It’s been more than a year since advertising agency Rediffusion Y&R has been battling speculations about several exits from its core team, even as it has lost a couple of key accounts. The nadir was when one of its oldest hands, group CEO Mahesh Chauhan quit in December last year. Early this month, chief strategy officer (CSO) Arvind Mohan put in his papers, indicating that the dust hadn’t yet settled down at the agency. Though Rediffusion Y&R quickly promoted Gautam Talwar as CSO, questions continue to be asked about the agency’s future.
D Rajappa, then president of sister agency Everest Brand Solutions, and now president of Rediffusion Y&R, defends Rediffusion’s position. Talking exclusively to BrandWagon, he says, ?Rediffusion is a talent powerhouse?. He adds, ?There have been many talents in the past such as Ashok Kurien, Preet Bedi and Sandeep Goyal who have moved into great entrepreneural roles and as an organisation, we encourage entrepreneurship. The agency has enough people to take on the roles left vacant by people.?
It all began with the resignation of its two chief creative officers Ramanuj Shastry and Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar. That was followed by the loss of two of its biggest accounts, Colgate and Airtel. When Chauhan resigned, speculation was rife that things were not okay between the management and Chauhan, especially as he had quit soon after Airtel decided to part ways with the agency.
The top management team at Rediffusion Y&R as well as at Everest was then rejigged to fill in the gaps. New people were appointed and people who had been with the group for quite some time were promoted. Rajappa was appointed president of Rediffusion Y&R. N Padmakumar, national creative director of Everest was made one of the chief creative officers. Dhunji Wadia of JWT was given Rajappa’s role at Everest and Rahul Jauhari of Pickle Lintas was hired to lead the creative functions at Everest.
It did seem then that the crisis was over and the group was ready to move on. However, that did not happen and soon there were hordes of resignations again. In the last four months, besides Mohan, chief creative officer Minakshi Achan, executive vice president of Mumbai operations Nisha Singhania, executive creative director Anisha Sarin, executive vice president and branch head ? Delhi, Sandeep Madan, executive creative director Ambika Nehru and vice-president and business head KB Rai have all called it quits. Following this, early this month, Amitava Sinha, who was the group executive vice president ? East, was appointed as chief operating officer ? East and South and Neville Medhora, who was the business head of Mumbai was elevated to vice president ? Mumbai.
Says Rajappa, ?It is misleading when you say that so many people have resigned together. These resignations are spread over a few months and people have moved on for better opportunities, which we support.? Rajappa said these executives had been with the agency for a long time, and ?now felt that it is the right time for them to move on?.
However, a former senior official of the company, who does not want to be named, blames the management style for this exodus. He says that an agency which believes in outsiders more than its own people is bound to lose its employees. He also alleged that Rediffusion has a history of re-hauling the entire management team due to conflict between the owners and the top management team.
But Rajappa disagrees. ?There is absolutely no friction with the people who have quit. Their positions have been filled by capable people with good quality background and people who have been a part of the agency for long, so the churn sounds quite unreal. People are trying to read too many things into it,? he says.
Rediffusion Y&R is quite optimistic about its future. Towards the end of 2010, the agency won businesses such as MTS, Home Town and ITC Classmate. Last month it won the Tata Realty and Infrastructure accounts. Says Rajappa, ?In terms of focus, we will continue to deliver great value to our clients. We believe in nurturing talent and building that talent and all this is a part of a larger restructuring exercise.? The agency expects ?tremendous growth in the south and east regions? and is gearing up to be the largest agency in these markets, says Rajappa. ?We will also focus on Mumbai and Delhi and will achieve growth in these markets,? he adds.