It's day one as chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, one of the world's biggest advertising networks, and Maurice Lévy's replacement, Arthur Sadoun, has a lot to say.
Sadoun took to YouTube as he wanted his first words, in his "terrible French accent", to be straight to the world.
Sadoun talks about the “strong headwinds” the industry faces and how he plans to “bring back the kind of growth we deserve”, while future-proofing the business. The CEO also discussed his vision to transform the group from a holding company, "to become a platform", describing the future structure as "an agile, flat, modular-dynamic organisation" aimed at creating new value for clients and everyone within the organisation.
While Lévy has left, he will continue to work full time for Publicis Groupe as chairman of the supervisory board.
In his message Sadoun talks about restoring brand trust, separating from the competition, leading industry change and giving clients what they really need – across the dimensions of transformation (through intelligence, creativity and technology), integration and culture.
“Everybody talks about transformation, but there are very few who can really do it,” he said.
“We are the only company in that has the bench of talent to both reimagine the new generation of consumer experience brand, and at the same time transform a client business to make sure that those brand experiences are a reality.”
He said this sees the network become “marketing transformation experts” and "digital business transformation experts”. He highlights artificial intelligence, data, media, creativity, consulting and technology as key areas.
He went on to say secondly, client centricity is vital and that ‘integration’ needs to be a reality, not a buzzword.
As a result, more than 100 group client leaders will be appointed, who Sadoun said “will be empowered to access the right resources at the right time no matter where they are - with no P&L issue”, to fully deliver its promise to put the client at the core.
Leadership teams, collectively responsible for growth, local level collaboration, pitching together and also cross-fertilising capabilities, will also be created in its top 20 countries.
Lastly, he said it’s biggest challenge is to ‘culturally’ change the way it works together.
“It’s time for us to break old habits, to bond as a at every level of our company and build our future together,” he said, adding that “Break. Bond. Build” are three words we’ll be hearing a lot of.
For more check out the video below:
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