By Noor Fathima Warsia
Maxus is poised to be the growth engine for GroupM and for holding company WPP too. Unlike its older siblings, the young, nimble-footed agency has headroom for growth, but needs a disciplined yet disruptive approach to carve out its niche further. That is where its Global CEO, Vikram Sakhuja, steps in
In October 2013, Maxus celebrated its fifth anniversary as a global network of local agencies. For Vikram Sakhuja, Global CEO, Maxus, this positioning is precious. The reason: only an agency born in the digital age, with no baggage of conventional structures and hierarchies, can afford to work in a system that is not daunted by layers. Many have dubbed Maxus to be a growth driver for its parent brand and if RECMA (Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry) numbers are anything to go by, the agency is not disappointing anyone. Maxus has been the fastest growing agency network in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, and 2013 is expected to be no different.
“Maxus is poised to be a growth engine for GroupM and WPP. It has been doing that for the past few years, including 2013. Since my personal orientation is inclined towards growth too, for me, this acts as a motivation. The job at hand now is to establish enablers for unleashing this growth,” states Sakhuja. Unlike most of its counterparts, including agencies from GroupM such as Mindshare and MediaCom, Maxus expects growth to come equally from the United States, Europe and APAC. “The stage of life we are in gives enough headroom for growth, which we want to tap. If we do a good job, we would be able to do so,” adds Sakhuja.
The global structure of the agency, the focus on thinking lean and the ability to keep digital at its core and go beyond the classical definition of digital for a media agency are some of the factors that will define Maxus in its near future.
Q & A: From managing to leading: the transition to being a Global CEO
GLOBAL NETWORK, LOCAL AGENCY
Maxus’ stress on ‘local’ is coming on the back of a thought process that large brands are increasingly moving away from the central control to development and execution of ideas locally. Even as many companies have spoken about the ‘glocal’ attitude for a while, the process to achieve it has been fine-tuned over the years and more companies are adopting the practice.
“We are betting on the local play. We are strong there and we are investing further,” Sakhuja elaborates. If Maxus had to put the same amount of resources on regional or local talent, the agency would opt for local. The plot after that is to have the right framework for the local talent to deal with the best of class from other markets. The only place where that decision is challenged is when it is a small market, in which case, the agency looks to create a cluster of markets. “The best of class, which is in charge of developing the thinking, is at the centre and then we have local leaders to execute. The regional CEOs are the connecting points. Our structure has allowed us speed and uniformity in delivering on a client’s agenda, for which we have been recognized at various forums. But we are still evolving,” Sakhuja explains.
LEAN AND LEADING
If local is one keyword, the second is lean. Maxus’ insistence of not adding layers to its structure (one of the reasons that Sakhuja did not look to form a headquarter in Mumbai) is because it believes it would slow the agency down and add cost. And then, there is the agency philosophy of ‘Leaning into Change’. While the agency’s approach is to be grounded in reality, it also wants to challenge convention. The guiding principle — PACE (Passion, Agility, Collaboration, Entrepreneurial) —is the articulation of this approach. “The basic insight that we base our work on is that the world is becoming more complex and people do not know how to deal with it. The digital age has made everything exponentially tougher and in the foreseeable future, this will impact brands. Being born in the digital age, gives us an edge over the others. We are not just saying that we can simplify the complex, but we also prove it with our work. Clients get that and I do not think many other agencies can really deliver on that claim like we do,” Sakhuja argues.
THE TECHNO-CREATIVE-DIGITAL MANTRA
Digital has been at the heart of Maxus ever since its inception. But one of the things that the agency has focussed on in the last year was to look beyond the classical digital play of search, social, display, mobile and videos, and include technology-led solutions. For Sakhuja, this can be described as the communication planning framework.
At the agency’s global conference earlier this year, it launched Metal Works, a digital lab based in Singapore. Through Metal Works, Maxus is trying to build techno-creative-digital capability across everything and has seen some traction there already. “I am a great believer in strategy but for clients, excitement happens when you make things come to life in execution. Strategy can give scale to a creative idea. That is the kind of work that comes from Metal Works,” Sakhuja divulges.
Maxus’ approach is deeply rooted in processes, a trait that has been inherent to Sakhuja. Under Sakhuja’s leadership, setting up processes transformed GroupM South Asia into a powerhouse that wielded order despite the chaos that can come with a large scale organisation. The agency’s planning process Relationship Media or the spine Relationship Media Genius allows it to integrate data, creativity and technology, fortifying its armoury. “We encourage clients to sit with us and go through this process because it helps us to unlock barriers and deliver on communication goals. Our tools solve problems,” informs Sakhuja.
Some of the work coming on the back of this approach has benefited marketers such as Mercedes, UPS, Church & Dwight, Barclays, Universal Studios, BT and others, both at global and individual market levels.
A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH – IN AND OUT
If Leaning into Change, PACE, a communication planning framework that has tools and a tech spine that puts the idea on steroids allows Maxus to engage its external stakeholders, the company has also worked to put a system for internal sharing called ‘I Am Maxus’. The system encourages people to form groups and share work, ideas, concerns and solutions. Sakhuja sees merit in bringing structure to Maxus internal group discussions. At the same time, I Am Maxus is designed to serve as an efficient distribution system that can disseminate ideas for clients looking for global and regional execution of plans.
Maxus’ processes are expected to help it deliver on the tough promise of continuing to be on a growth trajectory. At present, the agency’s overall billing as per RECMA is pegged at $8 billion. While not as large as Mindshare, the number is not insignificant either. Another positive of sorts comes in the fact that unlike some agencies, where the top 20 clients contribute to 80% of the agency’s business, at Maxus, the top 20 clients make for around 40% of the agency’s billings. Sakhuja has already drawn out some aggressive targets for the agency in the year ahead. With its background, its mindset, its digital lineage and a new leader whose work methods embody discipline and disruption, Maxus looks all set to step up to the challenge.
THE WELL SPREAD-OUT LEADERSHIP TEAM
Even though Maxus is far older than five years in some markets — in India, the agency is over a decade old — it was established as a global network only five years ago. In the last five years, Maxus has created leadership positions in different markets.
At present, even as the Global CEO’s office is in Mumbai, a large part of the global team is in London. This includes Lindsay Pattison, the agency’s Chief Strategy Officer and CEO, Maxus UK; Nick Vale, Global Head of Planning; Alan Hodge, Global Trading Director; Martin Lawson, Global Head of Effectiveness; and Richard Stokes, Global New Business and Marketing Director. The agency’s Global Chief Information Officer, Jason Harrison, is based in the United States. Singapore is home to the office of Steve McCulloch, the Global CFO and now Neil Stewart, the Global Chief Client Officer. The agency’s Global Talent Director Madhvi Pahwa is based in Delhi.
Added to this are the regional CEOs in their respective markets, including Federico de Nardis, EMEA CEO and CEO Italy; Louis Jones, North America CEO; and Ajit Varghese who has been named the CEO for APAC and will take on the role in 2014.
“Our leadership is spread out and this works very well in our favour as a global network of local agencies. It may be a classic case of evolution. And Kelly (Clark, former Global CEO, Maxus) did a fantastic job of taking 70 offices and building a network. The next stage is to see how we can start owning structures and making it work with global scalability,” says Sakhuja.
Maxus’ key markets, through Sakhuja’s lens
North America – One of the most time consuming markets according to Sakhuja • Scale makes it a high-priority market: Even the smallest business in North America is larger than some of the biggest clients in India. • A high-end, mature market: Maturity of marketing, consumer understanding, evolution of brands, return on investment, expectations from clients are of a different order, and that is an exciting level to work at. • Maxus consolidating for growth in the market: Maxus North America has beefed up the structure with senior appointments.
Europe – Maxus’ best market, and another one in which Sakhuja spends time
• Arguably, more modern than even the US: UK is a very demanding market where mediocrity is not tolerated. It is arguably the most modern and in a number of ways, even more than the United States. UK embraces change in thinking very quickly.
• Beacon to other markets in digital, packaging: If digital is at the agency’s core, the best in class work comes from the UK. Maxus is one of the hottest shops in the UK. Their ability to make the product look good is something that Asia can learn from
• Inspiration from markets under adversity: About the time I took over, we had just created a region of EMEA, which is nearly 25-30 markets. It has been fascinating to see the creation of a region and how that can support smaller markets. This is in the backdrop of some seriously challenged economic times that some markets are going through. In that, I am very inspired with the work that Spain is doing under the leadership of GroupM and the way they have organized themselves. APAC – key market for Maxus, where Sakhuja has spent the least amount of time so far
• China, India, Australia high contributors: Due to some degree of familiarity, I have managed to spend the least amount of time in this market. Here again, it has been about trying to get the measure of markets outside the three big ones: China, India and Australia.
• East out: A third of Maxus’ business comes from these markets and some of the leadership team hails from this part of the world. We are working to see how we can get some of the businesses we work on that are headquartered in Asia, China, Singapore and Australia to other parts of the world.
Our digital creative lab, Metal Works, is also housed in Singapore.
Feedback: noor.warsia@digitalmarket.asia
