FCB and Ogilvy HK chop head count

The worsening global economic slump is forcing regional media owners and agencies, including FCB and Ogilvy & Mather, to take painful cost-cutting actions, such as redundancies. The situation was exacerbated by the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, raising fears that a recession is now unavoidable. FCB Hong Kong has made 20 positions or about 10 per cent of its workforce redundant, citing the deteriorating economy. Its problems were aggravated by the loss of Standard Chartered Bank in a global realignment to J. Walter Thompson. However, FCB Greater China chairman and chief executive officer, Gary Tse, said: "Most of the cuts were made in administrative and support functions. The advertising functions remain as strong as ever." He said FCB was "slimming down to prepare for what could be a tougher next year". O&M cut nine positions, mainly in its creative department, from its Hong Kong office, which employs about 250 people. Its Greater China group managing director Joe Wang agreed there was a need to prepare for the worse. "We're restructuring the creative department to give us more strength. Most of those let go were juniors but we will fill some of the vacancies with more experienced people." MTV Asia, meanwhile, has retrenched 16 people from Singapore following a merger of its regional and Southeast Asia teams. However, it claimed the overall headcount had risen because of recruitment in other markets. With the gloomy sentiment prevailing, agencies and media owners are planning their 2002 budgets with caution. BBH regional CEO Chris Harris said that there were very few account moves in Singapore in recent weeks. "This could be because of drastic cuts in budgets so there isn't much to move." - Additional reporting by Leithen Francis.

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