Advertising Age interviewed new MDC Partners CEO Mark Penn, who had the pleasure of introducing himself during a 4Q earnings call that revealed MDC revenue dropped roughly $10 million over the past year. Then again, the drop is not so bad when put into perspective; that is, it’s less than half the amount former MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal had to repay the company after an SEC investigation.
Penn made a couple of remarks warranting comment.
When probed on the decision to go after MDC Partners, Penn said, “…[T]here was no other deal in the world that includes such crown jewel agencies and reputations in marketing such as the MDC deal does. Everyone talked about the incredible core agencies here that are true flagships within the industry.” Okay, but a few of the true flagships were seeking to pull their jewels from the crown. And one flagship—CPB+—is undergoing a major reconstruction after floating adrift for many years.
Regarding his vision for the White holding company, Penn said, “In the role of CEO you have to supply a vision and I think the vision here at MDC was always a great one. The great vision was that it would be the house for great talent. Great talent—really in many ways I see that as the driving vision before and after my taking over as CEO and I hope to give that kind of new life, new meaning. With all the turmoil at some of the big holding companies, we can be a great magnet again for talent.” Sorry, MDC isn’t the house for great talent; rather, it’s an outhouse—and the talent smells like what is typically found in an outhouse.
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