Internal Memo: SapientRazorfish Global Chief Strategy Officer Steps Down as Network Moves to ‘Simplify’ Its Structure

By Patrick Coffee 

sapient razorfish logo

Earlier today, Adweek reported on a big executive-level change at Publicis Groupe’s massive international consultancy, the newly rebranded SapientRazorfish.

According to statements we received this morning, the group reached a mutual agreement with global chief strategy officer and former Razorfish CEO Shannon Denton, who was also head of practices and alliances at the larger Publicis.Sapient “hub.” He will leave the organization after 18 years to “pursue other opportunities.”

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Here is the internal memo from CEO Alan Wexler, which went out later in the day under the subject line “Shannon Denton out” and includes a bit more detail on SapientRazorfish’s plans to “simplify” its offering and become more competitive in the consultancy space.

In addition to Denton’s departure, the network is making some specific structural changes in its “sprint to become one team.”

Following our brand launch in March, we are seeing increased market demand for enterprise-wide transformation and our position that digital business transformation be centered on radical customer centricity continues to resonate with our clients. We must continue to drive near-term business growth, while at the same time making the strategic pivot to make it easier to deliver on this transformation opportunity.

Effective immediately, we are simplifying the structure of our organization by combining our Practice teams with SapientRazorfish’s Transformation Acceleration Team, which was recently created to identify transformation opportunities and shape digital enterprise capabilities needed to successfully execute against our strategy. This combination will create a tighter connection between our ability to shape the front-end of our business and deliver on the transformational outcomes for our clients at the speed they require by allowing greater access to our offering and digital business transformation experts. Adrian Slobin will lead the Transformation Acceleration Team and Practices that align to it.

Based on this new structure, we have come to a mutual agreement with Shannon Denton and he will be leaving the organization. He has led Razorfish through extraordinary change over the last eighteen years, with his passion for innovation always ensuring his team and organization stayed far in front of the competition. We wish him great success in his next venture.

Related to Shannon’s other responsibilities, the Alliance Management and Analyst Relations efforts will now be led by Chris Davey, who is assuming this role in addition to his other Publicis.Sapient strategy responsibilities. Chris will work with SapientRazorfish to better connect our Alliance and Analyst Relationship efforts across P.S and Publicis Groupe while enabling each brand to continue their brand-specific selling efforts with our various partners.

We are making these changes with a firm belief that we must simplify and streamline how we connect our people, capabilities and ideas in service of our clients. As we sprint to become one team, we will take a methodical and deliberate approach to optimizing a growth engine for SapientRazorfish, inclusive of our Business Development and Marketing teams. You can expect to hear more details on how we’re organizing and refocusing these teams in the weeks to come.

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