Dentsu Aegis Network to cut 11% of jobs in seven markets, including Australia
The Dentsu Aegis Network will make approximately 11% of jobs redundant across seven markets, including Australia, as part of a restructure.
The job cuts will represent a reduction of 3% of DAN’s international headcount, and represent a saving of almost $200m annually (£100m). In addition to Australia, the impacted markets include: Brazil, China, France, Germany, Singapore (including regional headquarters) and the UK (including global headquarters of the international business).
Plus the fact that they’ve just announced that what was 2 years ago a market-leading agency will cease to exist in the coming weeks and a stagnant CEO was made redundant…trying times ahead…
Which agency do you speak of?
Columbus
Seems highly unlikely
bigT is 10000000% spot on.
Looks likely, Columbus to be merged into iProspect.
I’m personally a bit sad to see this as a Columbus alumni. To watch it grow into a very well regarded agency and then just disappear, but hey, these are the times we live in.
Thoughts are with all those in uncertain times.
Columbus had an amazing team a couple of years ago. If they had made some short term sacrifices to pay people well and ensure that there were enough staff to service all the accounts, then things could have turned out differently.
There is a disturbance in the Force
I sense it too!
Undercutting everyone coming back to haunt them
The following cuts have been made:
Columbus.
That will be all.
This is their second profit warning this year, covering all their major markets. The new global ceo/management is clueless, with no strategy. All they want is control in the hands of tokyo hq. Dentsu’s past record on going international speaks for itself.
So what’s the go with the hams?
Don’t start. There are people hurting.
Yea leave the hams out of this, no one wants ham…
Speaking as a (former) veteran of 10+ years, first with Aegis Media, then with DAN, I can tell you this comes as no surprise.
The original deal when Dentsu acquired Aegis made a lot of sense geographically and functionally. Dentsu was incapable of making any meaningful impact outside Japan and wanted a global footprint. Aegis had limited creative capacity.
What could have been a great deal has now totally collapsed, with Dentsu looking to revert to pre-2013 realities (a force to be reckoned with in Japan, and nowhere else). All for a cost of around USD3bn.
I wonder when the Dentsu board will accept responsibility for a totally botched strategy? Probably never, as most of them are “lifers”, who refuse to accept that the business world is different outside the home market.
Sincerely sorry for all the people who are today anxious, and who will eventually be job-hunting. Such incompetence, such value destruction, all for the sake of a couple of dozen egos in Tokyo.
Say it louder for the people in the back!
You can’t just blame the Japanese for this. They bought Aegis in 2012 and pretty much left it alone until Jerry left last year. The issues DAN are facing now were created on his watch with undercutting to win accounts causing massive margin declines, endless botched acquisitions, strange hiring decisions etc… Took years of mismanagement to get to this stage, it didn’t collapse in the past 6 months!
Yeah, you’re partly right, but obviously weren’t privy to the puerile internecine politics between London and Tokyo (trust me, Aegis wasn’t left alone).my error was failing to mention the dozen or so egos in London, Jerry being one of them, also responsible….agree on poor acquisitions and poor management and hires. Could’ve been great, but dentsu will be back where it was and a few billion lighter. They bought the company, they’re ultimately responsible for what will be its failure.
There’s a lot of good people who have remained in the group for years, hoping that it might one day get better after at least the last 3 years of a downward spiral from the businesses .
This news simply further cements the diagnosis that the company will continue to just crash and burn. Redundancies might be beginning to look like a good option.
Dentsu’s new company mantra should change to “do more, with less” so that new staff know what they’re signing up for.
This agency seemed to have the best prospects of all after being acquired by Merkle. What the hell happened there?
Staff were overworked like crazy and people were having meltdowns from the stress. HR was unable to backfill roles fast enough with people continually quitting, so the under-resourcing just kept getting worse. There was a disastrous decision not to hire any more junior analysts, so there was no new talent coming up the ranks anymore. The pay was horrendous for junior to mid level people. Senior management was complacent and totally unprepared for losing all their big accounts. Relationships and integrations with other DAN brands were dysfunctional.
Err….DAN bought Merkle (not the other way round) and didn’t figure on its business model only really working in the US…see “poor acquisitions”, above.
They’re referring to Merkle buying Columbus, which now no longer exists.
Let’s be honest, so much of what is being said here could apply to any agency/group.
– Competing on price over product;
– Doing more with less;
– Doing whatever it takes to hit a number;
– Good people stretched so thin they eventually break…
In the great big game of media musical chairs the music has stopped and this time it is Dentsu, next time it’ll be someone else and it’ll be the same sad story.
The reality is that the media industry is in an existential crisis and the actions being taken are only delaying the inevitable. What’s most upsetting is that people are destroying themselves in an effort to keep the wheel turning and that price simply isn’t worth paying, not when all they get from their ‘leaders’ is platitudes about wellbeing, compassion, and care. Throw another beanbag in the breakout room!
My thoughts are with everyone at Columbus, and across Dentsu, if what’s being said here is even remotely accurate.
Columbus was acquired by Aegis in the Mitchell acquisition.
Columbus was part of DAN.
DAN acquired Merkle.
Merkle acquired Columbus.
DAN ANZ hated Merkle.
Merkle hated DAN ANZ.
Merkle said you can have Columbus back.
DAN collapsed Columbus
In between all of this, the company had to start, stop, reset, false start and pivot again and again to the point where the structure changed like six times in three years and eventually everyone forgot what they were. It’s a shame because at one point was a best in class performance agency with talent to burn. And burn, they all did.
yep. the top talent all left starting in 2016
spot on. To justify the excessive price paid for Merkle it was (is?) being forced into various geographies where its business model and key product (predicated on a lack of meaningful data protection in the US) simply won’t work. Columbus was reassigned to the Merkle unit, and you’re right – each party resented the other (actually, as you say, DAN ANZ, particularly under previous management). Merkle are not easy to deal with either. In fact, the Merkle acquisition may end up making the Dentsu acquisition of Aegis look functional by comparison. I’ll have a dollar on “DAN” becoming “Dentsu Network” within a few weeks or a month.
The poor Columbus people have been caught in the stupidity of the corporate vice…
I have received this week the gift of aborting the sinking Dentsu ship.
Merry Redundancy and happy job haunting 2020!!!!
Dentsu no longer gives hams to their staff for Christmas….. They now give out redundancies!!!!!
Merry Dan christmas…. May the odds be with you 2020.
Job cuts with no plan for 2020! Job hunting in my Christmas break was not on my menu. Big egos, big spenders at the top, no future plan, and now less staff. Too little, too late. One DAN is doomed
The global DAN CEO leaves
https://www.dentsuaegisnetwork.com/news-releases/dentsu-aegis-chief-executive-officer-tim-andree-to-take-a-leave-of-absence-for-health-related-reasons