan’s next move is almost certain to be within WPP although there are some suggestions that his ties with the Murdochs – Rupert and Lachlan particularly - might play out somewhere.
McLennan has a head full of ideas, options and ventures which he says he will ponder for at least the next six months – he’s supposed to serve out the remainder of the year as Y&R’s global chairman. His family will stay in Australia.
He dropped a few hints about looking north to the huge populations in Asia and tapping some of WPP’s vast technology and media investments. We can essentially rule out McLennan’s involvement in any of WPP’s traditional communications agency businesses.
So, five years on from the New York move, what is McLennan’s legacy? Probably not as potent as he had hoped but the big and troubled Y&R ship is at least steady. We’ll now see if there’s an entrepreneurial streak to “The Hammer”.