CEOs like to depart the stage on a high note and Michael Roth at Interpublic (IPG), who’s stepping down to be replaced by COO Philippe Krakwsky (both below), is doing a pretty good job during Covid-19 it seems.
It wasn’t what Roth would have envisaged when he made the decision but his management through the pandemic has been focussed, even flinty, maintaining IPG’s “salary sacrifices” for senior managers and seemingly unfazed by a strong of departures (most notably from digital flagship R/GA.)
IPG reports third quarter net revenue of $1.95 billion, down 5.2% from a year ago, with organic net revenue decrease of 3.7%. Third quarter organic net revenue was negative 2.4% in the US and 6.0% in international markets
First nine months reported net revenue decrease was 6.7% with organic net revenue decrease of 4.5%. The difference is mostly foreign exchange and restructuring charges.
So slightly better than Publicis Groupe and, in all probability, Omnicom and WPP who are still to report.
