4th November 2025
After weeks on a listening tour, Cindy Rose met investors for the first time as CEO with a stinging set of Q3 results, but also a notably steady hand. Greensquare’s Barry Dudley says her delivery signals a new kind of leadership at WPP. But will that be enough?
Just two months into her tenure, WPP chief executive Cindy Rose made her first address to the public markets this week, unveiling Q3 trading results alongside chief financial officer Joanne Wilson. They made for pretty grim reading.
The snapshot: reported net sales down 11.1%, like-for-like net sales down 5.9%, guidance for the full year revised downwards to a 5.5%-6% decline in like-for-like net sales (versus the 0%-2% decline that was predicted at the start of the year) and a share price down a thumping 16% by Thursday’s close. Operating margin guidance for the year is ‘around 13%’, which is some way short of Publicis, which is hoping to be slightly over 18%. Sam Anderson has more analysis and a great summary of Rose’s four-point turnaround plan.
The outlook is not good. But… there was that breath of fresh air and a genuine, infectious steeliness from both Rose and Wilson that means I am going to be watching their progress with enthusiasm and hope. Why, I hear you ask?
The first thing that struck me was the candor in Rose’s opening remarks, acknowledging the performance was “not acceptable” and “weaker than expected”. That’s a pretty standard starting point for an incoming CEO: front everything that’s not great, map out the further pain that’s still to come, so that there are clearer decks for what you then hope to deliver in the future. But I got the sense that there was genuine enthusiasm for grappling with all of this. Publicis has clearly got a lot of things right – The Power of One, how it has embraced data, tech and AI to name a few – but I believe this has all been turbocharged by the gusto and confidence of its irrepressible chairman and CEO, Arthur Sadoun. There’s an intangible value that this kind of leadership adds to a business that I think Rose is going to bring.
Next was demonstrating speed of action. Rose said, “We haven’t gone far enough, quickly enough.” There’s a painful cost-cutting side to this that I’m sure is being accelerated as I type, but there are also future-facing moves such as the launch of self-service offering WPP Open Pro.
This felt like a very bold, but highly risky move when I first heard the news. My natural assumption was that Open Pro would surely cannibalize existing revenues. The rationale, as Rose explained, is in fact to seek incremental revenues: “This is a strategic move to expand our addressable market and serve the long tail of smaller companies and emerging brands who may not be in the market for the sort of full-service offer that we typically provide to large multinational clients. Open Pro clients can choose to self-serve for some aspects of the marketing workflow and then complement this with a range of managed services from WPP.” Time will tell if this was a smart move, but it was rapid action by someone with a deep tech background, where moving fast and breaking things is still a valid strategy.
Doing their homework and research was the next thing that struck me. Rose will have spoken to all manner of senior people within WPP and sought their views and opinions, but the most important conversations will have been with clients. She spoke first to the clients who had chosen to leave WPP and then to the existing clients. And the key conclusion from both camps? They “want the answer to be simpler and more integrated.” WPP has been on the journey towards this for a while now, but perhaps the actions to make this happen will now go up another few gears. ‘Powered by One’ – how about that for a phrase to build around? Bet no one else has anything like that…
The second homework learning was client servicing. Rose referenced “service delivery excellence” and “world-class client experience,” which can only come from a “high-performance culture”. She talked passionately about the role of talent in the future and wanting to attract the best there is. Data, tech and AI may all be fundamentals now, but Rose gets that the good old humans are critical too.
And what of AI? This week, Microsoft announced that it has invested $35bn in AI in Q3 alone, which is around 8x WPP’s revenues for the quarter. Meta’s capital expenditures for 2025 are now forecast to be between $70bn and $72bn. Astonishing. I think Rose is taking a smart position here, too. Continue to build WPP Open, test and evolve WPP Open Pro, but do these in collaboration and partnership with the tech giants – not in competition with them.
Finally, to a criticism, or perhaps I should say to a piece of constructive feedback. Earnings webcasts have a set format and need to convey complex things in a very short space of time in a functional, clear manner. Rose and Wilson did that compellingly, confidently and passionately – not that I’m anyone, but I was impressed. But what really bugged me was the sound quality, which at times was like a lockdown podcast recorded in a bedroom, with Rose sometimes sounding like she was in the next bedroom. It may be a functional thing, but it should still be a premium production that elevates and enhances. I know some people who could help…
The Virgoan rant done, I’m looking forward to the WPP rollercoaster that lies ahead…