Sir Martin Sorrell

Most of the comments have been generous amp160but some have notamp160 There are those who seem to resent the amount he was paidamp160 There are others who say he hampered creativityamp160amp160To the firstamp160amp160WPP shareholders have done very nicely over the years even when the slide of the last few months has been taken into accountamp160amp160To the secondamp160 There are those of us old enough to remember the creative outputs from JWT Ogilvy Grey and YampampR preWPPamp160 They weren39t exactly creative hotshotsamp160amp160And anyway if you39re running a creative agency how exactly has Sir Martin stunted your creativityamp160 By demanding some professionalism from your management team in how the business is runamp160 By personally vetoing copyamp160 Some of those moaning on now might look a little closer to homeamp160amp160Holding companies per se don39t ruin creativityamp160 I don39t hear many complaints about the creative output emerging from AMV as one exampleSir Martin never seemed that comfortable around creatives but what39s strange about thatamp160 To counter he was great around media people encouraging contributing and building what was the first modern agencyowned media network in Mindshare and then with Irwin Gotlieb creating GroupM a whole new model for media agenciesWe can all argue that GroupM OMG Publicis Media and the rest have brought about a number of the problems facing the modern holding company but why is Sir Martin any more to blame for that state of affairs than John Wren or Maurice LevySo what39s next for WPPamp160 The reality is none of us know despite Flock thinking it their place to give advice to WPP clients on what they should do as a result of Sorrell39s leaving The digested version is continue doing what you have been doingI met Martin Sorrell very few times he struck me as focused wellbriefed fiercely competitive and loyalamp160 I know the latter from many who worked for him for many yearsamp160 Yes he micromanaged but the flip side of that coin is that he was always interested always availableThe man changed advertising from a cottage industry not even considered as a profession some of you will remember that debate tooamp160to one that is taken seriously and even seen as newsworthyWhatever happens next isn39t clearamp160 What is clear is that Martin Sorrell built a phenomenal businessamp160 We can all pick holes in everything but let39s just stop for a moment before playing the guessing game and acknowledge an unbelievable accomplishmentClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Sir Martin Sorrell

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Brian Jacobs

Jon Miller | Cofounder Marketo, Engagio | The Gumball Machine is Broken - Rethinking B2B Marketing - By Mike Linton

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