For years WPP executives have talked about simplifying and integrating the company’s operations and making it easier for clients to understand and work with its disparate parts. 

At an earnings and strategy update presentation Thursday after the firm released full-year 2025 results, CEO Cindy Rose went further, saying that the firm should no longer be thought of as a holding company.  

“We’re moving to a single company model with four operating units,” Rose told those at the presentation held at the company’s London headquarters. “WPP will no longer be a holding company.” 

The plan is to make that a reality within three years. The operating units, designed to be fully integrated, include media, creative, production and enterprise solutions. The last would bring together the firm’s customer experience, commerce, CRM, content transformation and technology & data platform capabilities to provide high-growth AI transformation services for global clients. 

The company is already deep into a process of targeting dozens, possibly hundreds of subsidiaries that would be sold off. CFO Joanne Wilson, speaking at the presentation, declined to identify any of the companies earmarked for sale or potential buyers, saying that details would follow. 

At the same time, WPP will be reinvesting in growth areas like media, data, commerce and influencer marketing, said Wilson. 

Rose also talked about transforming WPP’s culture into a “high performance” culture designed for more enthusiastic collaboration throughout the organization and one that is “obsessed” with client success.  

As part of that transformation, incentive policies will change. Asked to elaborate, Rose said, for example, that staffers located within an operating unit might receive a bonus based equally on performance of that unit as well as the corporation. A global client leader’s incentives would be based entirely on client growth, she added.  

WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser told investors that the division is now on the right track with a “seamless connected solution,” that is flexible enough to handle the varying needs of all clients. He noted recent big wins like the $475 million global Jaguar Land Rover business, part of a broader global “end to end” marketing remit awarded to WPP. And last month it won the $100 million US media account for Norwegian Cruise Lines. “Each solution was different,” he said. “Selling cars is different from selling cruises.”  

He also downplayed the importance of owning huge identity databases that are owned by competitors, calling it “old fashioned” to think of such services as central to understanding consumer behavior.  WPP’s data clean room Infosum connects to hundreds of other data signals he characterized as “far more important” than legacy data graphs. 

Principal trading, already a significant part of WPP Media’s business, will continue to grow, said Lesser, because clients want it. “These products are built with clients and they’re asking for more,” he said.  

Executives dogged questions about how AI efficiencies will impact the size of the company’s 100,000 workforce. Upskilling programs are in place to help staff learn new skills, while some staff will be replaced by others with more adequate skills.  

AI will impact the way the company is paid—it's moving away from the traditional FTE model of basing fees on the total hours worked by agency teams. In its place are models for inputs, outcomes and fees for strategic services, brand safety guarantees and more.  

Jon Cook, CEO of VML and the newly formed WPP Creative said at the presentation that the idea behind grouping the firm's creative agencies under a single umbrella was to support them with additional resources and make them easier for clients to navigate. He likened WPP Creative to an "operating system" where the agencies will work better together. One example: under the new setup talent will for the first time be able to shift to different agencies to work on assignments depending on client needs.