Arun Sudhaman

Yesterday I attended the IAA luncheon which featured Ogilvy & Mather global CEO Miles Young presenting a talk entitled, rather optimistically, ‘Latter day confessions’. There were precious few confessions to set the pulse racing, with Miles himself pointing out that there would be no mention of ‘client entertainment in Patpong’. Instead he presented a well-considered analysis of the importance of reputation and authenticity for companies over the next decade.

Young based the bulk of his thesis on work carried out by IBM CCO/CMO Jon Iwata and the Arthur Page Society. Work that, given this provenance, is well-known in the PR community. Reputation, it appears, is something the advertising industry is starting to take increasingly seriously. By contrast, Young positioned the concept of campaigning as ‘latter day witchcraft’.

Of more interest, and to Miles’ evident discomfort, he was introduced by CNN’s Jonathan Davies as the man who is ‘hotly tipped to be Martin Sorrell’s successor.’ It is not the first time I have heard this, and I doubt it will be the last. Sorrell is 65 in February and, already, there are questions about succession planning at WPP.

UPDATE: An interesting follow-up on BNET, naming a few people in the running to succeed Sorrell.