India No. 2 talent business after US for IPG Mediabrands, says CEO Eileen Kiernan
IPG Mediabrands, the media and marketing arm of the $11 billion American advertising firm Interpublic Group, sees India as the top priority market considering the transformational work happening here for both local and overseas clients, said its global CEO Eileen Kiernan.
“The kind of transformation that we’re trying to drive out of India right now, it is our number one priority. India is now our number two talent business in the world, behind the United States,” she told ET.
She said the company’s India unit has built a brilliant combination of scale and growth, along with a quality digital and tech talent base.
“When we think about our future, we know we can rely on India for ongoing growth, but we see India as an incredibly strategic part of our vision for how we move forward,” said Kiernan.
IPG Mediabrands is building a centre of excellence in Pune which will be the hub for serving advertising clients from around the world and will comprise 3,000 professionals in the next three years.
Currently, the centre housed in Mumbai has 650 people.
“India is a centre of excellence for us in terms of technology and digital transformation. So, the digital technology transformation team works for all markets and all clients around the world, and that’s going to carry on growing,” said Kiernan.
IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha said the centre is being set up in Pune since the existing setup in Mumbai is out of space.
“We will ramp up the talent in the centre of excellence to about 3,000 people in three years’ time from 650 currently,” he said.
Sinha said a lot of high-end analytics work happens out of the centre even as it also manages basic operations for global clients. “There is an internal proprietary tool called
