Sorrell’s S4 Capital Is Not Seeking Traditional Holding Company Talent

Traditional holding companies have required a specific set of skills to flourish in the industry, but the evolving role of agencies now require a different batch of talents—one Sir Martin Sorrell and his S4 Capital is recognizing as the company welcomes yet another so-called “non-traditional” candidate to its leadership team. Catherine Henry joins S4’s MediaMonks as svp of growth to develop creative strategy that uses and increases engagement across emerging digital and virtual technologies and platforms. Adweek spoke to Sir Martin Sorrell, Wes ter Haar and Catherine Henry via Zoom about discovering the right talent to succeed in a post-pandemic landscape. The three believe in personality and passion over resumes and portfolios in order to thrive post-pandemic. Unconventional hires While Sorrell pioneered the legacy holding company in his prior founder role at WPP, Henry represents the different type of talent he prefers today—particularly, her entrepreneurial background. She started Palpable Media in 2016 because "there are too few advertising and marketing companies [that] understood how to use emerging technology, and technologists [are often] too immersed in their work to market themselves," she said. Earlier in her career, she primarily worked with large firms with global resources. “Even though I have strong credentials, I have multiple degrees, speak five languages [and] managed billion-dollar global accounts for many consultancies and agencies, I am still an unconventional hire,” Henry said. “But for MediaMonks, that was seen as a good thing, because they have a special talent for discovering the wonder kid, the global talent who are able to bring their highly specialized knowledge to address specific client challenges." Henry is just the latest addition in which the position was designed to fit the person. S4's MediaMonks does not prioritize the traditional "job description," founder ter Haar said. "It is about the personality and the passion.” The company tries to look for "outlier talent" which isn’t always easy to find using more traditional hiring procedures. We see a lot of people joining from the technology companies, as well as less expected paths like finance and economics, he said. Only about 20-30 percent come from traditional agencies. Is production work sexy? Haar himself has gotten more involved in the hiring over the past few months as he balances growth with maintaining close connections with team members. “We are trying to make it less about the descriptions and putting it more on personality and portfolio.” He admits it is a “challenge. We try to look for outlier talent which isn’t always easy for us. We see a lot of people joining from the technology companies, as well as less expected paths like finance and economics. Only 20 percent to 30 percent of applicants come from traditional agencies. “I think what attracts people is that we make stuff,” he said. “At the traditional shop's landscape, you end up working a year and maybe have one or two things in your portfolio.” Haar acknowledged that it has taken five years for people to find production work "sexy." Still, he believes people want to be a part of contributing real value. It’s takes a lot out of people to go through that and not be the person that gets out in the world.” S4’s MediaMonks has added more than 800 people during the first months of the Covid lockdown. “It is an interesting balancing act between what we need to do in terms of the scale element,” he said. “If you scale things, you tend to lose some of the focus and it becomes very easy for companies to get lost in job descriptions and the process” Different model, different approach “It is a different model, different approach,” Sorrell said. “It is only natural the people we have inside the business are different. We are purely digital we are focused on our digital trinity model so the skills we need are around data, production, creative ideation and distribution.” Although many candidates approach S4 directly for work, the company focuses on colleges and universities to land emerging staff. For instance, the company recently acquired Brazil's Raccoon which has 500 staffers as well as 500 interns from local colleges, all engineers. As part of their program, these student do two-year internships and S4 takes on about 75 percent to 80 percent of those people. “We are not interested in people who understand traditional relationships, traditional models or traditional approaches,” Sorrell said. Picking up the phone Another key to S4’s culture is its lack of hierarchies. Everyone inside the company can pick up the phone to connect with one another, even top bosses like ter Haar and Sorrell. “Unlike a lot of other companies, it is agile, dynamic, inclusive in that it doesn’t matter who you are going into their magical soup,” says Henry. Sorrell is dismissive of the ability for legacy holding companies like his former stomping grounds to pivot to this new world. “I do not see any growth at these holding companies. When did they last grow?” he asked. “There is no way for a traditional model to break free of of their legacies, unless they go private or are broken up,” he said. “They know that as well as we do. They are too vertical.” "WPP is a good example," he adds. All they are doing is reenforcing their vertical organization which prevents them from working together. It is the completely opposite of what they should be doing. Publicis probably has the right approach with its Power of One but it cannot execute it. With journalists and analysts continually looking at the cadavers and examining the body with a microscope, there is no way they can do it in the public arena. If they were private, and broken up, they probably could do it.” S4 Capital's acquisition spree in 2021