Dentsu India is set to move towards Version 3.0 of its India story. After four years of sustained growth in terms of business and client portfolio, the goal now is two-fold: transform the creative reputation of the Dentsu brand in India, bringing it into the top 5 and contribute towards the objective of taking the Dentsu Aegis Network towards an ambitious No. 2 position by 2017.
In line with this, the roles of four key people in the India leadership team of Dentsu have been upgraded.
Narayan Devanathan, currently CEO of Dentsu Creative Impact Group and National Planning Director (Dentsu India – North) is promoted with immediate effect to the newly created role of Group Executive & Strategy Officer, Dentsu India. In his group executive role, Narayan will be the chief steward of the Dentsu brand in India, ensuring consistency of vision and output, in line with Dentsu’s global philosophy of Good Innovation. He will also play the role of an integrator with the other members of the Dentsu Aegis Network, both within and outside India, helping leverage the power of the network. In his group strategy role, Narayan will drive a culture of effectiveness that delivers unmatched results for clients. In addition, Narayan will continue to helm the two specialist units of Dentsu Mama Lab (dedicated to connecting brands with mothers meaningfully) and Citizen Dentsu (dedicated to connecting brands with social purpose).
Harjot Narang, currently Branch Head of Dentsu Marcom, is promoted with immediate effect to President, Dentsu Marcom. In recognition of Harjot’s solid contribution to the agency’s turnaround over the last four years, and his continued drive to catapult the agency to be counted among the top 3 agencies in the Delhi / NCR market, Harjot will be charged with driving the pace of growth at Dentsu Marcom.
Amit Wadhwa, currently Branch Head of Dentsu Creative Impact, is promoted with immediate effect to President, Dentsu Creative Impact. Over the last four years, Amit has grown from heading the account management function to overseeing the branch’s operations, and has grown the agency from strength to strength. His charge, with more autonomy, will now be to transform the creative reputation of the agency while achieving never-before scale.
C.P. Arora, currently the Group CFO for Dentsu branded agencies in India will have an expanded role in the Dentsu Aegis Network in India as well. He will now, in addition to his existing responsibilities, take charge as CFO, Dentsu Aegis Network India (North).
Commenting on the developments, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network, South Asia, said, “We are now at the forefront of our next phase of growth in our creative agencies and it is important for us to recognize the excellent talent pool that we have within the network and give them more autonomy to better service our clients. Narayan, Harjot, Amit and C.P. are amongst the best that we have in the network and I am sure that, they will drive the Dentsu Creative Agencies to new heights and help Dentsu Aegis Network become the second largest agency group in India by end-2017, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in India.”