Advertising executives in China unanimously rank recruitment and
retention as their biggest challenge. Breakneck economic
development has spurred double-digit growth in advertising and
marketing -- but the education system doesn't produce enough
capable graduates, nor can agencies keep up with the training
required.
"The problem with our industry is that people believe the way
you develop talent is by stealing it," said WPP Chief Executive
Martin Sorrell. "Our competitors, especially the ones who are
desperate, are especially adept at stealing talent."
"What we're doing in China, [in partnership] with the Shanghai
Art and Design Academy and the [local government] administration in
Shanghai, is to a) acknowledge that marketing talent is important
and b) to try and develop programs that are specifically aimed at
developing that talent," he said. "And what we'd like coming out of
it is a more long-term attitude toward growth and development of
talent in our industry, which is very lacking."
The WPP School of Marketing and Communications will have 50
students in the inaugural class and plans to double that number
next year. WPP senior staff will serve as part-time faculty and
mentors. The school will be officially inaugurated today in
Shanghai by Mr. Sorrell and other top WPP officials.
According to TB Song, chairman of WPP Greater China and dean of
the school, the curriculum focuses on creativity the first year,
expanding to planning, account service and marketing in the second.
Top students take part in six-month internships at WPP agencies in
the third year.
Graduating from the school does not, however, guarantee
employment at a WPP agency.
The biggest challenge in China is finding strong creatives and
strategic planners, while ad agencies have to compete with IT and
web companies for digital talent, Mr. Song said. The problem stems
in part from China's education system that emphasizes rote
memorization over creative or critical thinking.
"At a lot of companies, their turnover rate is about 25 to 30%,
and a lot of companies are close to 50%," Mr. Song said, referring
to the ad industry in China overall. "If you can keep the turnover
rate to about 20%, the company will be stable and the service
quality will be stable."
Among WPP's competitors, Omnicom Group works with Beijing's
Tsinghua University, where the journalism building is named after
the New York-based holding company. It also runs a digital training
program in partnership with Shanghai's Fudan University and has an
"Omnicom University" for top execs with Harvard Business
School.
At the agency level in China, a variety of initiatives aim to
combat issues of recruitment and retention, with varying degrees of
formality. Beyond promoting a company's brand or culture, and
university partnerships and lecturing gigs, some programs
include:
- Omnicom agency DDB Greater
China's structured training system, with up to 10 modules split
between a core-skills program for junior staff and advanced skills
program for those with 3 to 5 years of experience, including
courses on negotiation and pitching.
- Omnicom's TBWA's "Great Wall"
mentorship program, geared toward career development for rising
leaders, who in turn mentor two people each. Formal meetings are
held every six months. If an employee expresses desire to change
career directon, "we're on top of it and in a position to react,
instead of getting a resignation letter," said Ian Thubron,
president of TBWA Greater China.
-
Lowe China's
chairman-CEO, Kitty Lun, personally interviews more than 100 intern
candidates a year at the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency. Ms.
Lun's goal is to find young people to do real work. Her latest
success story: a former intern who has doubled her salary, gone to
New York for training and now works as a senior account executive
for Unilever -- all in less than a year after being hired.
WPP is aiming to see its school become a strong talent pipeline
within five to 10 years. Graduates may be easy targets for agencies
from other holding companies, but Mr. Sorrell said he isn't
worrying about that too much.
"The industry won't go anywhere if this continuous poaching,
stealing, nicking goes on," he said. "We're prepared to take that
initiative. It's for the health of the industry and it will
ultimately benefit us."