Sir Martin And The Vacant Throne

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”

- Chris Hedges

- Shubhranshu Singh

Sir Martin Sorrell changed the game. His presence on the stage was as lead actor in the era that was the beginning of the end for conventional advertising and perhaps the beginning for all things digital.

He was a very successful businessman and grew WPP to gargantuan, previously unimagined proportions. He is rightly credited for several things and much has been written about it over the past few days. 

I salute his achievement. 

However, one now focuses on something simple and yet stark. The utter lack of a ready succession. This, for a man 33 years at the helm of affairs. One whose king-sized annual compensation exceeded $100 million in a few of the recent years and drew howls from share-holders with a third of share-holders refusing to back it as recently as last year. He is said to have a net worth of over $700 million.

What was the Board and the executive management under Sir Martin doing to provide for a smooth, viable and effective succession plan for this highest paid CEO of an FTSE 100 company? Nothing?

If today a person is announced as successor CEO and takes three months to arrive and another six to settle down... Well, that’s a full year by the time he delivers his first quarter!