Accenture Song has promoted Junichiro Kurokawa, its long-time Japan head, to lead the agency’s Asia-Pacific business, while retaining his current title as Japan lead. Kurokawa will continue to be based in Tokyo and will directly report to incoming global CEO Ndidi Oteh.
In a parallel restructure, Simone Morandi, Song’s Singapore-based Southeast Asia lead, will take over an expanded remit as Asia Oceania lead and SEA lead. Morandi will report to Kurokawa and have direct oversight of ANZ, Southeast Asia, Greater China, and India as part of his remit.
Both appointments, effective August 1, follow former APAC president Flaviano Faleiro’s move to Song’s US financial services arm.
These changes are part of a sweeping global overhaul triggered by the imminent move of creative heavyweight David Droga, who will step down as global CEO to become vice chair of Accenture from September 1. Ndidi Oteh, formerly Song’s Americas lead, is set to take the global reins—she made her intentions clear at Cannes, telling the press, “If David [Droga] is fast, I am faster.” Meanwhile, Accenture Song stalwart Ami Palan has stepped up to lead the Americas.
For Kurokawa, the new APAC mandate is anything but ceremonial. He inherits a fragmented region at a time of heightened macroeconomic uncertainty, mounting expectations for double-digit growth, and sharp competition from both global consultancies and agency networks. In this exclusive interview with Campaign Asia-Pacific, Kurokawa lays out how he plans to unify talent, challenge legacy networks, and why, despite all the AI hype, he believes technology will be a leveller, not a deciding factor for the winners in the region.
Campaign: You’re taking over as APAC lead at a time of global leadership change. What’s your immediate focus and immediate responsibilities?
Kurokawa: I’ll now be double-hatting as APAC lead and continuing to run Japan.
Japan is already more than half of APAC’s revenue [for Song], so in that sense, it’s a logical structure. My role is to ensure collaboration among different countries, support each other, and grow the business overall. The first priority is connecting talent across borders—right now, each market is still quite independent and functions in silos. So, the first big task will be to unite them through the strength of the network, yet maintain autonomy.
Another important priority is helping clients expand beyond their home markets, especially Japanese brands looking at Southeast Asia expansion. But strategy-wise, I’m still in the early stages. I need to understand each country, its strengths, and where collaboration makes sense.
To sum up, the three priorities are: integrating talent across borders, amplifying our impact for clients, and making Song a household name for top talent and major brands in every APAC market.
It's a tall task. What are the biggest challenges you’re anticipating as you try to knit together such a diverse region?
Culture and language are the first hurdles. APAC is nothing like the US or even Europe in terms of integration—each country is different, from Japan to Indonesia to China. Respecting and harmonising these cultures to collaborate effectively is my first priority. There’s also the need to understand local market dynamics deeply before imposing any regional strategy. I’m just starting to map out how we can truly act as one network, not just a collection of strong local offices.
Song’s growth targets are famously ambitious. Given macroeconomic headwinds, are you still on track? And what are your strategic priorities for growth?
Accenture is targeting a certain percentage of growth every year, regardless of macro conditions. Song is already big, but the expectation is that we’ll be strong enough to influence the wider Accenture business by driving new revenue from customer transformation.
While I can’t disclose numbers, I can say APAC is growing even in these economic conditions and even as other agencies face declines.
For us, Southeast Asia is our highest-potential growth area due to demographics and digital acceleration, but every market, including China, which is in recovery, shows positive momentum. And Japan will continue to be our biggest market.
Song lacks a traditional media buying arm, unlike most large agency networks. Isn’t that a strategic weakness?
Our main business isn’t selling media. We’re focused on helping clients transform, and the result might be anything, such as media or value, but it’s about outcomes, not media sales. In Japan, clients sometimes ask us to handle media, and we’ll partner with another agency or, at times, take responsibility for media, but it’s not our focus. If we made media sales our priority, it would change our motivation and approach.
Talk about your AI plans for further leveraging technology across Song’s operations and client work.
AI is at the centre of everything now, but very soon it not will be a differentiator in itself. The real differentiation will come from what our people do with technology, how we combine creativity with data, design and AI to deliver unique solutions. We’re investing heavily in multi-agent AI and integrating tech across our creative and consulting offerings right now. But ultimately, our talent and their creativity will set us apart.
And where do you see Song’s biggest competitive vulnerability?
I need to dive deeper into each country, but when you look at our full range of services—strategy, consulting, marketing, commerce, creative, design, AI—it’s hard to find a direct competitor that does everything at our scale. In each area, we have competitors, but very few can match our breadth.
Markets like Japan famously still operate on legacy relationships. How do you compete with entrenched players like Dentsu and Hakuhodo?
In Japan, yes, Dentsu and Hakuhodo have deep relationships with marketers, but our clients are usually at the C-suite. The CEOs, CSOs and CIOs, who want to transform their business, not just run marketing campaigns. We rarely go through traditional pitches; CEOs approach us directly. Sometimes we do compete with other service or design companies, but we often lead transformation and bring others in under our direction.
A good example is Shiseido. Five years ago, in the middle of Covid, the brand realised its old TV-centric approach wasn’t sustainable. They wanted to build long-term relationships with consumers through personalised, digital communication, but didn’t have the capability, and neither did the traditional agencies. They came to us to help them change over the next five years. We set up a joint venture with half our people and half theirs and worked together daily. Our goal with such projects is to make ourselves unnecessary—to build the brand’s capability so they don’t need us at all. Now, Shiseido can do marketing in a completely new, personalised way. No other agency could have delivered that transformation.
So, when clients want real change, they come to us. That’s what sets us apart from the traditional agency model.
Do clients see you as a consultancy with creative capabilities, or a creative agency with consulting chops?
It depends. In Tokyo, because we have Droga5 and had a long-standing design firm Fjord, a lot of people see us as more creative-led. In other markets, they might see us first as a consultancy. The point is, we can do both without compromising on quality.
And how do you convince CMOs and CIOs of that?
C-level clients care about business growth, not just systems or media buys. If we show them how we can boost revenue and reduce costs, they’re on board. In Japan, CMOs and CIOs work closely together, so it’s not hard to get alignment. In other countries, it might be more challenging, but the key is focusing on business outcomes.
What’s your leadership style?
Have a clear vision, get people motivated, and create a culture that respects diversity while bringing teams together. That’s what I’ve done in Japan, and that’s what I’ll aim for across APAC.
The interview has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.
