BS People: Colvyn Harris

JWT's man for all seasons

Eight years ago, when Colvyn Harris took over the JWT India baton from the company’s then-honcho Mike Khanna, very few gave this unassuming 46-year-old a fighting chance. His detractors had said what tipped the balance in his favour was that unlike his predecessors Subhash Ghosal and Khanna, he was a WPP (which owns JWT) lifer — he joined the then-Hindustan Thompson Associates as a management trainee in the late ’70s — working his way up the ladder, one rung at a time.

Well, the laugh is on them now. Harris was recently elevated to the position of chief executive of South Asia, responsible not just for India, but also neighbouring Sri Lanka and Nepal; he also takes charge of JWT’s second agency — Contract, Hungama Digital Services (a full service digital agency), JWT Mindset (an outfit formed with the acquisition of Hyderabad-based Mindset Advertising in 2011) and brand activation, events and content creation agency Encompass.

But, of course, Harris is a WPP lifer. He has been with JWT for over three decades now and has worked on some prestigious FMCG, consumer durables, financial services, telecom and service category brands under the agency’s stewardship. He has been the president of Contract Advertising, a JWT group company, which is an independent and parallel network, and managing director of JWT Sri Lanka.

Such can-he-deliver questions have surely stopped bothering him. When Harris stepped in as president of Contract Advertising way back in 2000, there were just too many question marks hanging over the future of the creative outfit. Contract’s founding president and lodestar, Ram Sehgal, had hung up his boots, and many felt his was a pair not easy to fill. If that wasn’t enough, the then-national creative director, Ravi Deshpande, left the agency soon after, setting tongues wagging about Contract’s imminent fall from grace.

Harris proved his business savvy even then — the agency went on to win a slew of big-ticket clients, and kept its tryst with award ceremonies.

But, it may not be time to uncork the bubbly yet. JWT has had a fairly tumultuous 2011 and 2012 — it has lost some high-profile creative leaders and has seen bits and pieces of business from some of its more valued clients gravitating to smaller shops. And, it still must rankle that managing partner Rohit Ohri has switched over to Japanese communication house Dentsu India Group after 21 years in the JWT system when the agency — and indeed the Indian advertising industry — was going through a protracted rough patch, business-wise.

“Don’t worry,” assures one of his colleagues. “He avoids conflict and plays the long game. He will put the pieces together.” Harris does have some staunch admirers in and outside the WPP group, not without reason. Under the leadership of this “smooth, charming and unflappable personality” — as the head of another agency describes Harris — JWT India made history in 2009, having won two Grand Prix awards. Both were a first for India — the Cannes Grand Prix for the Lead India campaign, which also won India’s first Titanium Lion in the Integrated category, and the Jay Chiat Grand Prix for DTC’s Diamond Bride, India’s first Design Gold, Promo Gold, Film Gold and Film Craft Gold.

While raising expectations can breed disappointment, we rest in the belief that it can also build momentum for even more ambitious change at the agency not really revered for its creative prowess.