Urgent change is needed at WPP despite Sorrell’s transformative legacy

The shock exit of Sir Martin Sorrell from WPP over the weekend has shaken the advertising industry. The man who once said the only way he would leave was by being “carried out of the glue factory”, appears to have changed his mind and is instead set to “retire”.
It’s impossible to underplay the impact Sorrell has had on the ad industry. The story of how he built WPP up from a Kent manufacturer of wire baskets to the world’s biggest advertising company is well