Just a month after his resignation from WPP, former CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has taken to the stage at Digital Media Summit in New York to discuss his next move.
Alluding to his future plans, Sorrell said a fresh start will allow him to “look at things through new eyes and to focus on where you think the biggest opportunities are.”
While he refused to make a comment on his resignation, Sorrell did say the events left him a little surprised.
“If you asked me about the events of the last four weeks, ‘Did you think it was going to go the way that it did?’ I would say, ‘no,’” Sorrell said.
As well as this, when asked whether the details of his departure would be publicised, Sorrell simply answered, “no”.
Speaking on programmatic, Sorrell said, “On the programmatic side and addressable [TV] side, I still think clients will find it very difficult to keep the people, good people, update the technology in opposition to the agency holding companies.”
Sorrell then revisited the conversation about his future, adding “geography” and “technology” as places of interest.
“There are two buckets: one is geography, and one is technology.
“So I’m looking at, and what I will focus on, and try and do again … is look at where are the opportunities from a technology point of view and look at the opportunities from a geographical point of view, and put the two together.”
“What I’m looking at, and what I will focus on and try to do again — as we did in 1985 — is look at where are the opportunities from a technological point of view and look at where are the opportunities from a geographic point of view and put the two together.
“That may sound very simplistic, but I think actually, at the end of the day, it isn’t,” Sorrell said.
