Sir Marin Sorrell, CEO, WPP Group – Part 1 from kiruba on Vimeo.
This is easily one of the biggest podcast interviews I have done on http://Kiruba.TV . By the time I finished this interview, it felt I had attended a crash-course MBA in visionary entrepreneurship.
Sir Martin Sorrell runs WPP, the World’s biggest Advertising Group. WPP companies, which include some of the most eminent agencies in the business, provide clients with advertising, media investment management, information, insight and consultancy, public relations and public affairs, branding and identity, healthcare communications, direct, interactive and internet marketing, and specialist communications services.
Collectively, WPP employs over 138,000 people in 2400 offices in 107 countries. The Group’s worldwide companies include JWT, Ogilvy Group, Y&R, Grey, Mindshare, Mediaedgecia, MediaCom, Kantar, Millward Brown, TNS, Wunderman, Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Landor, The Brand Union and WPP Digital. Clients include 354 of the Fortune Global 500, 60 of the NASDAQ 100 and 33 of the Fortune e50. In 2009, WPP had revenues of $13.6 Billion and billings of $59.4 Billion.
In this first part, Sir Martin talks about is initial journey as professional and how he entered entrepreneurship late in life and how he successfully scaled up his business through smart acquisitions.
We were initially planning to do a Skype conversation but at the last minute chose to speak on the phone which is why you will see him with his phone all the time.
This is a longish interview. The first part runs for about 20 minutes and is well worth the time. Incase you can’t wait for the next part,
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Sometimes you don’t realize some of the good tools you have with you and you always aspire to get stuff that you almost never usually get. Take for example video blogging. I’ve been planning to get one of those Flip video recorders ever since I read good reviews about them and been scouting around for it in Chennai with no luck. And all this time, I’ve been sitting around with my N82 which has pretty decent video feature.
So, instead of waiting for the perfect solution, decided to play around with what I’ve got. And the right opportunity came by. I received the SanDisk 8GB SDHC card and decided to do a video review of it. If I had a little bit more presence of mind (and more patience), I could have done an unboxing video which would’ve been kinda cool.
Anyways, I took the product out for a walk around my apartment and here’s what I felt about the card.
For smooth viewing, hit play and then hit pause. Give the video a minute and then play again.
For you bums too lazy to see the video 
, here’s my impression of the product.
1) Wow! This tiny thing can hold 8GB?? I still remember the computer exhibition that I went to where I bought a 4GB hard drive. We’ve come a long way.
2) Love the fact that there’s a tiny card reader that comes with the card. Plug it in and it turns into a thumb drive. The thing that I didn’t like is that the card doesn’t fit into the reader smoothly. You’ll have to kinda shove it in and parts of it juts out. Many who don’t take the effort to read the manual, would force it in deeper damaging the card.
3) Apparently, the card is quite strong I’m told, though I didn’t get around to testing it. It would survive a 10 foot fall. I’ll just take their word for it, thank you.
3) In addition to photos and videos, you can store word files, pdf and just about any file.
4) 2000 songs, 20,000 photos, Hours of video. There sure is a lot of space. Again, it just blows me how they could have so much space in such a tiny thing!
5) The card can be used in mobile phones from Motorola, Sony Ericcson, Nokia. Just make sure they are SDHC compatible. You could even use it in video games, GPS devices and DSLR cameras. Didn’t know that bit.
6) The transfer rate from the card reader to PC is 4MB per second. That’s one song a second. Not bad.
7) Add to the fact that there’s no additional software required to install, and this one get a thumbs up from me.
Now, the only grouse is that it’s so bloody tiny and for a guy like me who has the ability to lose a laptop, I don’t see this thing last with me too long!
Now for my experience and lessons from doing the video.
1) I put on a very strange accent, especially at the beginning of the video. That’s not how I usually talk. And I hate it.
2) I wrote down the key points I wanted to talk, on a Post-it note and stuck it to the side of the phone. That greatly helped me in the flow.
3) I shot this video at noon when the sunlight was directly over me. That created dark shadow and hence had to find a shadowy place. Even then, the buildings around were very bright from the sunshine and that caused the object in front (my mug) to darken. Early mornings or evenings would be a better time.
4) I had to hold the camera horizontally to get the video and that’s not a comfortable position to hold the camera. We are so used to handling the phone in a vertical position. Besides, holding the camera in an outreached position for a whole 4 minutes can get a bit painful. I overdid on my pushups exercise and that made it even worse!
5) The surroundings were fairly noisy, yet, quite happy with the sound clarity.
6) Realized that I should never move between a bright sun-lit area and the shadow area. The camera takes a little time to adjust and by that time, all you see is a black silhouette.
7) Realized that video is a powerful tool that helps you communicate certain things that you would never be able to do so in words. Like how the card fits into the tiny card reader to become a thumbdrive.
I hate the fact that the video sounded pitchy. Must remember to get more critical!
9) I should remember to hold the phone a bit higher. The view up my nose usually isn’t quite flattering.
9) And yeah, I should stop that f***ing accent and just be myself.
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Two weeks ago, CNN IBN covered the cycling movement in Bangalore and Chennai as part of its Citizen Journalist program. The team came over to Chennai for a day long shoot. The first part of the program has already been aired. Rohini Mohan, the brain behind this series, sent us the web version of the video.
In Chennai, me and a group of folks are on to a ‘Cycle to Work Day’ program where we encourage corporate companies to encourage some of their employees to cycle at least once a month to office. In Bangalore, there’s a team that encourages cycling in general called ‘Cycling Maadi’ (meaning Let’s Cycle).
CNN IBN wants to track these small citizen driven movements over four weeks. This would require us to document our efforts and the progress on handycams by us. Yup, no professional videographers. It’s us and our cameras.
I already played truant. I was supposed to send in my second piece tonight but missed the deadline thanks to a week long trip away from home. Now that I’m back, I hope to quickly catchup. Will let you know how it turns up.
Meanwhile, here’s the first episode of the video.
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This short 5 minute video shows you life inside Google’s Mountainview office. I’ve read so much about Google’s way of life that I didn’t find anything new. But if you haven’t looked inside their office before, this is good watch.
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How to Make an Unforgettable First Day at Office
Take a look at what Aditi Technologies did to its new joinees on Day 1 of their joining. Goes to show the extent software companies will go to in these days of hiring madness. Must watch video.
Sent by Sridhar Pabbisetty, who works at Aditi and whom I met at BarCampBangalore3.
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Email:Kiruba @ Kiruba.com
Phone :+91-44-42733619
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