WPP reshuffles in India

WPP is redrawing its India org chart at the same time its stock is sliding in London, which is why a local management change suddenly looks like part of a much bigger repair job. On April 9, Storyboard18 reported that WPP is rolling out “WPP Creative” in India after already creating “WPP Media,” and MarketBeat said WPP shares fell 5% the same day after Citigroup cut its price target. (storyboard18.com) (marketbeat.com) What WPP is trying to fix is simple: too many powerful agency brands, too many separate profit lines, and too many decisions spread across different fiefdoms. Storyboard18 says the India move is meant to put media under one profit-and-loss structure and bring creative networks like Ogilvy, VML, AKQA, Landor, and Design Bridge and Partners under another umbrella without fully merging the brands. (storyboard18.com) This is not just an India experiment. Storyboard18 says Chief Executive Officer Cindy Rose has reorganised WPP globally into four divisions, including WPP Creative and WPP Media, as part of a plan to simplify operations, cut costs, and respond to artificial intelligence pressure. (storyboard18.com) The financial backdrop is rough enough that even a naming change carries weight. Storyboard18 says WPP’s 2025 revenue fell 8.1% to £13.55 billion, operating profit dropped 22.6%, profit after tax fell more than 30%, and the company is targeting £500 million in annual cost savings by 2028. (storyboard18.com) (wpp.com) India matters here because it is one of the few places where WPP still has real scale across both media and creative at the same time. Storyboard18 describes India as one of WPP’s strongest and most complex markets, and ET Brand Equity reported on April 1 that WPP Media led India’s 2025 media new-business rankings with $320 million, ahead of Publicis Media at $223 million and Omnicom Media Group at $98 million. (storyboard18.com) (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The media side already moved first. Storyboard18 says WPP Media is the new umbrella for what had been GroupM in India, and that operation is led by Prasanth Kumar with a unified leadership and profit-and-loss structure. (storyboard18.com) The creative side is harder because WPP’s biggest names in India still carry their own history, clients, and internal gravity. Storyboard18 says Ogilvy has the strongest pull inside WPP’s India creative system, while Best Media Info says the key unresolved question is who will run WPP Creative locally, with Ogilvy leaders Hephzibah Pathak and V R Rajesh and VML India chief Babita Baruah all sitting inside that conversation. (storyboard18.com) (bestmediainfo.com) There is also a real succession story underneath the structure chart. WPP’s own newsroom said on January 13, 2026 that CVL Srinivas, WPP’s Country Manager for India, would retire, so the company is trying to redraw reporting lines while one of its longest-serving India leaders is on the way out. (wpp.com) That helps explain why WPP is using umbrellas instead of smashing brands together. Best Media Info says the plan stops short of a full agency merger and is designed to create cleaner reporting lines, fewer overlaps across profit-and-loss accounts, and faster use of shared capabilities across creative, experience, and technology. (bestmediainfo.com) The market heard all of this against a much harsher signal from investors. MarketBeat reported that Citigroup cut its WPP target from 310 pence to 275 pence on April 9, and the shares traded as low as 240.85 pence before changing hands around 243.10 pence. (marketbeat.com) So the India reshuffle is not a side plot. WPP is trying to turn a federation of old agency kingdoms into a company that can sell media, creative, production, data, and artificial-intelligence tools as one package, and India is one of the few markets big enough for that test to show quickly whether the model actually works. (storyboard18.com) (wpp.com)