As adland shifts, Dheeraj Sinha says vulnerability is a strength

Dheeraj Sinha believes leadership demands honesty and vulnerability. “You don't need to pretend you know everything and have all the answers, or know the future,” says the FCB Group CEO for India and South Asia. He adds that it is best for leaders to speak candidly with their teams and share everything.

His remarks come at a critical juncture. The advertising industry, particularly its creative wing, is facing an existential threat. Technology giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta continue to divert marketing budgets from brand-building campaigns to more performance-driven media solutions.

In response, advertising agencies have embarked on a wave of consolidation. Over the past eighteen months, Omnicom acquired its rival IPG, Publicis Groupe merged Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide to form Leo, and WPP subsumed creative agency Grey under Ogilvy, moving it away from AKQA.

The challenges, however, are not limited to competition from technology platforms. Artificial intelligence, increasingly capable of undertaking creative tasks, has emerged as a parallel threat. For agency employees, both developments are equally disconcerting. Each carries the risk of job losses.

During such periods of flux, the behaviour of senior leadership becomes especially significant. More than ever, the culture of a company is shaped by its people. Sinha’s FCB Group, formerly under IPG, now finds itself within the Omnicom fold. Naturally, this has sparked speculation among employees.

Sinha insists on regular communication. He holds formal meetings with his agency heads – FCB Ulka, FCB Neo, FCB Interface – every month and complements these with weekly informal gatherings to ensure alignment. “We are exchanging notes on a continuous basis, and we are tweaking our strategy as we go, because that's the environment that we all live in today.”

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This state of constant change may be novel for many, but not for Sinha. He was part of Bates, an ad agency, during its evolution into Bates David and later Bates David Enterprise. “I rebranded the whole Bates network in APAC,” he recalls.

Nonetheless, he concedes these are extraordinary times. “The changes are far more sweeping,” he says, and brands can disappear overnight. When asked how to prepare for such uncertainty, he returns to business fundamentals.

“Our strategy is that the fundamentals have to be sound,” he explains. A strong position, he suggests, is built on solid financials, controlled costs, good work, robust client relationships and satisfied employees.

Asked about how clients are responding to the upheaval within agencies, Sinha offers a wry observation. “They are indifferent. Clients don’t care as long as you are delivering to their business. They do not really care about internal changes or how you are feeling.”

Leadership, he admits, is demanding under these circumstances. Yet he draws strength from his team. “You walk in every day, there are people you're working with, you know what your mission is, and that's a great feeling.”