Aditya Kanthy, president and managing director, Omnicom Advertising India, opened up about what the last year was like as the group awaited approvals on the IPG acquisition.

About the insecurities within the staff during the year, Kanthy said, "It’s very natural for one to have these insecurities. The EU took a little longer to give its approvals than we anticipated, and that added to the speculation."

He added that Omnicom was always clear about the thinking behind this decision. "Part of this acquisition is around efficiencies, jobs and costs, but that’s in markets where growth is a challenge. For us, there was a need to restructure some parts of the organisation, because when two large companies come together, one doesn’t need a duplication of roles that are non-client-facing."

Kanthy also spoke about how clients have been largely accepting of this move.

"They have experienced some version of this in their own world as well. Within the modern business context, acquisitions and mergers are not a novelty. Leaders from the client side recognise the fact that consolidation is real and there is value in it. We know that consolidations are inevitable, and one can probably see one more round of it in the next three to five years, with more narrowing of the holding group world, and this is why Omnicom made the acquisition to try and get there first with the scale," he explained.

Read our full conversation with Kanthy regarding reporting structures, staff moving offices, and more in the February issue of Manifest, which can be ordered here.