"FCB Ulka is three campaigns away from sexy!": Rohit Ohri

Rohit Ohri is a man of metaphors. The group chairman and CEO of FCB Ulka likens JWT, where he spent 21 years of his career, to "a luxury liner", calls Dentsu, his most recent employer, "a dingy, rubber-inflated raft", and FCB Ulka, where he's spent a week, "a yacht that needs the sails to be put up again and new winds to take it in a new direction."

A revamp of the creative culture tops his list of plans for FCB Ulka. He's also keen to make good on the equity he's got in Delhi and build brand FCB Ulka in that market.

"Let's get the show on the road," he says. Over to Ohri. Edited Excerpts.

Edited Excerpts

This is the first time the agency will have one leader across the group, versus being run by a board. That's the philosophy they had earlier - it was a board-managed company. The operating, executive board ran the company.

Now, it will, very clearly, be individual-managed. There will be one clear face for the agency, versus a group of people.

I would like to leave a legacy in this agency... I'm going to look at every single piece of this jigsaw puzzle and see what we can do to make it more competitive, more cutting-edge.

The currency of the agency needs to be energised. That is something I'm looking at very, very clearly.

First, I want to look at the organisational culture, the people, their beliefs and the way they work. I want to re-look all that. While there are many good things about FCB Ulka, there are bits that need to change. That, I have made very clear to everybody.

The fundamentals of this agency are very strong. It's just a question of building on that and adding new energy.

Today, the biggest challenge for agencies is retaining talent and clients; Ulka has never had to struggle with this. If this is being fuddy-duddy... man, won't every agency want to be fuddy-duddy?

So, it's more the perception of the agency that needs to be corrected; there's no fundamental 'fix' it needs. This agency is not broken; it doesn't need a turn-around. It needs a re-orientation.

We could create three famous campaigns in 2016 that could completely change the perception around the agency. We're just three campaigns away from...

(laughs) Yes! FCB Ulka is just three campaigns away from sexy.

The big focus is around creative and the whole creative culture. While it's a solid brand building agency, the work lacks fizz.

The agency has been built on famous campaigns, but in the last four to five years, we haven't seen much. I would like to bring a lot of that back in.

Also, given the current context of the changing market and consumer, I see new challenges ahead; I don't think we're very well equipped to take them on. We need to seriously look at how we're going to build on those capabilities. We need to ask - What are the new skills the agency needs to pick up?

We need to bring back the entrepreneurial streak - that's how Ulka started off in the first place. We're not a boutique or a hotshop; that, we may never be. But, we'd like to have that mindset.

I don't want to rush into a mad flurry of pitching, right now. We need to first answer a few questions, build a few capabilities and get our pieces organised; then we'll start pitching.

I have a very good sense of what the grammar of winning pitches is. I do hope to bring that knowledge in. And it's not like the agency has not won pitches. It has. But yes, it hasn't been as successful as we would all like it to be on the pitch front.

I really want to create campaigns that are talked about and shared. You can't chase razzle dazzle or fizz. You have to chase creativity.

Of course. I am not denying that. It's been a bit unfortunate that Satbir (Singh) moved out.

But it's not so much about one individual who will come and change the fortunes of the company, anymore.

I have no time-line in mind. While there is an urgency, I don't want to rush into this and get someone who can't deliver the goods. We'll make haste slowly... (smiles)

Barring scale, IPG and WPP are not too different. They can be put in one basket, versus Dentsu.

Dentsu is very strong in Japan but has never managed to succeed outside of Japan. The success doesn't exist in the US, Europe... it's an Asia-Pacific brand. Even within APAC, they have pockets of excellence, versus uniform excellence.

When I used to attend Dentsu's global meetings, I noticed how they struggled with things that other networks had done 15 years back.

IPG is flatter and more empowering than WPP, which is like a large ocean... you could be swimming in it forever and nobody notices who you are. IPG is about people, not companies.