Dentsu restructures its Indian creative service line, elevates Amit Wadhwa to CEO

Dentsu International has created a new structure for its creative service line in India. The restructure brings together agencies from Dentsu India, to provide a more collaborative and aligned offering to clients. 

 

 

Amit Wadhwa has been elevated to lead the Dentsu Creative business in India as CEO. He will be responsible for the integration, coordination, and implementation of the overall strategy for the agency. 

 

Wadhwa will report to Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu India and to the regional Dentsu Creative leadership. 

 

The network has also elevated Narayan Devanathan as president - strategy and integration for India. Devanathan will continue with his current role as CEO, Dentsu Solutions, and will continue to report to Bhadkamkar for his additional responsibility. 

 

Meanwhile, he will also head the APAC business for the Dentsu creative strategy and consulting practice. 

 

Bhadkamkar said, “Narayan has been instrumental in driving integration across our units and, as part of the South Asia integration initiatives, he will be supporting the Sri Lanka team in strategy and integration across the two markets. He will now be moving away from his current additional role as chairperson, creative service line for India and will take up a regional leadership role as APAC lead - strategy and consulting practice in the creative service line. In this role, he will be working with the regional and global leadership teams within the creative service line to help develop the area of strategy and consulting practice in the APAC region.”

 

Sidharth Rao too, in addition to his current role, will be in charge of the dentsumcgarrybowen (dentsuMB) Group in India as its CEO. He will work with the leadership team on dentsuMB’s brand strategy for the market. 

 

Shamsuddin Jasani, who continues to oversee the Isobar brand in South Asia as its managing director, has also been assigned an additional role at dentsu Creative. He will now work with the regional and global leadership teams to support the Isobar practice area. Jasani will also ‘work closely’ with the Isobar global leadership team. 

 

With the eventual consolidation under the brands - dentsuMB and Isobar, Dentsu Creative will provide digital-native, brand-led, customer-centric, creative, and strategic solutions to clients. 

 

The brands that will be part of the agency’s redesign as Dentsu Creative include Dentsu Webchutney, Taproot Dentsu, WATConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, Dentsu One, Dentsu India and Dentsu Impact.

 

“This global restructure is about consolidation of capabilities across our brands and businesses with an aim to bring the best of our services to our clients and provide those specialisms without any hassles. The idea is to ultimately stand true to our #OneDentsu strategy and thus, transform into a sharper and leaner business partner to brands. The changes in the India leadership team only reflects a step ahead in bolstering and scaling up our market ambitions. Amit, Sid and Shams are amongst the strongest creative leaders not just within Dentsu but across industry; and with the kind of experience and knowledge backing them, I am certain that they will steer dentsu towards excellence not just in India but beyond,” Bhadkamkar added.