Jens Monsees, the CEO of WPP AUNZ, doesn’t have the right type of crystal ball to forecast with certainty when business will return to something like normal.
“To be honest, I think we have to live from month-to-month ... closely monitoring our revenue and cash collection,” he told AdNews.
And at the same time, the company is focused on strategy based on the growth areas identified before the coronavirus crisis.
“That is technology, that is experience, that is also commerce and omni-channel,” Monsees says.
“These areas are continuing to grow double digits and so we were maybe a bit lucky that we put out a strategy that is focusing exactly on the topics that are now more than ever relevant for good media and advertising interactions with users.”
WPP AUNZ, with one eye on an uncertain market, isn’t giving profit guidance for the next six months.
The company, with its 4,000 employees, moved quickly in the face of the pandemic to control expenses, including asking staff to work four day weeks or nine day fortnights.
But the results for the half year, including the June quarter -- widely seen as the most intense point of the pandemic’s economic infection -- were better than originally forecast.
The original half year forecast was for earnings to be negative $10 million, or at best zero, for the six months to June.
But EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) came in at $13.3 million, which was down 61.5% compared to the $34.6 million for the same six months last year, but a lot better than originally anticipated at the May AGM.
Staff went back on full pay, a standard five days each week, last month.
In the process of preparing to meet the pandemic, WPP AUNZ is a leaner organisation, able to move expenses up or down to track the market.
“As long as we don't have a vaccine, and from my knowledge not in the next six months or so, we will just adapt to the new situation,” says Monsees.
“You see already in the new norm that digital omni-channel, e-commerce, pick up models, food deliveries are growing like hell.
“So, it's a different and more digital, more tech based interaction between customers and users and shoppers and the brands.
“Actually, I think a lot of advertisers at the moment are rethinking their branding and media strategy because in that new norm you obviously need to interact in a different, more virtual or hybrid way of physical and technical touch points.
“That is very much in line with the strategy that I put forward even before COVID-19, so it's just accelerating everything.”
“With our transformation strategy, we were able to leverage our collaboration mode and reduce our complexity and have a much leaner and stronger approach.”
Monsees, announcing the half year results, also gave an update on the transformation of the company.
This three-year plan was outlined in February when Monsees was five months into the role of CEO.
In this latest update, he gave the example of the New Zealand businesses:
- New leadership team established with oversight of the entire NZ market.
- New operating model implemented & operational.
- Integration of Dominion (acquired in January 2020) into new structure.
- Bringing the collective power of the group to clients.
- Campus collaboration unlocks cross and upsell potential.
- Consolidation of property into one NZ campus.
He also updated key goals
Monsees has been working remotely since March.
“As a good leader I have to be a role model so I'm working from home as well,” he says.
“From time to time we have some COVID safe office places where people can still physically meet, as an exception and obviously voluntary.
“I think also the new norm is more like a hybrid model. It's like working virtually on teams on Zoom, on virtual conferences, and then on the other side also meeting physically because I think as human beings we also have the demand of interacting in a physical way.”
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