Barry Cupples has big shoes to fill, and he knows it. Succeeding Mike Cooper as the chief executive of Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Asia-Pacific, he reckons, is the toughest job in the network.
Six months in, sat at his desk with the imposing Temasek Tower (home to WPP’s media arsenal) in the window behind him, Cupples carries the determined air of a general under seige.
But it’s Friday, and the burly Englishman looks less fearsome than usual in a pink striped shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. He has lost a lot of weight, thanks to the brutal regime of his personal trainer, and quite possibly because of the stress of succeeding a man who has, over 12 years, built OMD into the region’s second biggest (according to Recma) media network.
Cupples begins to talk with earnest gusto before the tape recorder begins to whir. Asia suits him, he says, not least because of the work ethic. He rarely sleeps more than four hours a night and regularly works until 3am.
“I’d rather my people didn’t work until midnight. But if there’s a pitch on, well, so be it. I’m a committed individual and I expect the same from those around me,” he says, noting that he has audited the IT system to check on idlers spending too much time on Facebook.
Coming from Central and Eastern Europe, a region he ran for OMD, he is familiar with the cut and thrust of emerging markets. Though CEE is small by comparison, there are parallels, he observes, between the state-run media of Russia and the likes of China and Vietnam.
But of course Asia requires a softer approach to what he is used to. “Barry is incredibly passionate and works all of God’s hours - but can be very full on,” says Nikki Mendonca, the president of OMD Europe, Middle East and Africa, who worked with Cupples for six years. “He’s going to have to temper his approach, as I’ve had to do in certain European markets. But he is aware that he won’t get far by growling down the phone at people.”
Not that it should matter in Asia, but Cupples is wary that he may be judged by his accent. Bazza, as colleagues in the UK call him, hails from London’s Notting Hill. “But not the beautified Hollywood version. More like Brooklyn,” says Cupples. “Coming from the wrong side of the track, people underestimate me. But I am hugely competitive and like nothing more than to prove people wrong.”
It may come as a surprise, for instance, that Cupples is a keen antiquarian who used to spend his Sundays scouring ancient battle fields with a metal detector.
Unpredictable though he may be, Cupples’ voluble manner couldn’t be more different to Cooper’s debonair diplomacy and proverbial plum. “Mike is a true businessman. He’s a corporate individual,” says Cupples. “I come from a different angle: from the ground up. I’ve worked in every position except reception. But in some ways we’re very similar. Mike is a street fighter, and so am I.”
Ever the politician, Cooper talks kindly of his successor.“Barry is one of the most passionate and competitive individuals I have ever met. He possesses endless energy and is an outstanding media practitioner. And he has a very good eye for detail,” says Cooper. “I think his style will suit Asia.”
Maintaining momentum while preserving quality is Cupples’ big challenge this year, notes Cooper.
Glancing behind him at Temasek Tower, Cupples says that while OMD has been closing the gap on MindShare, he doesn’t “obsess about catching them up. We’re in the business of scale, but I don’t want us to become a media-buying supermarket.”
Besides, he likes being number two. “It drives the competitive will to grow,” he says. “In other markets, we’ve come from nowhere and battled to the top. I have launched 13 OMDs and seven PHDs. I know our structure, our processes and how we need to take things forward here.”
Launches of OMD in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia are on Cupples’ 2008 to-do list, although he admits this is a touch ambitious.
Strengthening PHD is a more pressing concern. “Eventually, I’d like to see PHD pitch against OMD. That would be recognition from the market that PHD has become a strong, stand-alone entity.”
Further down the line will see the launch of OPera, the OMD/PHDbuying unit, and possibly, Hub+, a content unit that recently launched in the UK. Both are “work-in- progress”, he says.
Meanwhile Cupples is happy with his senior management team, which includes the “vociferous” Maggie Choi whom he promoted to regional MD of OMD, though there is a sense of frustration that his local managers aren’t, yet, as vocal as Maggie or, indeed, himself.
This is clear in Cupples’s main ambition in his new role. “I want a happy group of people who like what they do as much as I do.”
Barry Cupples’ CV
2007 CEO, Asia-Pacific, Omnicom Media Group
2001 CEO, Central and Eastern Europe, OMD
2000 Founding partner, Assessor (Kirsch Media Group)
1995 MD, Optimum Media, Central and Eastern Europe
1989 Planner-buyer, AMS
1987 Junior planner, Grey London