I want an agency where people run to work every morning: Carter Murray, FCB CEO

This is your fourth or fifth visit to India. You’ve been coming here rather often? 

Yes, I come here a lot. It’s an important market for us and our clients, that’s why I think it’s important to be here and not just talk about how important it is. 

Any unaccomplished tasks to take care of? 

My first one or two visits were to get know the management team and some of the clients. We made a few changes, some promotions and brought some new people in.

Quite a few changes one must say 

Some changes. We have a new CEO in Rohit Ohri, who was promoted Nitin Karkare from within as COO, while we brought in a new creative partner. 

And how has it been so far?

So far it’s been good. The business continues to grow and we continue to be invited to pitches, and we are trying to continue to elevate our creative products, so we have lot of work to do. But I think we are very proud of the client relationships and the team we have. 

Client relationships at FCB Ulka are legendary. You’ve had some clients for over two decades. Isn’t that challenging during a leadership transition? 

When you have long-term client relationships, it is not because you made a difference to their business over a long period. It is about getting the balance right, bringing in some fresh perspective but also recognising the people who are already there and promoting from within. 

How do you feel about the creative work being produced out of India? 

When you look at our creative work year on year, I think it is constantly improving, and I’m proud of that. Like all agencies, we have our highs and I would like us to have more of them. I think bringing Swati [Bhattacharya] on board as our new Chief Creative Officer, sends out a message about where we want to go. She is quite a special talent. 

FCB Ulka has not been winning much on the awards circuit. Is that something you are looking at, or is client satisfaction most important? 

You know whenever an agency says awards are no longer important, it tends to go on a downward spiral. A top creative agency in Germany, after winning all the awards, suddenly said awards are no longer important. And over the next three years, they saw a rapid decline. There are lots of cases like that. I think awards are important, but they are not everything. The focus should be to have great creatives that drives clients’ businesses, but awards do give creative talent recognition. 

What are your targets for your India office, in terms of revenues, business and such? 

I can’t give you specific targets, but my targets for Rohit, Swati and the team is clear: I want them to create an agency where talent wants to run to work in the morning; an agency which has brilliant people but also those who can learn from the persons to their left and the right. I want it to be an agency where clients feel we are never finished, that we are always trying to improve, always listening and learning. An agency that passionately believes that great creative work can change clients’ businesses, and can also change the world. I think on the back of all this comes great financial success, but I don’t think that comes first. 

Carter Murray Global CEO of FCB

I want FCB Ulka to be an agency where clients feel we are never finished, that we are always trying to improve, always listening and learning.

FCB Ulka India has always been known as an agency that is run by the suits. Is that an image you would like to have, or are you trying to build a different one? 

I’m not sure that assessment is entirely fair. When I arrived, I found a group of people that wasn’t interested in PR or in telling their story, but they were focused on doing great work for clients and making sure they understood clients’ problems. So I can see how that perception took hold. The reason FCB is a global company experiencing a lot of positive momentum all over the world, is because we are focused on creative products and on having a creative culture. If it was true that we are just driven by account management, we wouldn’t have succeeded as a company. 

There is some confusion about the integration of Lodestar as part of FCB Ulka, so could you elaborate on that relationship? 

Shashi [Sinha] is a media tycoon with many responsibilities, and the way we work in media and advertising in India, is similar to the way we work in South Africa, New Zealand, Brazil or the Middle East. As a network we are strongest when we have the media and creatives working seamlessly together. I think in India we actually have it right. We have our media and advertising agencies working seamlessly together, and that is a huge advantage for us. 

Integrated working always has an impact on people who are helming it right? 

A: Well I don’t see any change in the organisational structure that we have today. I think you can see by our success we have great people in the structure that works today and that’s important to me. 

Have you been meeting clients in India? And how they feel about the new FCB Ulka? 

I have, and when I speak to clients, I hear a lot about our commitment and how it has made a difference to their business. They are happy we have promoted some people from within because of their long-standing partnerships. There’s a lot of momentum going in the network right now, and we have to keep that up. We have to wake up every day to the fact that we will never be finished, never be satisfied and be constantly trying to improve.

When Rohit joined, I asked him that even though you have fantastic and longtime clients, the agency is still viewed as fuddy-duddy… 

Is that a word? (laughs)

Yes, it is

I am really proud of our agency. We haven’t PR-ed ourselves the way other agencies have, but we have very interesting, dynamic, talented people, both young and old, so I don’t think talent is an age question. Part of Rohit and Swati’s remit is to make sure that talent is focused on great work and on getting the recognition it deserves. 

In the last two years, you needed to be here because you were trying to bring about a transition in the leadership. But now that it has happened, do you need to visit as often? 

That depends. Like if we have a global meeting in India. We will find excuses to get other parts of the world to India because it is important for them to understand why India is important. I have to say though I do let people run their countries. So Rohit is in charge in India. But if he says ‘Carter, please stop coming’, then I will stop coming. But I’m hoping that won’t happen. 

On a flight if you have somebody sitting next to you who is a big client, what is the 140-character pitch about FCB Ulka that you would deliver?

The great thing about being global CEO is that you can delegate. I think one of the best people I have ever hired across the network is Rohit, and we have Swati, who is the first female CCO that I know of across the Top 10 agencies. So if you want to work with creative talent that understands business and has integrity, I would say the client should spend at least 20 minutes having a cup of coffee with those two. It will open his mind to a whole new world. 

Carter Murray was interviewed recently in BrandStand on Zee Business. Catch the interview here.