Harsha Razdan Appointed CEO Of South Asia For Dentsu

The position of the CEO had been vacant since the sudden exit of its former CEO, Anand Bhadkamkar who quit in September 2021. The group had been looking for a CEO for which Gilby had been to India on multiple visits.

He has about 25 years of experience and has worked in FMCG organisations like PepsiCo and Unilever. He has also been with consulting practices like Accenture where he spent four years working in its UK office.

His last position was at KPMG where he was senior partner and was responsible for clients and markets and consumer markets, life sciences & internet business.

“India has been through the most profound and impressive digital transformation and the future of the digital economy is bright; with new opportunities being generated by the advent of 5G, proliferation of affordable devices, and the development of a new economy accessible to all. Razdan’s background in brand building, overlayed with deep knowledge of tech-driven transformation brings formidable cross-capability expertise and will drive growth opportunities in creating a new value ecosystem for clients with consumers at the center," said Gilby.

He will be responsible for leading a workforce of about 4,000.

Razdan added: “It is a very exciting time for agency networks in India, especially with the significant progress in the digital development of our market and what that means for brands. India is leap-frogging other markets in its adoption and development of new technologies, and it’s critical that agencies are capitalising on new opportunities.“

In a recent report it had put out, the company had said that the domestic advertising industry is showing a 18.1% growth since 2021 with a market size of ₹85,769 crore. The sector is expected to further grow at a compounded rate of 15.07% to reach ₹1.13 lakh crore by the end of 2024, said its report titled ‘Dentsu India Digital Report 2023’. It said that a heavy skew was towards digital mediums with digital advertising having a market share of more than a third of the entire market size at ₹29,784 crore, growing at a much faster rate at 39.5% over 2021. It is predicted to reach ₹51,110 crore, with a compounded growth rate of 31%, by 2024.