He’s back. A few weeks ago Sir Martin Sorrell looked dead and buried (from a business point of view).
Forced out of WPP, plainly cross about it, and not able to do much about the rumours that swirled, as rumours tend to.
Few of the questions being asked then were in his favour. WPP must have had good reason to do what it did, was more or less the narrative.
With one bound, that’s turned on its head. Sir Martin has moved so quickly to set up a firm that is plainly going to challenge WPP for business that the questions are now in the other direction.
Can WPP chairman Roberto Quarta survive an investor revolt? Will WPP hold on to major accounts?
How on earth can they have let him go without a non-compete clause?
As PR turnarounds go, it’s spectacular. And he did it without much actual PR.
Since it is now WPP that is under pressure rather than him, he’s in the enviable position of not having to say much.
Whether he can help himself might be another matter.
