“Flat is the new up” - Sir Martin Sorrell

Off to Paternoster Square for the London Stock Exchange’s Investor Relations conference where the opening keynote address is from the inimitable Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP plc. As someone heading up a corporation which has most of the worlds leading companies as clients he has a unique perspective on the business environment. Sir Martin has a 15 minute slot but when did you ever see him short of an opinion and he talks eloquently for 45 minutes handling questions deftly as he describes the benefits of improved internal communications within WPP utilising web technologies, and how your company can benefit in the same way (he is ever the salesman).

He also talks frankly about spending marketing and communications budgets wisely and not expecting such budgets to have a miraculous effect on sales. Downturns are downturns and Sir Martin has been through enough of them to realise that you have to get through them and come out stronger and leaner on the other side. He cautions companies to be satisfied with broadly maintaining their sales and not being over adventurous. “Flat is the new up” and any company showing flat sales should be quite pleased with itself.

A very quick 45 minutes is up and the audience is bouncing. Despite the fact that the conference hall is filled with bubbly investor relations people I sense that at 10.30am and with the conference ending at 5pm we have already seen the highlight of the day.

Ash Mehta
ash@orchardgrowth.com