Sir Martin Sorrell: Short-termism is the biggest threat to marketers


WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell says short-termism is the biggest threat to future growth; he believes President Trump’s pro-business agenda will help solve the problem.Sir Martin Sorrell’s greatest worry and what he believes will have the greatest negative impact on future growth is short-termism.

Speaking this morning (2 March) at Deloitte’s Media and Telecoms conference, the WPP boss said: “It’s not three-month-old babies that keep me awake at night. It’s the continuous focus on the short term. Events of recent weeks bring that into sharp focus.”

Sorrell, who has a three-month-old daughter, said the short-termism stems from the fact we are in a “low growth scenario” following the recession in 2008, which has led to low inflation, very little pricing power, and “continued pressure on the system”.

To illustrate this fact he referred to an analysis WPP has done of its top 20 clients ahead of releasing its full-year results tomorrow. It shows their organic growth is around 2% and “and all of that was pricing, very little volume”. Pre-recession growth stood at around 3%.

“There is low growth, low inflation, very little pricing power and therefore the focus is on cost. And the rise of procurement and finance – maybe not greater than marketing but certainly equal and in many cases greater.

Bron en volledig bericht: MarketingWeek