GroupM India’s digital transformation becomes case study for Swiss B-School IMD

The digital transformation journey of GroupM India has been made into a case study by global management institute IMD Business School, Lausanne in Switzerland. The case study narrates the reinvention of GroupM India beginning in 2013, and covers how GroupM transformed its business to better position its service to its clients, as the entire advertising ecosystem underwent disruption due to digitization. This disruption impacted its products and services, profile and partnerships. The case study explains in detail the people strategy executed at GroupM to ensure its talent is digitally charged and is data centric. It also covers the initiatives taken to drive change of mindset of its talent by inspiring them to make the change, re-skilling them, hiring diverse talent laterally and the entry level. 

The GroupM case study is authored by Prof Anand Narasimhan and Transformation Project Manager Ivy Buche. Case studies are an integral part of the executive MBA curriculum at IMD, aimed at senior leadership from various parts of the world. The two-part case studies are distributed by The Case Centre, UK and Harvard Business School Publishing, USA. Besides academia, the case study was presented at the IMD Transformation Summit 2017, where Chief Human Resources Officers from global companies focused on how organisations catalyse impactful wide-ranging change and the role that HR plays in such transformations. 

Commenting on the case study, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India and CEO, GroupM South Asia, said, “It is an honour to be recognised by the world of academia and become a part of the IMD curriculum. In late 2012, the advertising and communications industry was challenged by digital disruption. As our business underwent metamorphosis, a critical part of the journey is taking the human capital into confidence and preparing them to work in a future-ready organisation. Along with the technology aspects of transformation, at GroupM India we successfully leveraged the talent dimension in implementing digital transformation. The case study will help other companies navigate their own transformation initiatives in a dynamic market.” 

Prof. Anand Narasimhan, Shell Professor of Global Leadership, stated, “I have taught the GroupM India case to different audiences. What is striking for our participants is the care and diligence that GroupM paid to the human dimension of digital transformation – the need to incorporate millennial voices and the imperative to train talented individuals to beef up their technology skills. GroupM India provides a great example for other companies to use digital disruption as an opportunity rather than a threat.”