GroupM makes structural changes

Lakshmi Narasimhan, Tushar Vyas and Sridhar Ramasubramanian have been assigned new roles in the organisation. They will report to CVL Srinivas.

GroupM, the media investment management group from WPP, has announced the creation of a new structure that focusses on enhancing its support for the agency brands, so as to maximise value for clients.

The changes are in line with the vision set forth by GroupM and its agencies (Mindshare, Maxus, MEC, Motivator and Mediacom) to create a future-ready organisation.

The company has appointed Lakshmi Narasimhan as its chief growth officer for South Asia. Narasimhan will take charge of the media partnerships and digital teams. With this appointment, GroupM has merged the erstwhile CTG Group with GroupM Digital platforms.

In this role, Narasimhan will ensure client benefit by leveraging GroupM's scale seamlessly across all media touch points. He has prior experience within the group with stints at Mindshare Fulcrum and GroupM as head of CTG. He was the CEO of Web18 till April 2014, the digital unit of the Network18 Group. All the present CTG and Digital teams will report to him.

Tushar Vyas has been promoted as chief strategy officer for GroupM South Asia. Vyas has been heading GroupM Interaction, the digital media arm of GroupM, a unit he helped set up. In his new role, he will help guide GroupM's future focussed vision by harnessing data, digital and content to develop products for the future. GroupM is working on several initiatives to build new media products with a special focus on emerging categories like e-commerce.

Sridhar Ramasubramanian, chief financial officer, has been promoted as the new chief operating officer of GroupM South Asia. In his new role, Ramasubramanian will lead not just the financial, commercial and IT teams, but also manage the markets of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The GroupM CEOs of these markets will now report to him.

Ramasubramanian is also tasked with ensuring new initiatives within the organisation that would significantly optimise existing GroupM processes, and lead the GroupM ExCo's effort to develop new practices across South Asia.

Ramasubramanian, Narasimhan and Vyas will report to CVL Srinivas, CEO GroupM South Asia. The current agency heads and specialist unit heads of GroupM will also continue reporting to Srinivas.

Speaking on these developments, Srinivas says, "We recast our growth plans in early 2013 with an organisational transformation program. This helped us scale new peaks with 2014 being, perhaps, our best year till date. We will now have dedicated senior leadership to focus on the present as well as the future. More than anything else, clients today expect their agencies to help them navigate a very complex and uncertain world. We are fortunate to have a very strong leadership team across GroupM, backed by solid support from our regional and global offices. Sridhar, Tushar and Lakshmi are outstanding professionals, all of whom have played major roles in developing our network."

GroupM and its agencies have been broad-basing their talent profile to include digital product and technology experts, content specialists and data scientists. The network has been consistently developing its leadership talent by giving them newer opportunities, both within and outside the South Asia region.