Leadership changes on the anvil at W+K India

W+K India (Delhi), which brought on board 'A' partners V Sunil and Mohit Dhar Jayal in 2007, is readying for a new leadership team. The duo will remain directors at the agency, while they plan to set up a new venture outside of advertising and communication. 

 

The new venture has a couple of investors, including W+K, and should make its debut 'in a month'.

 

Speaking with Campaign India, Jayal, MD, W+K Delhi, said, "For the last six months to a year, we have been a transition phase where we are aiming to build out the senior most layer even strongly. There is a lot of new business pressure, and we need more muscle. We have been looking for quite a while now. The brand has been moving. It is just that Sunil and I, instead of doing a day-to-day leadership role, will be in a directorial capacity. We are going to be supporting the leadership team, running the businesses we have helped grow where we have commitments. We will not be managing the agency on day-to-day businesses and move onto directorial roles."

 

Sunil is currently the ECD at the agency.

 

Talking about the new venture, Jayal said, "It has nothing to do with advertising or communications. Nobody from the W+K team will be joining us there because that will cripple our agency operations, and the skill sets here would not apply in the new company."

 

Offering little clue on what it would do, he noted that the new outfit may or may not be headquartered within India.

 

Reasoning the need to start something new when W+K (Delhi) is supposedly doing well, Jayal said, "Sunil and I are not doing a new venture because we are not happy with the agency’s progress. In fact, we are extremely satisfied. Things like 'Make In India' have been mega successful. We are in a very good place. We find that with certain amount of experience, we can apply our minds to a broader range of businesses in different ways. And if we do not do it in this stage of life, and keep doing day-to-day management when there are younger people now who have more skills and energy to do that, then we are just wasting an opportunity."

 

The Delhi office of the Portland-based advertising agency W+K employs close to 85 people currently.