What are the changes taking place in WPPs business model?
I think it is less hierarchical, less bureaucratic. It’s more network, more horizontal than vertical. There’s more dissemination and exchange of information. Ideally all 65,000 of us should know what the other 64,999 people are thinking, which is just impossible. It’s very difficult to make 65,000 people think and move and face in one direction and at the same time be aware of what everybody else is doing and what knowledge they have. For example we have 500 retail experts linked by an external intranet. We try to exchange information, subject to professional confidentiality. The idea is that wherever in the world we have a retail opportunity, such as a manufacturing unit considering a retail relationship, we can supply information on the latest thinking. Manufacturers and retailers would get information about one another, about category management, about how people develop relationships at the retail level and the wholesale level. And we try to disseminate information as quickly as po
