Podcasts about Sir Martin

In this special episode of the IAB UK Podcast, recorded live from SXSW London, James Chandler is joined by Sir Martin Sorrell for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of advertising, media and technology.As one of the industry's most influential figures, Sir Martin shares his perspective on the trends reshaping the marketing landscape, from the rapid rise of AI and changing consumer behaviours to the evolving relationship between brands, platforms and agencies.Together, they discuss the opportunities and challenges facing businesses today, how marketers can navigate an increasingly complex media environment, and what the industry needs to do to remain competitive in an era defined by innovation and disruption.Recorded live at SXSW London, this episode offers a candid look at where advertising is heading next, and the forces that will shape its future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the second part of our first-ever two-part series of the latest episode of Lunch with Shelley with our fascinating guest Sir Martin Sorrell.  Sir Martin is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital PLC, a new age, purely digital advertising, and marketing services business, for global, multinational, and millennial-driven influencer brands.  He was also the Founder and CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company, with a market capitalization of over  (add pound sign) 16 billion when he left. Grab a seat at our table as we continue our late lunch conversation at Café Milano, and cover a wide range of topics, including Sir Martin's predictions about world economies, the future of PR and Advertising, his thoughts about this generation and future ones, a lot about AI, and so much more! Check us out at www.lunchwithshelley.com or wherever you get your favorite podcast and, in the meantime, Peace, Love and Lunch!

Welcome to the latest episode of Lunch with Shelley with our terrific guest Sir Martin Sorrell.  Sir Martin is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital PLC, a new age, purely digital advertising, and marketing services business, for global, multinational, and millennial-driven influencer brands.Sir Martin was also the Founder and CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company, with a market capitalization of over ?16 billion when he left. Among his many accomplishments and accolades, he has been an ambassador for British business by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours, he was awarded Harvard Business School's highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, as well as being ranked the second-best CEO in the world by the Harvard Business review twice.  He has also been nominated as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, twice as well!We're having a chic late lunch at the fabulous Caf? Milano, so join us for Part 1 of our first-ever two-part chat as we talk about Sir Martin's early years, his parents, his education, his incredible career, and the many steps he took to accomplish all that he has, so far!Check us out at www.lunchwithshelley.com or wherever you get your favorite podcast and, in the meantime, Peace, Love and Lunch!

Marketing is being reshaped by forces far bigger than any single campaign: AI, geopolitical fragmentation, economic pressure, and collapsing agency business models. In this episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with a legend of the advertising world: Sir Martin Sorrell. As an architect of the industry over the last 50 years, Sir Martin shares his unvarnished perspective on where marketing power is shifting now and what CMOs must do to stay relevant. The conversation breaks down why traditional agency holding companies are struggling, why AI adoption is being driven more by CFOs than CMOs, and where true transformation is already happening at scale. 00:00 – The Power of Branding in a Changing World 01:19 – “Two Drunks and a Lamppost”: On Agency Consolidation 03:34 – What CMOs Can Learn from Ogilvy & the Saatchis 07:42 – Who's Building the New Marketing Paradigm? 10:13 – Why Agencies Are Falling Behind in the AI Era 13:41 – Why the CFO Is Driving AI Adoption 16:53 – Creativity's AI Golden Age? 18:45 – The GM Model: AI at Scale in Action 22:43 – The Skills the Next CMO Must Master 28:53 – Is the Long-Term Brand Era Over? 35:00 – Rapid Fire: AI, Agencies & Overcapacity 37:44 – The Most Exciting Market in the World Right Now

Die Studienräte beweisen mal wieder, dass es ihnen nichts ausmacht, über Dinge zu reden, von denen sie keine Ahnung haben, und trotzdem eine starke Meinung kundzutun. Diesmal: Sport gucken. Sowohl vom Superbowl, und generell vom Football, als auch von der Winterolympiade halten und verstehen sie recht wenig. Naja, wovon sie andererseits viel halten würden, wäre ein Vorschlag der SPD, der eigentlich ein Vorschlag der Grünen ist. Außerdem wird, wenn auch etwas halbherzig, zum Tod des 3 Doors Down Frontmans Brad Arnold kondoliert. Gleichzeitig wird von Sir Alex eine neue Mini-Rubrik ausgerufen, nämlich der "Club der 86er"...oder so...also alle bekannten Menschen, die mit den Studienräten dieses Jahr zusammen 40 werden. Wer es diesmal ist? Hört es euch an. Genauso solltet ihr euch anhören, was Sir Martin zur RUHR.TOPCARD zu sagen hat. Generell könnten seine zukünftigen Berichte zu einer neuen Service-Rubrik für Ausflüge im Ruhrgebiet werden. Die Mündliche Prüfung ist auch ein Service: Alle holen mal jetzt ihre Handys raus. Wie viele Apps habt ihr denn da alle so drauf? Sind die geordnet oder nicht? Und vor allem: Welche App kann weg? Eine Handyspielempfehlung gibt's noch obendrauf: Past Puzzle! Müsst ihr unbedingt spielen! Am Ende gibt's noch Musik vom Rockopa Alex, bevor Martin mit Kurt Tucholsky die Folge abrundet.

In the opening episode of Season 6, Maira Genovese, CEO & Founder of MG Empower  sits down with Sir Martin Sorrell for a direct and wide-ranging conversation about work, AI, and what's next for marketing. Founder and former Chief Executive of WPP, and now Executive Chairman of S4 Capital, Sir Martin brings decades of perspective to a moment of deep transformation across the industry,  and sets the record straight on some of its most debated topics.From the realities of work-life balance and remote working in the creative industry, to the real impact of AI on agencies, jobs, and business models, Sir Martin offers a clear-eyed view on what's changing and why. He explains the pressure facing traditional agency structures, the growing divide between declining and expanding markets, and why the biggest challenge ahead is not technology itself, but change management. The conversation also explores leadership under pressure, the importance of human connection, and what it really takes to stay relevant as the industry moves into its next chapter.

In the final episode of the year, OAE Life President Sir Martin Smith joins Netty for tea. As one of the vital forces behind the OAE's journey, Martin recounts the story of the orchestra's beginnings, sharing his earliest memories and reviewing how the OAE has evolved over the years. Together, they celebrate the profound impact the orchestra has made on the music scene and communities today.Martin, the former chairman of the Board, has been instrumental in providing substantial support to the OAE and rallying new supporters. He shares his passion for music, in particularly conducting and fondly recalls the moment he first conducted the OAE during a special occasion. Martin's life is filled with intriguing anecdotes, including a serendipitous encounter with his wife, Lady Elise Smith OBE, on the other side of the globe.--Tea with Netty is the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's podcast hosted by viola player Annette Isserlis (Netty). Over a cuppa (or something a little stronger…), Netty chats with a variety of conductors, players and other guests as she ‘spills the tea' on the side of classical music you don't normally hear. Available as Apple podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, TuneIn+Alexa

Welcome to Episode 1 of Rules Don't Apply!Dan Krigstein sits down with Sir Martin Sorrell.The industry titan who helped define modern advertising and continues to challenge what's next as Founder of S4 Capital and Founder & Former CEO of WPP.This conversation takes a clear-eyed look at the forces reshaping our world and what today's leaders must do to keep up. Sir Martin reveals why quantum computing may soon become the most disruptive technology on the planet, even outpacing AI. He unpacks the organisational habits slowing large companies down and why collaboration and an ego-free culture are the only real accelerators of innovation.We explore:•The future of global growth•Shift from legacy models to digital investment•Leadership traits that separate those who will thrive from those who'll get left behind.And yes, there's even a moment of reflection on life balance and what matters most in the long run.If you care about where media, technology and creativity are heading, this one is for you.

What does it take to build a global PR and advertising empire in the age of AI?In this special episode of the BritCham Podcast, Co-Chair of the Marketing & Communications Committee Andrew Clark sits down with Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital and the visionary who built WPP into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company over 33 years.From his unique vantage point spanning Western and Asian markets, Sir Martin shares why Singapore continues to be a beacon for global business, what the UK can learn from the city-state's economic model, and how he's reimagining advertising for the digital age with S4 Capital - a purely digital agency built for millennial-driven and global brands.The conversation explores the seismic shifts reshaping the industry: the turbulent year for content and media, how AI is transforming marketing across five critical areas, and whether we should be excited or concerned about platforms like Meta automating creative and optimisation.Sir Martin also reflects on the cultural differences between doing business in the West versus Asia, what ROI really means for brands expanding into the region, and his advice for the next generation of creatives and entrepreneurs navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

In today's episode, I sit down with Sir Martin Sorrell, the visionary founder and executive chairman of S4 Capital. With decades of experience shaping the advertising industry, Sir Martin shares his approach to building a purely digital advertising powerhouse. We explore his strategies for leveraging technology, adapting to market shifts, and scaling businesses with a focus on top-line growth. From disrupting traditional models to creating content ecosystems driven by data and efficiency, Sir Martin offers insights into the future of marketing and digital media. His candid perspective on leadership, innovation, and navigating the digital economy is truly unmatched.

Next in Media, spoke with S4 Capital founder and executive chairman Sir Martin Sorrell about the state of the ad business heading into a very uncertain year. Sorrell gave his take on Google's trial, the US Election, the future of ad agencies, and why the media business is a tale of two cities.Takeways:•  Advertising Market Growth: Despite global challenges, the advertising market is growing, with digital media leading the way. •  Dominance of Key Platforms: Six major players—Google, Meta, Amazon, Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance—dominate digital advertising, with significant revenue growth expected. •  Economic Uncertainty: Both in the US and globally, economic conditions are mixed, creating uncertainty that hampers investment. •  Regulatory Dynamics: Sir Martin Sorrell stresses the importance of self-regulation within tech giants, comparing them to "countries" based on their market caps. •  Tech Giants' Push into AI and Efficiency: Major tech companies like Meta and Google have pivoted sharply towards AI investments, drastically increasing their capital expenditures in this area. Guest: Sir Martin SorrellHost: Mike ShieldsSponsor: Moloco & EpsilonProducer: FEL Creative

Part Two: After last week's instalment with S4 Capital's founder and former WPP boss, Sir Martin Sorrell – in which he explained why the market cap of his next generation marketing services firm had plummeted from £5 billion to £300 million in the past three years – he's back for part two. We cover the consolidation of the $700 billion global digital ad market down to a handful of global tech media players. Is that dangerous for brands and the broader marketing supply chain? Maybe, but Sir Martin thinks they're only going to get bigger. Plus, we go deeper into AI and mass personalisation – Netflix style – along with the dodgy, inaccurate, but thriving online user data trade that was revealed a month or so ago by UM's former chief privacy officer, Arielle Garcia (which is now Mi3's top podcast and story so far this year). For the record, Sorrell agrees with Garcia: “Garbage in, garbage out ... There are some murky parts of the market, but that's our role to expose that, not to be a part of it.” Either way, he thinks the platforms will only get closer to marketers at the expense of intermediaries – and there is little agencies can do to stop it. Plus, he says OpenAI chief Sam Altman, who reckons AI will displace 95 per cent of advertising jobs, is “directionally right”. The timeframe? “Three years,” per Sorrell. “It's going to be uncomfortable.” Conversely, Sorrell says the big platforms won't be shrinking any time soon. On a GDP basis, “these are countries, they are not companies anymore.” He thinks that means regulation, unless co-ordinated globally, is ultimately powerless.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part One: It's been three years since Sir Martin Sorrell was last on the Mi3 podcast - he declared then a mea culpa of sorts that he didn't - and couldn't - transform WPP, the giant marketing services holding company he founded in the 1970s, fast enough because it was listed. At the time (2021), Sir Martin's next generation digital holding company, S4Capital, was firing with a market cap of circa £5 billion (AUD $9.6bn), just three years after a street fight with WPP's board saw him exit and start the new business. He was bleak on the future of his old British firm at the time along with WPP's French and US-based global holding company rivals. But since then, S4Capital's market cap has plunged more than 90 per cent to £300 million (AUD $582m) as the tech sector, representing upwards of 45 per cent of S4's revenues, slashed their own marketing budgets globally. But there's more to it – the basics actually, like pricing S4Capital's business services appropriately to clients. Sir Martin almost acknowledges some rookie errors at S4 in managing the business, which operates as .Monks today globally in-market across technology and content. Aside from his typically robust macro views, Sir Martin also appears to have developed a new and begrudging respect in building S4Capital for businesses that can break down business silos - and lashings of enthusiasm to hire people “who are sharers”, he says. “If ever I was to write a book, which I will never do, about our business, clients and agencies, I would say the biggest impediment is the political structure, or the structure of the companies - they are organised basically into silos,” he told Mi3 last week during a visit to Australia. “Good people tend to put their arms around things. There are exceptional people who are good, who are sharers. Those are the jewels…find good people who are good by definition, but also who share, and we do have them inside our company, but to be frank there are not as many as there should be.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen to our intimate Under The Spotlight event - The Sir Martin Sorrell Sundowner Session in Cannes recorded at an exclusive event around the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June 2024. Join us for an insightful conversation between The Marketing Society CEO, Sophie Devonshire, with one of the most influential titans in our industry, Sir Martin Sorrell.Renowned for his remarkable journey as a brave leader and visionary, we'll get personal and unique insights into Sir Martin's perspectives including his thoughts around the state of creativity today, the disruptions we need to plan for, what today's CMO needs to thrive (and survive), and how to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow.And of course, what keeps him going...Thanks to Media.Monks for making this happen.Find out about the latest The Marketing Society events here and if you're not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Find out about how to join here.

On this episode of Between Two Beers we're rewinding the clock back two years to when we sat down with Grant Fox.  Grant is one of the best to have ever worn the All Blacks 10 jersey and is still regarded as one of the finest goal-kickers of all time.  At the time of recording, Grant was in his final weeks as an All Blacks selector and in the process of pulling down the curtain on a 40-year career with New Zealand Rugby.  We covered all the most insightful parts of his rugby career, his business, his relationship with Ryan and some of his best stories from travelling with his golf superstar son.  He also talks about his 40-year friendship with the late Sir Martin Crowe and his important work with Big Buddies and the importance of being present with your kids.  This was one of our favourite episodes and we're really excited to share it with our new listeners. Grant broke the stereotype of stoic rugby man, with passages of real vulnerability and openness. If you didn't catch it the first time around you're in for a treat.  Listen on iheart or wherever you get your podcasts from, or watch the video on Youtube.   If you'd like to hire one of our guests to speak at your function or event, flick us a message by going to B2Bspeakers.co.nz. And while you're there, if you want behind-the-scenes info on each episode and whats going on in our world, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.  This episode was brought to you from the Export Beer garden studio. Enjoy.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We welcome a distinguished guest on episode #81 - Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc. In this exclusive interview, Art Stevens delves into the mind of a marketing and advertising visionary, exploring Sir Martin's insights on the current state and future of public relations (PR). As a pioneer in the industry, Sir Martin's vast experience results in a captivating discussion that spans his journey from WPP to his current venture, S4 Capital.

In the latest episode, Adam Roberts discusses his new book, The Death of Sir Martin Malprelate, a novel where the classics come alive. Explore a re-imagined London where the greatest literary minds coexist, and a mysterious death unfolds a story of intrigue and suspense. Listen as Roberts gives an intriguing glimpse into the making of a novel that promises to captivate fans of history, literature, and mystery alike. --- Episode Links: PURCHASE from Datura Books Twitter/X: @arrroberts Forbidden Planet (Bookstore in London) --- SLD Podcast Info: www.saltlakedirt.com SUBRCRIBE to our Substack Listen on the radio at KPCR 92.9 FM Los Gatos Listen on APPLE Podcasts Listen on SPOTIFY Instagram: @saltlakedirt

Born and bred on the Island, Major General Sir Martin White is our very first guest for Season 3 of the Island Stories podcast - timed to coincide with the week running up to Remembrance Sunday. Sir Martin served a long and decorated career in the British Army before becoming Her Late Majesty The Queen's representative on the Isle of Wight - welcoming royalty to our shores as our Lord Lieutenant for 14 years.Thank you to our supporters, including Style of Wight Magazine: https://www.styleofwight.co.uk/Hosted by Harriet HadfieldProduced by Alex WarrenSign-up to Harriet's weekly newsletter 5-StoriesMusic by Mike & Izabella Russell from Music Radio Creative Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4Capital plc, the tech led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company for global, multinational, regional and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands.To commemorate the launch of Riding Unicorns in 2020, Sir Martin joins James Pringle and Hector Mason the second time around to talk about the latest developments at S4 Capital, his perspective on the global market, how he has navigated the profound changes in our world, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date!

Here's a question. What do you need to know and when do you need to know it? This week's guest is Sir Martin Sorrell. He first appeared on the show in 2019, and in that conversation, I was struck by his pride in building companies that provide the livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people. Sir Martin is a polarizing figure. But he is, of course, much more human than his public persona has shown over the years. He is, also, I find, increasingly self-reflective. What do you need to know and when do you need to know it? Those questions sit at the heart of modern leadership. Knowledge is indeed power. Demand too much knowledge too soon, and you can restrict the curiosity and the exploration on which creativity and innovation depend. Ask too few questions and wait too long, and you can expose the business to unsustainable and perhaps even catastrophic risk. The best leaders, I find, have thought through the questions, ‘What do I need to know and when do I need to know it?' and they put in place a clear set of expectations and practices that create clarity and consistency for the people around them. Sir Martin, famously, held very tight reins on his companies. Tighter than many liked. And perhaps his companies could have achieved even more if he had held those reins a little more loosely. But he has built companies that are undeniably creative and undeniably successful. Creativity requires room to breathe. But it does not require, nor does it expect, chaos in order to thrive. It needs simply a consistent set of conditions. If you are clear and consistent about how you create those conditions, your ability to unlock the potential of others goes up exponentially.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Here's a question. What do you need to know and when do you need to know it? This week's guest is Sir Martin Sorrell. He first appeared on the show in 2019, and in that conversation, I was struck by his pride in building companies that provide the livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people. Sir Martin is a polarizing figure. But he is, of course, much more human than his public persona has shown over the years. He is, also, I find, increasingly self-reflective. What do you need to know and when do you need to know it? Those questions sit at the heart of modern leadership. Knowledge is indeed power. Demand too much knowledge too soon, and you can restrict the curiosity and the exploration on which creativity and innovation depend. Ask too few questions and wait too long, and you can expose the business to unsustainable and perhaps even catastrophic risk. The best leaders, I find, have thought through the questions, ‘What do I need to know and when do I need to know it?' and they put in place a clear set of expectations and practices that create clarity and consistency for the people around them. Sir Martin, famously, held very tight reins on his companies. Tighter than many liked. And perhaps his companies could have achieved even more if he had held those reins a little more loosely. But he has built companies that are undeniably creative and undeniably successful. Creativity requires room to breathe. But it does not require, nor does it expect, chaos in order to thrive. It needs simply a consistent set of conditions. If you are clear and consistent about how you create those conditions, your ability to unlock the potential of others goes up exponentially.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Here's a question. What do you need to know and when do you need to know it? This week's guest is Sir Martin Sorrell. He first appeared on the show in 2019, and in that conversation, I was struck by his pride in building companies that provide the livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people. Sir Martin is a polarizing figure. But he is, of course, much more human than his public persona has shown over the years. He is, also, I find, increasingly self-reflective. What do you need to know and when do you need to know it? Those questions sit at the heart of modern leadership. Knowledge is indeed power. Demand too much knowledge too soon, and you can restrict the curiosity and the exploration on which creativity and innovation depend. Ask too few questions and wait too long, and you can expose the business to unsustainable and perhaps even catastrophic risk. The best leaders, I find, have thought through the questions, ‘What do I need to know and when do I need to know it?' and they put in place a clear set of expectations and practices that create clarity and consistency for the people around them. Sir Martin, famously, held very tight reins on his companies. Tighter than many liked. And perhaps his companies could have achieved even more if he had held those reins a little more loosely. But he has built companies that are undeniably creative and undeniably successful. Creativity requires room to breathe. But it does not require, nor does it expect, chaos in order to thrive. It needs simply a consistent set of conditions. If you are clear and consistent about how you create those conditions, your ability to unlock the potential of others goes up exponentially.

In this episode, I am talking to one of the titans of our industry, someone who I think has had a bigger impact on our industry than perhaps anybody else. He is Sir Martin Sorrell founder of WPP, the biggest holding company in the world.He has since gone on to set up S4 capital, so now finds himself in the challenger position rather than the dominant player. I wanted to talk to Sir Martin about what he sees as the biggest challenges facing our industry today and what are the disruptions coming down the line that are going to shape our industry in the future?What's his advice to CMOs? What does CMOs need to care about and what should they be doing? What skills they need to deal with the challenges coming at them in the world today. And because this is a special edition recorded live at the Cannes Lions Festival, I wanted to ask him about AI.Timestamps00:00 - Intro01:11 - Background07:18 - How do you assess the state of creativity now?12:02 - what should CMO's be concerned about?16:08 - How real a game changer is AI?18:34 - Do we lose creativity with AI?26:19 - What skills do marketing teams need to make the most of AI?29:01 - What will be the biggest disruption to our industry in the next 10 years?32:08 - What advice would Sir Martin give his younger self?39:35 - Ethical considerations about how advertising uses our personal data41:26 - Biggest decision Sir Martin regrets making43:01 - What was the secret to the growth of WPP?45:33 - Why start again after exiting WPP?46:21 - How close is Succession to the Murdochs?47:34 - Tell me something you've never told anyone48:50 - What would Sir Martin's fantasy agency look like?

On this episode Sir Martin & Lady Winters discuss Jim Jones and The Ant Hill Kids. They question how do people get caught up in Cults? Lady Winters shares 5 red flags to look out for.

Part 2Sir Martin Sorrell known for his strategic acumen and adaptability, disrupted the traditional advertising model by embracing technology and integrating creative content with data analytics. He foresaw the importance of digital advertising and invested heavily in digital capabilities, positioning WPP as a leader in the digital marketing landscape.In 2018 founded S4 Capital, a disruptive advertising and marketing services company. S4 Capital combines the power of creative thinking, data-driven insights, and technological innovation to help businesses navigate the challenges of the digital age and achieve growth in an ever-evolving market.Sir Martin Sorrell's contributions to the advertising industry have earned him widespread recognition and accolades. In 2000, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the advertising industry.In part two we discuss00:00 IP2: What motivated Sir Martin to found S4 Capital after WPP00:00 IP3: Building a culture of innovation and adaptability00:00 Outro: What is exciting Sir Martin about the next 12 months

Sir Martin Sorrell is a prominent figure in the advertising and marketing industry, renowned for his strategic vision, entrepreneurial spirit, and transformative leadership. Sorrell began his career in the advertising industry at Saatchi & Saatchi, among arguably a generation of talent he became known as the third Saatchi brother. In 1985, he founded WPP initially as a below-the-line agency but then changed direction with a sequence of the largest-ever deals in the industry. WPP grew exponentially to become the world's largest advertising and communications services company. For over 30 years, Sorrell led WPP, navigating the company through the emerging technologies of the digital revolution. In 2018 Sorrell left WPP and founded S4 Capital, a digital and data-first disruptive advertising and marketing services company. With a career spanning over five decades, Sir Martin shares the wealth of his experience over our two-part podcast. In Pt.1 We discuss: 01:20 Intro: The most interesting formative experiences in his business life IP1: The evolution of the advertising and media industry IP2: Sir Martin's process for identifying opportunities for investment and acquisition

Managing Partner, Simon Ridpath, and Senior Partner, Bart Peerless, are joined by Sir Martin Smith. In this second episode, Sir Martin Smith discusses his lessons and successes from his forty years in the world of finance and his life as a philanthropist. 

Sir Martin Broughton sold Liverpool and nearly bought Chelsea. As chair of the former he was tasked with moving the club out of the hands of previous owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett and in to its current ownership group, Fenway Sports Group. More recently, Broughton put together a consortium to bid for Chelsea, when the club came to market following the forced sale by Roman Abramovich.So there are very few people who have a more informed view on the value of a Premier League football club than Sir Martin Broughton, and although he doesn't say this himself, he'd be a good pick as an independent regulator for football.  Sport features heavily in a corporate career that includes chairmanship of British Airways and British American Tobacco, putting Broughton a close up view of how London 2012 Olympics, Formula One, horse racing and plenty of other sports really work. He's written a book - the link is here - and it's both a fascinating insight in to the sports business, and also a good cause, with all proceeds going to the Retraining of Racehorses charity.  There's a deeper analysis of the issues raised in this podcast to be found in this week's Unofficial Partner Newsletter.Link here Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter @UnffclPrtnr

Sir Martin Broughton was speaking exclusively to the ECHO to coincide with the release of his new book 'Whenever I Hear That Song' Mr Broughton played a major role in ushering in the FSG era at Anfield back in October of 2010 when the Boston-based organisation, who were then known as New England Sports Ventures, purchased the club for £300m to end the reign of the detested duo of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diese Woche haben wir einen ganz besonderen Jahresrückblick im Marketing Transformation Podcast. Erik und Sir Martin Sorrell blicken zurück auf ein Jahr voller makro- und mikroökonomischer Herausforderungen. Sir Martin erzählt, wie sich S4 Capital im Jahr 2022 entwickelt hat. Sie diskutieren außerdem darüber wie sich der Werbemarkt und das Verbraucherverhalten verändert haben und welche Trends im Jahr 2023 relevant sein werden. Sir Martin Sorrell ist Executive Chairman von S4 Capital plc. Das Unternehmen baut ein rein digitales Werbe- und Marketingdienstleistungsgeschäft für globale, multinationale, regionale und lokale Kunden sowie Influencer-Marken auf. ------- This week we have a very special review of the year in the Marketing Transformation Podcast. Erik and Sir Martin Sorrell look back on a year full of macro- and micro-economic challenges. Sir Martin shares how S4 Capital has evolved in 2022. They also discuss how the advertising market and consumer behaviour have changed and which trends will be relevant in 2023. Sir Martin Sorrell is Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc. The company is building a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients, and influencer brands.

Who could forget the beginning of 2020, when a ‘mysterious viral pneumonia' emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Soon, other countries were affected and deaths around the world began to climb. Perhaps most alarmingly of all, there were no proven treatments to help prevent those deaths. As the World Health Organisation declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic, and the UK and the rest of the world braced itself for what was to come, doctor and drug-trial designer Martin Landray had his mind on a solution, devising the protocol, or blueprint, for the world's largest drug trial for Covid-19. As Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford University, Martin was perfectly positioned to jump, delivering what became known as the RECOVERY Trial. The trial was tasked to deliver clarity amid the predicted chaos of the pandemic and galvanised every acute NHS hospital in the UK. Within its first one hundred days, it had yielded three major discoveries and it has transformed Covid-19 treatment worldwide, already saving over a million lives. Sir Martin Landray was recently knighted for this work and RECOVERY's legacy lives on, not just for Covid. Martin plans to revolutionise drug trials for other diseases too.

We sat down with former Asia-Pacific CEO of Ogilvy PR, Scott Kronick, who is indisputably the father of modern PR in China. Scott lived in China for 29 years and is easily one of the longest serving agency leaders, foreigner or Chinese, in the China ad business. What's it going to take for Chinese brands to go abroad? This is the question we asked Scott, who's been behind the effort to take many successful and large-scale brands outside of China. China used to be about cheap goods, but now it represents attributes largely unknown back when Scott first came to China. Scott is now a Senior Advisor for Ogilvy PR, as well as the author of the book, "The Lighter Side of China". He's also an Adjunct Professor at Beijing University. 1. The big moment that China brands came into the world (besides the Beijing 2008 Olympics): 2. Do China brands need to promote their country of origin? Is "Made in China" a good thing? 3. Should more Chinese brands on Amazon embrace brand campaigns to increase their premiumness? 4. Chinese brands fail abroad when they don't understand the nuances of the local markets 5. Peaceful Coexistence of China & the rest of the world: Business that helps people more productive is more apolitical 6. What are the consistent communications mistakes of China's going abroad? 7. Where can China & US find common ground? Healthcare, Climate & Sports? 8. We couldn't resist asking Scott about Eileen Gu 9. Scott's career advice for those interested in getting into the Chinese PR business 10. Scott's advice to his 25-year-old self. 11. A/B Test: Orange (not Red), David Ogilvy, Sir Martin & Mark Read

Who could forget the beginning of 2020, when a ‘mysterious viral pneumonia' emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Soon, other countries were affected and deaths around the world began to climb. Perhaps most alarmingly of all, there were no proven treatments to help prevent those deaths. As the World Health Organisation declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic, and the UK and the rest of the world braced itself for what was to come, doctor and drug-trial designer Martin Landray had his mind on a solution, devising the protocol, or blueprint, for the world's largest drug trial for Covid-19. As Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford University, Martin was perfectly positioned to jump, delivering what became known as the RECOVERY Trial. The trial was tasked to deliver clarity amid the predicted chaos of the pandemic and galvanised every acute NHS hospital in the UK. Within its first one hundred days, it had yielded three major discoveries and it has transformed Covid-19 treatment worldwide, already saving over a million lives. Sir Martin Landray was recently knighted for this work and RECOVERY's legacy lives on, not just for Covid. Martin plans to revolutionise drug trials for other diseases too. PRODUCER: Beth Eastwood

We welcomed Sir Martin back to the show and Don for the first time to discuss there new book, "The End Of Astronauts: Why Robots Are The Future of Exploration. Please read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, June 17, 2022.

durée : 00:02:18 - Fiers d'être Normands FB Normandie (Rouen)

Hector discusses Harry Maguire receiving bomb threats, Sir Martin recruiting Serena Williams and Lewis Hamilton for Chelsea bid, Manchester United hiring Erik ten Hag, look at the power 5 leagues as we enter the final month of the season, recap games from the previous weekend, announce our Players of the Week, and highlight games for the upcoming weekend!Update: Newcastle United will not be relegated, stay tuned for Jersey Giveaways!Shoot us an email insertnamefcpodcast@gmail.comCheck out Belly Up Sports! https://bellyupsports.com/Listen to the B.U.R.N.S. Radio! https://www.tikilive.com/channel/burns Need a logo? Hit up A&G Graphix! https://www.instagram.com/a.g.graphix/Love the beats? Then Roosevelt Spencer is your guy! https://www.instagram.com/thatguydope/Shop at Fanatics! https://t.co/UHoDlBSAoUStart a 30-Day Free Trial with Audible! http://www.audibletrial.com/InsertNameFCPodcast Get your "Insert Name" FC swag with Bonfire! https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-insert-name-fc-podcast/

Elliott Gotkine (OH 1994) host of the opening season of 'We Are Habs' is joined by Sir Martin Sorrell (OH 1963). Sir Martin shares stories of his time at Habs and his inspiring career leading the world of advertising as the founder of the world's largest advertising agency, WPP and now as chairman of S4 Capital.

To complement our new feature, My Media Life, we have a special podcast with the one and only Sir Martin Sorrell. Media consultant Arif Durrani asks Sir Martin about how he got where he is today, what the media industry means to him, and the advice he would give to someone just starting out.Join some of the most influential voices from across the global media, advertising and marketing community to hear about the latest developments impacting their sector. This podcast series eavesdrops on the conversations of industry leaders from all over the world discussing the issues that are front of mind in 2020. Topics include advances in AI, Sustainability, Events, Brand Safety, Audience Engagement, Diversity, Audio, 5G, Newsroom Development and many more. The World Media Group is a strategic alliance of leading international media organisations that connects brands with highly engaged, influential audiences in the context of trusted and renowned journalism. Its members include The Atlantic, BBC Global News, Bloomberg Media Group, Business Insider, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, Smithsonian, The New York Times Company, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and associate member: Moat.For further information about the activities of the WMG go to www.world-media-group.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sir Martin Gilbert is known as Churchill's biographer, but also as the historian of the Holocaust. This conversation with David Freeman took place when his book Never Again was published. Sir Martin's thoughts on war are sadly relevant. Sir Martin died in 2015.

In Erik's podcast Sir Martin Sorrell describes the third act of his career. He shares his view on the advertising industry and gives insights on S4 Capital, his purely digital advertising and marketing service business that was founded in 2018. In the interview the two are discussing the following topics: What is Sir Martins perception of the status quo of the advertising industry? What is the perception of advertiser on the increasing transparency? What is the biggest limitation in terms of top line growth? What is your perception of the German media and agency landscape? E.g., Accenture Interactive What is your opinion on the future of consultants? What are the competitors for S4 Capital? In the end, Sir Martin and Erik discuss the big challenges for marketers in a rapidly changing marketing landscape. Sir Martin Sorrell is Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc. The company is building a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients, and influencer brands. S4 Capital plc merged MediaMonks, its content practice, and MightyHive, its programmatic practice, into Media.Monks in 2021. The integrated brand includes more than 25 other content, programmatic, media and data companies that have merged with Media.Monks over the course of the last three years. Currently Media.Monks is more than 7000 people and is present in 33 countries. Sir Martin Sorrell was CEO of WPP for 33 years. When he left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalisation of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion, profits of approximately £2 billion and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Content recommendations: Ted Levitt 1983: https://hbr.org/1983/05/the-globalization-of-markets Hubert Joly 2021: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-hubert-joly-on-unleashing-human-magic Marion Harper: History of Media Agencys: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/history-advertising-quite-few-objects-40-marion-harpers-plane/1148591 Holy Trinity - Sir Martin Sorrell 2019: https://www.mediavillage.com/article/sir-martin-schools-me-on-data-creativity-and-the-holy-trinity-of-s4-capital/

Tim Ringle is Global CEO of Meet the People, an “international family of unified but independent agencies. In the three months since its inception, Meet the People has acquired 3 agency brands. Tim has bigger plans. He intends to bring in a total of up to 15 agencies, reaching from Canada and the US to Europe and Asia. “We have 400 people in North America right now. We want to be 2,000 people in at most 18 to 24 months globally.” Even though he is acquiring agencies at a fast pace, Tim says what he is not building a holding company. He explains that holding companies have been consolidating the industry, the trend a “survival response” to complications from the digitization of processes and channels and, more recently, because covid has changed how work is done. He says small agencies may need to hire one or more people “just to handle the benefits, taxes, payroll, inflation, and salary increases” of those employees who now want to work from “anywhere,” where “anywhere” has different laws, tax rates, and costs of living and working than at an agency's home office. Tim sees holding companies as a powerful trend. Even though there are 14,000 independent agencies in the United States, six major holding company networks “own sixty percent of the entire media industry within the agency space.” However, Tim says, they often don't act in the best interests of their clients because they are driven from the top by financial rather than client interests. He claims that both small, independent agencies and holding companies often fail in communicating when passing clients from one agency or holding-company-entity to the next. “They're only going to talk to each other if there's some money to be made in between . . . there's a lot of lost information . . . .” In Meet the People's “family,” the agency owns its affiliate agencies, but the people within those affiliate agencies also “own a part of Meet the People.” The network structure provides “a fully integrated approach for brands . . . to cross-pollinate across multiple services,” the opportunity for the agency to build multi-brand micro-offices, and scalable support for dealing with “anywhere” variances. Tim says, “Keep the brand, be the best you can, but let us create connective tissue between the different companies to see if we can increase share volume with a client.” Tim has a lot of experience building global agencies. He says he has learned that it is extremely important, “especially in the beginning of the engagement,” to build trust with the client. To do this, his team of disparate agencies will need to work as one. Tim is bringing his people together physically to take time to create “a deep understanding and culture between all the different offices, people, trades, and brands,” building what Tim describes as an “integrated DNA.” They also will be discussing the implementation of individualized OKRs (Objectives, Key Results), a tech tool for tracking accountability. Tim says his agency is very focused on operational excellence, on brand positioning, on bringing really good entrepreneurs . . . and on hyper-goals. He says it is important to make the right decisions now because, “if you build something with small cracks, they become massive gaps when you are at scale.”  As his agency network continues to grow, Tim is excited about finding “really talented entrepreneurs who want to change the industry who can't or are tapping out” with their skills/abilities/finances and being able, through Meet the People, to provide the experience, capital, and structure and small-enough scale “where they can actually still move things.”  Tim can be reached on his agency's website at: https://www.meet-the-people.com/. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast I'm your host Rob Kischuk and I'm joined today by Tim Ringle, Global CEO at Meet the People based in New York, New York. Welcome to the podcast, Tim. TIM: Hi, Rob. Thank you for having me. ROB: It's great to have you here. Why don't you start off by telling us about Meet the People, what is the business, and what are you all best at. TIM: I think, to understand what we are building with Meet the People, you have to understand a bit of my background. I've been an entrepreneur in the agency space – primarily digital agency space for 24 years. That sounds long but I'm also 45 years old so I can carry that. I started my first agency literally in the basement of my friend's house. We started as a SEO agency digital marketing agency, very much focused on performance marketing. I was blessed to be able to do that in '98, '99 – when this industry was about to develop and therefore was able build that business to 150 people and then sell the business. After that, I did a reverse takeover of the company that bought my business –and that got me to around 400 people in Europe. So, I started my first business in Germany – my native Germany – and we scaled the 400 people agency that was all across Europe into 1,000 people. It was stock market listed in beautiful Paris. I left that to move to the dark side of the ad industry as I call it. Having built multiple agencies as an independent agency entrepreneur, you were always battling the holding companies, right? And I swore to myself many times because they beat me and sometimes I beat them. That's how it works, right? I swore to them I would never work for them. So, I ended up moving to New York City and working for 1 of the holding companies who always wanted to acquire my business. So, I did that for 3 years within IPG. I have to say the experience was amazing. I really learned a ton of stuff that I couldn't learn from being someone who was leading 1,000 people. Now I was part of 65,000 people. I inherited an agency there – once again, a performance marketing agency – around 1,000 people – and then left it after 3 years scaling it to 3,000 people. So, I've done this a couple of times and what we're building with Meet the People is what I would say is version number four of my vision of what an independent agency network should look like. We're building it with my 24 years of experience of what I liked and disliked in the agencies that I've built in the past. What I liked the most was that people in the advertising industry are mainly driven by culture. If you're good in your trade in advertising, you can get a job anywhere on the client side in tech companies. You can build your own company because marketing, just like legal, is a service that you always need everywhere. So, selling a product, branding a product, coming up with a marketing strategy is something you can use pretty much in every business in the world. It's 1 of the integrated parts. Why do people choose to work for an agency? Because they love the culture in agencies, right? What we're doing at Meet the People – when we looked at the industry and I had – I still have the same vision. I'm building a global agency network as an alternative to the large holding companies. I figured that nobody's talking about the people anymore. Everybody's talking about technology, data, automation, and how computers will replace us, how AI will come up with creatives – all this kind of stuff. It's true that the technology has enabled us to be extremely more efficient. But, in the end, the new Coke logo or the new “just do it” from Nike does not come out of AI or a computer, it comes out of the brain of a human being a creative strategist. So, we believe (or I believe) that we have to remember in the ad industry that it's all about the people. We are a service industry. Without the people who are sitting behind the machines and using the machines, tech enabled, we're not going to produce disruptive, new ideas that actually put a brand on the map. That's why we're building Meet the People. I can obviously talk much more about it. But that's kind of it in a nutshell. ROB: When you say an agency network . . . what does that look like when it's an agency network? It's not a holding company. I'm curious about the differentiation of some of the different agencies within the network and how you think about that – because your website is very people-centric. It's more about the people, the partners, than it is about this brand and this specialization and this other thing we just acquired and all that you see in the holding company world. TIM: Correct. So, why am I not calling it a holding company? A holding company has one purpose – and it is a financial orientation. right? So, a holding company is most a holding company because it is actually managed by finance people. I don't necessarily I don't want to diss anyone. But I would say that a finance-led company most probably will be struggling with creating the best strategy, best creative, and best outcome for their clients. They might create the best outcome for themselves, right? That's why we're not calling ourselves a holding company. We are running this network of agencies who, don't misunderstand me, we do own the agencies – and the people within the agencies own a part of Meet the People. That's the concept. We are building this, first of all, to fulfill a fully integrated approach for brands so, instead of just servicing one client within one specialty with one agency, we are allowing the conversation to be elevated and to cross-pollinate across multiple services. For example, when our creative agency, VSA Partners, out of Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. Beautiful, creative design work and strategy. When they come up with a brand refresh or rebranding or brand strategy – I would love to see that through until you actually can see it on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn – wherever that brand comes to life besides on brochures, in magazines, or the logo or the CI. Many independent agencies, because of their size and their financial scrutiny because they're small, can't invest a lot of capital into innovation or additional services. They can't see that journey through. That means you have a lot of inefficient handshakes in between. That happens in holding companies because they're structured that way, but it happens in independent agencies as well. One independent agency is a hundred people might be excellent in creative. The next one might be excellent in social media. But they're only going to talk to each other if there's some money to be made in between. There's a lot of lost information when a chief creative officer comes up with a brand strategy and somebody implements that on social media in community management. We want to make that a much more seamless flow with less barriers for the client but also more excitement for the people involved because you actually see the product living there and a colleague of you in another agency – but it's part of our structure – has basically put that on the social channel or billboard. ROB: When you come to thinking about – there's, obviously, within a holding company lots of capabilities, you're talking about these more seamless handoffs. How do you think about building that team? Did you go out hunting for best of breed agencies to bring them into the group or did you build some capabilities from scratch? How did you think about this? TIM: We were going to do both. We started Meet the People three months ago and since then we had 3 agency brands join us – so we acquired 3 brands. Three agencies and we're going to bring more than 10 – probably 15 plus – companies into Meet the People as a group. We're going to do that in North America – so we already have US, Canada, some capabilities. We're going to do it in Europe and then we're going to do it in Asia. How we decide what to go for depends on what services we need next in that journey. Right now, we have a very strong creative agency with VSA Partners and we have a very strong experiential agency with Public Labels. We have certain services that sit in a similar bucket where the client sees the service, so that adjacent service is part of the scope. If we don't service that ourselves. then we should basically fill that gap either with another agency joining us or with building these capabilities organically with the acquire or actually hire before revenue. Ultimately, we want to have a seamless handshake between the different trades. ROB: We have 2 former guests who have been acquired into a similar opportunity recently – which is interesting. We had Chantel from Imagine Media and Techwood Digital were both acquired. Jared Belski, who was the CEO of 360i, has rolled up 3 or 4 agencies. That's all I know. Is this a trend or is this just 2 people that happen to have done a similar thing and why now? TIM: No, it is a trend. As much as I don't like the traditional holding company model, we have to respect that the holding companies have created an industry. Because there's 14,000 independent agencies in the United States alone. Fourteen thousand and there are six networks and the six networks own sixty percent of the entire media industry within the agency space, right? So they've created an industry. We all live in that ecosystem and that industry. The trend right now and primarily driven by the extreme success of what whatever intention Martin Sorrell, Sir Martin Sorrell, had to bid as for capital. If it was ego, if it was revenge, I don't know. He only knows. But he has been extremely successful from a financial perspective doing that because there is a gap, a vacuum in the Market. So, there's models like that that are older than the S4 Capital MediaMonks model. MediaMonks is only 3 years old but Stagwell MDC by Mark Penn is 5-6 years old and You & Mr. Jones is also 7 years old, I think. So, there's a couple of these what we call an agency rollup network model. They existed for years. What has changed in the industry is covid has accelerated the fact that independent agencies got scrutinized because of their size. Before, when you were 100 people, you could live a very good life as an independent agency. There's two real trends. One is the digitalization of processes and channels. At the same time covid is putting extraordinary pressure on talent, new work. This is all very complicated for smaller companies to handle because now your people tell you, “I want to work from anywhere.” How are you going to do that from a benefits perspective . . . tax perspective? It creates complications. Clients are the same. “Oh, I don't need you to come into my office anymore, but I want to take T&E out of your expenses.” Economy of scale becomes more and more important. A couple of people have understood that, so these networks are created over the last couple of years. But they're also created all over the planet. So there are networks in Asia, networks in Europe, networks in the US. There's only very few who can bridge multiple continents. This is one thing we're going to do with Meet the People. We're going to bridge multiple continents because we believe (or I believe) that our clients want the same quality of service across multiple jurisdictions that are not only North America. So, I've not invented this model, right? They exist. They're very successful. The main reason why they're successful is that, when you have, as I said, 100 people on your P&L, it's very difficult for you to invest a million dollars into innovation technology. You might only have a million dollars of profit and you want to keep some of that. Usually, it's very difficult for them to hire before revenue, to anticipate bigger jumps. In economy of scale, it's easier for us to say, “Ten, twenty percent of our EBITA goes to a business strategy consultancy layer that most agencies can't afford or a technology IP that you actually own as a company. We can make these investments. And that makes it extremely attractive. ROB: How do the capital markets feel about this sort of arrangement? I know there's a lot of money out there looking for yield. I could also see the case that you just have to self-finance this sort of thing if you want to. Where is the money side of the world? Are they looking to fund this sort of thing because they need something to believe in and something that's going to give them better than inflation? Although inflation is getting pretty good now. TIM: Let's make a relatable example. Let's imagine you have a million dollars excess capital right now. You have it lying around. Where are you going to put it? You can put it into crypto. Very risky. You can put it into NFTs. Even riskier. You can put it into traditional venture capital. So, there's a lot of money in the market. But there's also a lot of options in the market. You know pre-IPO, post-IPO, or FinTech, software as a service, space – there's so many categories. The service business as a sector in general or the advertising industry service side of it – not MarTech AdTech – it's not the most attractive industry to invest money. Why? Because you have no tangible assets. The desks, the computers – they're all at home right now. As people, as a company, you maybe own intellectual property. But mostly you have a lot of walking assets and that's your people. For the longest time, the ad industry was not super attractive for larger investors. That has dramatically changed because of the pressure coming from tech. Tech has gotten so heavy on advertising and so relying on advertising. Same time that there's more capital in the market and that a couple of people, including Sir Martin and others, have proven that you can make real money there. Most of the investment in this space is private equity and I would say large family offices. ROB: It's fascinating just to see this emerge. I think I hear what you're saying that you know there's all these different factors in play, right? You have some firms that are a little bit “walking wounded” due to . . . it does get complicated when people want to be in different states and now you're having to pay taxes on your payroll in different states. There's an economy to having 1,000 people, 10,000 people where you know what there's a department that handles that baked into the margins of the overall business. I totally get it. TIM: Yeah, and you don't go through this alone, right? If you have a 50-people business and 20 people decide they don't want to work from New York anymore or LA, they're going to work from anywhere, you need to hire at least 1 more person just to handle the benefits, taxes, payroll plus inflation increases plus salary increases. So, it's complicated. What's important about Meet the People is we give that layer at scale, but the agency brands stay independent in their DNA. We're not changing their brands. VSA Partners that joined us at the beginning of the year is VSA Partners. They've done that. This work for 40 years . . . successful. They're an incredible, talented shop and great people. Why would we change any of that? Doesn't make any sense. Keep the brand, be the best you can, but let us create connective tissue between the different companies to see if we can increase share volume with a client. You're already sitting on an amazing client. You define the strategy. Why don't we talk about who actually builds the website, who actually manages social media? Why don't we talk about it because we already have that relationship? That is very attractive to companies who don't have that client access. There's a lot of independent agencies who are very specialized, who would die to get into a client like Google or IBM or Ford who just can't because they don't have the gravitas.  ROB: When it comes to new and existing business, it sounds like you have some thoughts about the role of location. But the role of location is different from what it used to be. On the one hand you mentioned having offices and having people in these different geographies. But you also had this dynamic where some of the agencies that are joining the network may have played very much off a home field advantage that may not be the case anymore. So, how are you looking at the strategic role of geography? TIM: I think geography stays extremely important. I'm someone who grew up with in-person meetings and built businesses within in-person meetings. I do believe in-person meetings to create chemistry. Especially in the beginning of the engagement with the client, it's extremely important because you're not only buying a service, you're buying the trust into the person across from you. Because there's so many agencies out there. So many service providers out there. Who are you going to go for if the service is extremely comparable and they sadly so are? In the creative space, not as much, but in the digital execution, who does better search than that person – there is a chemistry factor to that. I think in person will stay extremely relevant. Our strategy here is to say, instead of having large headquarters, we're going to have more micro-offices. When we have 10 agencies, let's say in North America, it's extremely likely that we end up having 20 offices all over the place. Instead of having one person in a WeWork, we're going to have 20 people from maybe 5 different agencies in Austin, Texas. Or we're going to have the same in Dallas, or we're going to have the same in San Francisco. We already have 5 offices in North America and anyone from these companies can really work from anywhere within these proximities. We also hire outside of these proximities because we want to have at some point an office in Miami, maybe in New Orleans, and whatnot. So, I foresee that we have certain client-centric larger footprints in New York, LA, San Francisco. We have Boulder, Colorado, we have Chicago, we have Toronto . . . but we're going to have a lot of micro-offices because we need to have flexibility. That's new work. This is part of that. Maybe one of the things we got from covid . . . besides covid. ROB: Really fascinating. Tim, we quite often ask people what lessons they've learned and what they would do differently, but it strikes me that you are actually in the process of getting to do things differently. You know we say, what would you do if you were starting over? You, you have had a chance to do that in some cases. An interesting thing about this model is you're kind of starting on third base but you have agencies who have made it here on their own journeys and you're having to coalesce something together. What are you doing differently in the structuring of Meet the People that you learned in your past and said, “It's got to be different”? TIM: One thing that we're doing the same is creating a deep understanding and culture between all the different offices, people, trades, and brands. I've done this before. The last business I managed for IPG, I ended up having 72 offices around the globe. The business before had 25 offices around the globe and we made sure that these people met physically. It sounds counterintuitive during covid but, the fact that you spend time together workshopping. For example, let's say we have five companies and all their creatives can come together in one location for three days and talk about the differences of their work approach. That would be such a forming experience for them because they all are going to learn from that. You have some people who have done this for 40 years. You have some people who are doing this for 4 years. It's that culture of respect, of understanding, of bringing the different traits together. I think that is extremely powerful. I learned through this journey that you can have you can have the best product in the world. If your people don't believe in it, you're not going to go anywhere. Creating that belief and creating that culture and creating that integrated DNA is a little bit of magic that's extremely important to build a successful business. That's what I learned. What I go to do different, and I kind of promised my wife I would, is travel less. I don't think that's not happening. What I try to do is travel a little bit less because covid allows for that new model. The second thing that I learned is to run an agency a little bit more like an agile tech company. Not because I want to strip away the creativity or anything – none of none of that. The problem in many agencies is that there's a lack of accountability because of a mutual understanding that the creative process is complicated. You know what I mean. Building a tech product is as complicated and needs as much creativity. But somehow there are better levers or control mechanisms in there that allow you to achieve a target in your planning session a little bit quicker and more agile. We want to apply a little bit of startup thinking to a very traditional industry. ROB: I think anybody in the startup industry would claim the same degree of creativity and the same degree of craftsmanship. I'm very much from a software development background and if you want to talk about something that resists measurement. People always say, “Building software is not the same as building a house. You can stamp out houses, but software is a different thing.” Yet within technology there are certain constraints that you talk about. You don't get to just walk away and say, “Well I'm sorry. It'll take some amount of time and we'll show up and it'll be great. There's process to it. TIM: In the advertising industry, that is not always the case. People walk away and they say, “I'm going to come back in a week or two because I don't know when I'm going to come to a product.” I get that because it's creative and it needs time but in many of these trades you can have OKR's, for example. So you can have certain accountability factors or set certain targets. That's how you can manage a large company. A bit more agile and efficient.  ROB: Yeah, so to talk about OKR's for a moment because they're popularly said, but I think sometimes poorly understood. Where did you come to a good understanding of them and how do you think about deploying them? TIM: I've got to be honest with you. This is why I got my management team together in New York this week. They're all here in the office in New York – came in from Germany, London, Connecticut. Sounds like a long trip but we're all coming together. ROB: Can be. TIM: We are coming together right now, here in New York, to decide “how do we implement OKR's within an agency environment” and we're not done with that journey. We're not done with the discussion, but we do know we want to approach it a little bit different than the last 3 times we did it together. I think in six months' time I can answer that question much better. I do believe that OKR's need to be very individualized. Your overall underlying principles are the same, but you have to individually craft it towards your organization because you don't want to over-engineer it as well, right? You need to give people the freedom. So, I will be able to answer that question in three to six months ROB: Sounds good, sounds good. Tim, as you're thinking about what's next for Meet the People and for this evolved holding company model, what's coming up next? What are you excited about? TIM: For us, it's hyper-goals. We have 400 people in North America right now. We want to be 2,000 people in at most 18 to 24 months globally. So, we are very much focused on making the right decisions now because, once you build something with small cracks, they become massive gaps when you are at scale. So, we're very much focused on operational excellence, on our brand positioning, on bringing really good entrepreneurs. When I look at companies, we have to do the financial background checks and stuff like that needs to be in order. But I'm looking much more for entrepreneurs who see that the industry needs to change. That is where the minds are aligned with the companies we are looking at and acquiring and partnering with. That's what I'm most excited about, finding really talented entrepreneurs who want to change the industry who can't or are tapping out with their skills or their abilities or financially and asking, how do I get from 50 to 100 people? How do I get from 100 to 200 people? We bring the experience. We bring the capital. We bring structure where they can actually still move things – because we're not 10,000 people or 5,000 people like our competitors are. So, that's what gets me most excited. Then, obviously, there's always something new in our industry, there's always something new, right? It never stops. I remember when I built my first agency, I thought, when I master search, I'm going to be done with this. Affiliate marketing comes along. Oh well. Then I master affiliate marketing. Then social came and I mastered social. Programmatic came. It never ends – and that's also, to some extent, very exciting because you keep having to learn and adapt. At some point, I will age out, where people will tell me, “Tim you know what? Just drink your coffee. You know we have got it because you don't, and you don't get it anymore.” ROB: (Laughs) Ah, so it's always a struggle to try and figure out what things you might be aging out of and what things are just a little weird. It's always a little bit of both. TIM: That's right. And what's the little bit of bullshit right now in the industry that you can just face over. You don't need to go deep. ROB: I think there were moments early in social where it felt very experimental. It felt very strange. It felt very frothy. We've been through that on an influencer. You were around. I was around. You look at the crypto world and it seems almost like – I could be dead wrong – I think the thing that's most misunderstood but also well observed now about the dot Com era is everything happened eventually. But it didn't happen then. That's maybe where we're at with crypto. I'm not sure. TIM: Well, like crypto is one thing, but then think about NFTs, right?  ROB: Yeah, I'm lumping that in. Yeah TIM: Okay, if you lump it all into one OKR, fair enough. I can talk for hours about my diverse opinions on NFTs and the NFT world. Nevertheless, we have clients who are extremely excited about and who really want to deploy capital, being part of that industry because there's the strong underlying belief of making something really good at the same time. There is this unnecessary social hype on certain topics where I'm thinking, “Guys, you're destroying something that was meant to be really good. I think blockchain and crypto is falling or has fallen into a similar trap where the underlying idea . . . because technically I'm an engineer, right? I got my first pc when I was eleven. Taught myself coding and all this kind of stuff. So, I love the idea of blockchain and decentralized holding of assets and accountability and ledgers. That's amazing. It could solve so many problems in world. The problem is that when dodgecoin comes along in Shibona or whatever, the next thing is, it drags it in the dirt. The underlying technology is incredible. The sad story is people want to get rich fast and lots of them don't. ROB: That's right. It happened before. People built the worst websites in the world for a couple million bucks back once-upon-a-time early internet. TIM: But you remember when you could buy 1 pixel on a website or something like that for a thousand dollars and there were these crazy businesses out there and it's coming back, just differently now. My hope is that just like the dot com bubble . . . yes, there was a hype. Yes, there was a crash but, after that an actual industry developed. So, I'm hoping that we're going to go through the same thing with NFTs and some of these offsprings of crypto. ROB: That makes complete sense. Well, Tim, Thanks for hopping on. Thanks for illuminating us on what's going on in this holding company opportunity, what you're doing with that. I think it's interesting you started and you kind of knew what it looked like to run a large organization. I can imagine starting with 2 people in a closet might not always be the best use of those skills. It's neat to see the industry lining up in a way that that lets us see so much happen so quickly. So, thanks for coming on. Good to have you, Tim. TIM: Thanks Rob for having me. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. ROB: Alright, be well, thanks, bye.

Sir Martin Sweeting, Founder and Executive Chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, discusses satellites, space technology, returning to the moon, the European Space Agency and the UK Government's recently published Space Strategy.

A year ago today, we released S1E1 of Riding Unicorns with Sir Martin Sorrell. In this first edition of Riding Unicorns bitesize, we pick out the best bits from that episode and dissect some of the advice given by Sir Martin. 

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn In today's interview we have the opportunity for a detailed conversation with a man who has been at the forefront of advertising and marketing communications for 5 decades. Founder of WPP, its CEO for 33 years, he is now the creator of S4 Capital, an entirely digital advertising and marketing business at the epicenter of a marketing and commercial revolution. Sir Martin describes his youth and upbringing, and the ambition that drove him, which he ascribes to his grandparents who arrived in the UK as refugees. He describes his path to Cambridge and Harvard Business School, working for Mark McCormack at IMG before joining Saatchi & Saatchi. He talks about the advertising world that was ripe for disruption, his decision to buy and build WPP into the world's largest agency, and the battles and challenges and near-death corporate experiences en route. He describes what lies behind his staying power, ambition, and how S4 Capital was conceived. In a rapid time period, S4 Capital has become a major force in the new world order of digital communications and already has a market capitalisation of £2.6 billion. He describes the strategy around building a purely digital advertising and marketing services business, serving major companies around the world and why the Holy Trinity of first-party data, digital content and programmatic advertising will super charge the next wave of growth in the industry. He talks about growth through acquisition, partnerships and culture and the need today to build strong links directly to the consumer and the shifting emphasis to digital, and away from legacy advertising. He explains the dominance of the major tech companies, their evolution and current challenges, and what is going on in the minds of CEOs and their boards. Finally, there is some advice from one of the world's great corporate warriors about resilience, determination and the need for speed in surviving and thriving.

Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman at S4 Capital, joins Dan Gold as Fuse's first ever guest to discuss PR's performance during the pandemic, the future of office-life, and much more. We would love to hear from you following on from our chat with Sir Martin. Is there something that stood out for you? How are you feeling about the return to the office? Fed up with isolation, or has working remotely been a revolution for your work-life balance? Send us a voice message here. To hear more about these themes and PR's role in the new business landscape, sign up to attend the PRCA International Summit on 30th and 31st March. Produced and Hosted by Dan Gold. Production and editing supported by Martin Charlton Communications Music: Opening: New World by TONEZPRO. Closing: Sunkissed by IKSON. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fuse-podcast/message

Sir Martin Sorrell is the advertising mogul who took a small company called Wire and Plastic Products (they used to make shopping baskets back in the day) and transformed it into the biggest advertising company in the world. After leaving WPP in 2018, he set up S4 Capital — a new, data-driven, obsessively futuristic marketing company for the modern age. It is already worth more than £2 billion, and, in his own words, has left the traditional agencies looking like dinosaurs. In a brilliant episode of the podcast, Sir Martin talks about his role as the third Saatchi brother; about plans for retirement (spoiler — he doesn't have any); and about how his grandfather cut off a cossack's arm at the age of 10.

Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc. Sir Martin rose to prominence for founding WPP plc, the world's largest advertising and PR group. Prior to his departure from WPP in 2018, Sorrell had become the longest-serving chief executive of a FTSE 100 company.We are absolutely delighted to launch the podcast with such a fantastic guest. In this first ever Riding Unicorns episode James and Sir Martin discuss his legacy, the process of going through an acquisition and the mentality required to succeed in business. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Today I am chatting with Sir Martin Sorrell, who is Executive Chairman of digital advertising and marketing company, S4 Capital plc, which currently has a market capitalization of over $1.2 billion. He was also the CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company. Prior to that, Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi plc for 9 years and worked for James Gulliver, Mark McCormack and Glendinning Associates before that. Throughout this interview Sir Martin speaks very openly and authentically about his journey. This interview is a great listen for anyone looking to gain powerful business insights from someone with decades of experience. In this interview you will learn about: How Sir Martin got his start in business What it really takes to become successful in business How the advertising industry has changed overtime Why retirement is overrated The importance of persistence and speed And so much more... Check out S4 Capital! https://www.s4capital.com/ Find this interview on Youtube! https://youtu.be/HH_AC3KXvVw Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminarte/ Share your key takeaway on Instagram and I will repost you! Get yourself some ultra hip streetwear that actually stands for something real! Get a 10% discount at lowkeyemotional.com when you use the discount code YAS10 at the checkout! Audio edited by the wonderful Jake Babineau. You could say he's an audio genie. He's also a great musician with a crazy podcastable voice — he composed my intro! Check him out on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jake_babineau/ Music taken from the ending of his song ‘On The Cold Tile Floor': https://bit.ly/2KQGZhN I conducted this interview on behalf of CUE (Cambridge University Entrepreneurs) You can check them out here: https://www.cue.org.uk/

Sir Martin Sorrell is the most influential man in advertising. As the CEO of WPP, the world's largest advertising group, he is one of the world's most connected executives. After 30 years, WPP now embraces some of the best known names in advertising and PR - including Ogilvy and Mather, J Walter Thompson and Burson-Marstellar. Steve Hewlett talks to Sir Martin about the balance of power between traditional and digital media; how information about us online is informing creativity in advertising, and as he turns 70, what's next for him, and the advertising empire he has created.The High Court has awarded damages totalling nearly £1.2m to eight people whose phones were hacked by some journalists Trinity Mirror newspaper group. Eight claimants -- including the actors Shane Ritchie and Shobna Gulati - were paid, 'very substantial' damages in the civil case against thr group. The largest amount was awarded to Sadie Frost who received damages of £260,250. Steve Hewlett talks to Hugh Tomlinson QC, lead counsel to victims of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, and Bob Satchwell, Executive Director of the Society of Editors, about the scale of damages and how this case might damage celebrity journalism.On the day Lyse Doucet is presented with the Sanford St. Martin Award for her reporting of religious affairs, Steve meets the BBC's Chief International Correspondent. The Canadian born journalist began her career in West Africa in 1983 and has reported on conflicts in Iraq, Syria and across the Middle East on the Arab Spring. This award acknowledges her work in 'raising the profile of religion in the media.' What are the added challenges that reporting faith-based conflict brings to her role?Producer: Katy Takatsuki.