Sir Martin Sorrell - CEO, WPP

Mr. Sorrell is the CEO of advertising firm WPP. He was an entertaining fellow and had some interesting insights. This was from a talk on Feb 9th.

Notes:

Graduated from HBS

"Luck is very important"

Sees huge growth in the Asian countries. Also talked about a Goldman Sachs report that discussed growth opportunities in Russia and Brazil

When competitors are under pressure, invest in people

"We will have more ear time than eye time" -Quoted from someone at the MIT Media Lab

"People like small groups" and "Diseconomies of scale"

VC is the most expensive form of capital. Mortgage your house if you can to avoid it. "VCs are lenders of last resort"

"Focus on what you enjoy"

Recommends Moneyball.

Passion and commitment should be your focus when hiring new people

If he graduated today, he would learn Chinese and move to Shanghai!

10 year prediction for his company:
* More Asian biz
* More Indian biz
* More Latam biz
* More Middle East biz
* More Russia biz
* Internet will grow from 15% to 30% of biz
* Big thing will be the growth in Asia