Starcom’s COO Niti Kumar on P&G win, ways to handle business transitions

Niti Kumar, the chief operating officer of Starcom, the Publicis Groupe owned media agency, believes that creating a well-thought of plan while taking on a new business is the best business transition hack.

Kumar talks about how business transitions can be “utterly time-consuming” especially with a new account win. She points out that huge high on the business win gets a reality-check with process, staffing, approvals and paperwork with incumbents and agency bodies often taking up more time and energy than teams planned for.

The senior media leader took to LinkedIn to highlight how the agency’s team has managed to smoothly transition after winning FMCG giant P&G's digital mandate worth over Rs 100 crore after a multi-agency pitch in May. The agency has been mandated to drive digital planning, buying and activation for the company's various brands. The account also includes search duties for Oral B, Vicks, Ariel and Head & Shoulders. GroupM is the incumbent agency on the account.

“At Starcom we recently on-boarded the digital-first brands from one of the world’s most respected advertisers - P&G - and took our inaugural campaigns on air on July 1st. It was one of the smoother transitions I have been part of, thanks to a very supportive client and a superb, energetic team at Starcom and Publicis Media,” she writes.

Kumar goes on to dole out five tips on new business transitions. She suggests that agencies should create a transition team with representatives across internal agency functions, especially including finance.

The second tip is to get the account lead in place as soon as possible and enable him or her to orchestrate the transition with a seamless escalation matrix.

She further emphasises on co-creating templates with the client, filling them and looking at them everyday.

“There are hundreds of things that need to be tracked and these formats help all stakeholders stay on course,” she adds.

Her fourth hack is to have a bad-cop on the team, someone who is always thinking of the worst case scenario and everything that can go wrong.

In the end, she says that agencies have to be honest with their clients.

“There are some expectations you know you won’t meet. Say this early on, not on day zero. It will build a foundation for your relationship and hold you in better stead,” she concludes.