Insiders acknowledge the company is struggling. Outsiders say there’s no magic bullet. It’s up to Rose to find a way to first stabilize the once market-leading firm and then turn its fortunes around.

Cindy Rose’s first day

To recap, Rose is set to serve as the third CEO of WPP following an announcement in June that Mark Read — the former Wunderman boss, who succeeded founder Sir Martin Sorrell seven years ago — would retire this year. A former Vodafone and Disney executive, the British-American law grad arrives with a solid track record running the operations of major corporations; under her leadership, revenues at Microsoft’s British business surged. And although she hails from the corporate tech sector, Rose has been a member of WPP’s board since 2019. (A WPP spokesperson declined interview requests for both Rose and Read).

Her insider-outsider status makes Rose an intriguing pick for the job. She’s seen the holding company giant from within, from without and from the perspective of a client, dating back to her Vodafone and Disney days. And in hiring her, WPP’s leadership have made a tacit confession that the solutions to its many challenges are unlikely to come from within the advertising business.

“I won’t sugar coat this,” she told WPP employees in a video address released last week. “We have a lot of hard work ahead, and of course, it won’t be easy.”

Read is expected to stick around until Dec. 31 to facilitate a handover. But from today, all eyes will be on Rose: on her ability to coax spend from clients in an uncertain economy; her ability to steer competing personalities at twin courts of Sea Containers House and 3 World Trade Center; and her take on the company’s existential problems.

Hearts and minds

Keeping clients inside the tent will be top of mind for the incoming CEO. Top agency execs typically spend a lot of their time shoring up big accounts. Whatever her background, Rose will be expected to mend fences.

“WPP is in free fall,” said one former WPP executive, who’d dealt with Rose during her tenure on the board. “If I’m her, I’m spending time with clients and entrenching. I’m making some very hard choices as to which clients we’re going to keep, and I am doubling down on them as being part of whatever WPP bottoms out to,” they added.

In the short term, gaps in WPP’s top team offer opportunities for Rose to make her stamp on the organization. COO Andrew Scott is set to retire, while CMO Laurent Ezekiel left earlier this year; both positions will be crucial to effect internal change and then sell its results to clients.

It’s a task she’s well-suited for. “She’s got the ability to create very powerful arguments, and has been able to do that well with customers and clients, as well as with her team. That’s served her very well throughout the course of her career,” said the exec, who exchanged anonymity for candor. “I think she’s going to be able to recruit some real talent back into the network, and I’m quite hopeful for what she can do to reinvigorate WPP.”

Despite enormous investments in AI and marketing automation, WPP remains a people business. But, the morale of its staffers is low following client losses and redundancy rounds; job losses amounted to 4,000 positions this year alone. Rose has scheduled a company-wide town hall-style meeting during her first week, during which she’ll field questions from across the firm.

If she’s to restore confidence to its internal teams, to clients and to prospective talent choosing their next career destination, developing that into a fully fledged hearts-and-minds campaign might not be a bad idea. “If I’m Cindy Rose coming in, the first thing I’d want to focus on is making sure that I have the right people [and] that they’re happy and that they have belief in my leadership,” said Gartner analyst Jay Wilson. “That ultimately is going to lead to better client confidence and better market differentiation.”

WPP isn’t alone in making layoffs right now; Omnicom and Interpublic have been cutting jobs in advance of their (yet to be concluded) merger, while Dentsu’s leadership recently vowed to reduce its headcount by 8%. Rose’s challenge is that WPP is unlikely to be done with the work of winnowing its business. 

“It’s still a very complex model, and there’s still a lot of territoriality within the various agencies,” noted Wilson.

“An enormous amount of streamlining still needs to be done,” added Nick Manning, a former co-founder of Manning Gottlieb OMD who now owns mentoring business Encyclomedia, which advises companies in the media and advertising industry. Though WPP is well on the way on its transition from a holding company to an operating company, its rivals are farther down that road. It means that Rose’s strategic path likely follows in their wake.

“Whether she likes it or not, Cindy Rose is just going to have to emulate what Publicis have done,” said Manning.

Mergers and acquisitions

Aside from snapping up Infosum, WPP’s rumored initial talks with Accenture have been its most notable move at the deal table lately. Could Rose be coming in with a break-up on her mind?

Madison & Wall analyst Brian Wieser said it’s a possibility. “It’s plausible that she’s essentially the voice of the board… does that mean that she’s there to position it for a sale as efficiently as possible, while plausibly being seen to lead the company into the future? Or was the board of a mind… to let her figure out on her own what the right course forward is? My guess is it’s more of the former than the latter.”

While she might be expected to consider potential offers with less sentimentality than an ad agency lifer, observers suggest WPP’s shops might prove difficult to digest for prospective buyers, whether they’re backed by private equity money or consultancy cash.

“These entities, once separated from the resources and the WPP operating system … it has a negative impact on valuation. They’re certainly more capable when together, and therefore potentially more valuable when together,” said Forrester analyst Jay Pattisall.

Following decades of aggressive expansion under Sorrell, WPP has opted to consolidate, rather than sell off, its businesses in recent years – with the exception of PR concern FGS, which it sold in 2024. The proceeds of that deal – some £600 million – went to pay down the holding company’s debt, a longstanding, unfulfilled ambition of Rose’s predecessor. As of H1, the company still has almost £3.4 billion ($4.56 billion) of net debt on the books – almost twice its annual net revenue and double the leverage of rival Publicis Groupe, which holds €836 million ($975 million) of debt.

Should WPP shed any limbs, Rose will have to choose between investing in its business now, versus reducing its burden and freeing up cash farther down the line.

WPP Media is the holding company’s revenue engine, representing about 40% of its annual income. It’s at the heart of its AI hopes following the launch of Open Intelligence in June, and it’s where WPP can make the biggest quick gains.

The network will need continued care and attention to ensure that a far-reaching reorganization undertaken earlier this year delivers the desired impact. But with lieutenants like Brian Lesser back in charge, Rose might delegate WPP Media’s direction. A recent Mastercard account win won’t turn around the balance sheet, but proves the firm’s offering is getting a fair hearing. And in the agency world, the perception of wins tends to beget more wins — just ask Publicis.

“It shows that the proposition in the right circumstances can work in the marketplace,” said Pattisall. 

WPP’s creative agencies, including VML, AKQA and Ogilvy, arguably demand more focus. While principal-based buying has helped large media networks protect their margins, creative agencies face existential threats as their remuneration models come under pressure from budget-conscious clients.

Gartner’s annual CMO survey showed average marketing budgets were flat this year, at 7.7% of overall company revenues, while the proportion of budgets awarded to agencies fell just 20.7%. Between the long-term in-housing trend and the expectation of AI-led savings, agency businesses like WPP are being squeezed.

“One of [Rose’s] top challenges is going to be lifting her creative agencies out of the commodified environment,” said Pattisall.

The company’s eventual response to those questions may end up defining its future. “It is a massive challenge,” said Manning. “I don’t know that anybody’s got the answer to that one.”