Former WPP Boss on Return to Office Backlash and Doing the Right Thing

Welcome to What We Don't Know with Matt Brittin & Hayaatun Sillem. The show about better leadership in a truly chaotic world. Across the series, episodes are hosted by Matt and Hayaatun as well as a range of other leading figures, bringing different perspectives to each conversation. Subscribe to not miss an episode! ▶️ ⚡️ Powered by Boxlight.io https://www.boxlight.io/ Mark Read on Leading WPP Through Chaos: Succession, Return-to-Office, AI & Creative Culture In this episode of What We Don’t Know, hosts Hayaatun and Matt interview Mark Read, who recently stepped down as CEO of WPP, about the realities of leading a 100,000-person global public company serving major clients like Google, Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Ford. Mark discusses moving from head-office “pigeon” roles to running a business, following a founder with a very different style, and why succession planning enables promotion. He shares CEO disciplines like fast responsiveness, balancing urgent vs important work, and communicating at scale during COVID. He explains his controversial return-to-office policy, handling a large employee petition, and learning to engage better. Mark also argues AI will transform work but won’t replace human judgment and creativity, illustrating with a “Fitbit on a chicken” campaign, and reflects on early-tenure decision-making, career risk-taking, and his next chapter. 00:00 Beachside Leadership Hook 00:45 Meet Mark Read 02:29 CEO Scope and Pressure 05:12 Early Career Origins 08:47 Learning by Doing 12:51 From Pigeon to Operator 15:54 Stepping Up to CEO 19:30 Taking the WPP Helm 22:39 Succeeding the Founder 26:03 Inbox Discipline and Introverts 29:08 Leading Your Own Way 30:18 Interviewing Visionaries 31:05 Elon Musk Takeaways 31:54 Showing Up as CEO 35:07 Return to Office Debate 39:25 Data Behind Attendance 40:06 Optimism in AI Era 41:52 Fit Chick Creativity Story 43:38 Building Creative Culture 46:49 Leadership Lessons Ahead 49:18 Next Chapter Plans 51:38 Quickfire Round Finale 53:42 Hosts Reflect and Wrap Credits: Producer: Sunny Winter Producer: Thuy Dong Producer: Jimmy McLoughlin OBE Post Producer: Ben Alexander Kippen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices