“People thought I would quit”: Harsha Razdan’s plan to take Dentsu from turmoil to transformation - and double revenue

Dentsu’s South Asia network is on a mission to recapture relevance in one of the world’s fastest-advancing ad markets. After years of client losses, leadership churn and stagnant growth, CEO Harsha Razdan has laid out a clear growth roadmap: doubling India revenue by 2028 (without increasing headcount), by harnessing data, AI and integrated solutions.

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In 2021–22, Dentsu India underwent a turbulence that saw the exit of multiple senior leaders and the loss of marquee clients like Maruti Suzuki and Reckitt Benckiser, denting both revenues and reputation. Organic revenue declined by about 4.7% in Q2 FY2023 for the Group in India & APAC. With the CEO post vacant since 2021, stability was a distant goal.

With Razdan’s appointment in May 2023, Dentsu began its turnaround journey. “The first thing was stabilising Dentsu, making people feel comfortable … There was a lot of confusion between the region and the global team,” he told Storyboard18 in an exclusive interview. Razdan then hit the road, meeting more than 60 CMOs and CEOs.

Razdan’s appointment also marked a deliberate break from tradition: he came from outside the advertising ecosystem, with decades of experience in FMCG and consulting at companies like Unilever, PepsiCo, KPMG, and Accenture.

Stepping into a fragmented and fast-evolving media landscape, he was keenly aware of being an outsider. “I did a lot of preparation - 60 to 70 days in advance, because I didn’t know what was coming my way,” he recalled.

Initially worried that clients and agency veterans might be “awkward” engaging with someone without an agency background, he found the opposite. “I was actually more defensive than the clients were,” he said. “What was a disadvantage in my mind turned out to be a big plus.” His cross-sector experience and focus on outcomes, not just media or creative, resonated with brand leaders, who invited him back for deeper conversations and strategic engagement.

The age of differentiation

Razdan describes Dentsu’s transformation as a shift from a fragmented, acquisition-heavy agency to a unified, integrated network focused on solving end-to-end marketing problems. “2025 is about differentiation,” he said. “We’ve stabilized operations, now we’re creating the new Dentsu,” built around a top-client model, a singular face to the client, and specialized verticals spanning media, creative, tech, and services.

New growth bets include entertainment, gaming, retail media, B2B, and sustainability, with an emphasis on expanding capabilities through AI, cross-sell collaboration, and outcome-based engagement. In 2024, Dentsu launched dentsu BX and the Dentsu Lab in Mumbai and Bengaluru to foster innovation, bringing India in line with global tech-driven markets. As part of this transformation, Razdan is actively hiring from outside the ad world, bringing in ex-Amazon leaders for retail media, consultants for B2B strategy, and sports and entertainment experts from IMG to accelerate growth in new verticals like gaming and content marketing.

Razdan is also pragmatic about the traditional currency of agency strength - media buying power. He believes its relevance is fast declining. “Buying power is rapidly diminishing… over the next two years, I believe it’s going to be table stakes,” he said.

As programmatic and automated platforms level the playing field, Razdan argues that the minor price advantages agencies once offered are no longer decisive. “Clients don’t make you lose pitches over 1 or 2 percent,” he noted. Instead, differentiation will come from strategic thinking, integration and effectiveness. It’s about being more effective, not just cheaper, he added, positioning Dentsu’s strategy around impact-led solutions over scale-driven negotiation.

As part of future-proofing the business, Dentsu is investing heavily in AI for both efficiency and growth. Razdan oversees two AI taskforces directly, one focused on internal operations like billing, reconciliations, and reporting, and another on driving innovation and client solutions. “I’ve kept it under me because people get insecure about AI. They don’t know what’s happening,” he said.

Dentsu’s India operations are also tightly integrated with its Global Capability Centre, which employs 6,500 people, while around 3,000 employees serve the Indian market directly. Razdan insists on full talent fungibility across both divisions, enabling faster project turnaround and skill deployment without silos. Despite ambitious revenue goals, he’s clear that “headcount will not grow” — AI, talent upskilling and cross-functional collaboration are expected to double output from the existing workforce.

On conversations with CMOs and CEOs

Razdan’s direct engagement with clients, particularly top CMOs and CEOs, has shaped Dentsu’s evolving model. “The CMO is under pressure like no time before,” he said, citing growing complexity in marketing ecosystems, fractured agency rosters, and increasing demand for outcome-based performance.

Clients, he noted, are no longer satisfied with isolated creative or media executions; they want integrated, agile partners who can anticipate and solve broader business problems. “They don’t want brokers. They want practitioners,” Razdan emphasized. He believes legacy procurement-led models are losing relevance, with clients demanding speed, accountability and cross-functional ideas, even if it means challenging internal agency hierarchies.

“Don’t tell me you’ll get back next week,” he said, quoting new-age clients. “They want it done yesterday.”

Notably, he finds conversations with CEOs more natural. “I can talk to both, but my relationships over the past have been CEO-related more than CMO,” he said, emphasizing the value of one-on-one dialogue over large delegations.

Rebuilding trust with Tokyo and looking ahead

Despite client losses, Dentsu reported new wins as it rebuilds client momentum. Reflecting on the transformation so far, Razdan is candid. “Till 2024, I thought I was a little slow,” he admitted, acknowledging the resistance he initially faced when introducing the top-client model. “People thought I would quit… but now they say thank you for pushing us.” With internal operations more stable, the focus has shifted to growth and differentiation.

Rebuilding trust with the holdco Dentsu’s Tokyo headquarters, which had been “a little shaky” post-2020, was another critical milestone. “The last one-and-a-half years were about establishing trust with Japan,” he said, noting that the visit of global CEO Hiroshi Igarashi in late 2023 marked a turning point. Tokyo’s ambitions for India are now clearer: India is seen as a core growth market, and Razdan is aligning local strategies with global leadership’s long-term plans, including investments in new services and talent.

Fit for purpose

At the heart of Razdan’s leadership approach are two principles he repeatedly emphasizes: “fit for purpose” and “fast fail.” He believes not every employee or leader needs to fit every role, but they must be purpose-aligned to deliver impact.

“Everyone in our company will not be fit for purpose for every possible talent,” he said, stressing the need to mix and match skillsets across legacy and new-age clients. Equally important is creating a culture where experimentation is encouraged. “I don’t care if you fail,” he said. “What I care about is that when you fall, you actually get up and become a better version of yourself.” This ethos is designed to empower teams to move faster, try new models and operate with a founder-like mindset, even within an over-century old global network.

Watch the full interview on Media Dialogues with Storyboard18