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BUSINESS
I haven’t made worse decisions than if I
had taken much longer. Not to make a
decision is a decision itself, after all. And
it’s always better to say no to someone
quickly and put them out of their misery.
10) When you are in a pickle at work —
and I have been many times: recessions,
disasters, fires, cashflow problems, near
bankruptcy in the early days — the best
thing you can do is get a grip. When the
going gets tough, the tough get going.
Don’t wait for something to work before
you try something else. Try everything —
time is of the essence. You may never
know what it was that put the fire out,
but if it worked, who cares?
11) Don’t be frightened to delegate in
order to stretch out the time you have
available. It is fine to pay a driver £15-£20
an hour to ferry you about if you can use
the time saved more profitably to work,
or simply to rest.
12) A good way of weeding out a few of
the less important requests for your time£4.5bn
S4 valuation at its peak£490m
Share scheme value in September29
Number of deals in four yearsSir Martin Sorrell returned to form after exiting WPP
in a scandal, but is now fighting for his fortune — and
reputation, write Jamie Nimmo and Anna Menin
A source said it was “not a happy ship”
and Sorrell, known as the quintessential
“Davos man”, was “running around
shouting at everyone”. He denied this.
S4 believes the auditors merely need
more time to satisfy themselves the num-
bers add up. A source admitted it would
damage confidence among investors.
Increased scrutiny of the audit indus-
try is forcing accountants to do a more
thorough job following the high-profile
collapses of outsourcer Carillion and
bakery chain Patisserie Valerie.
The government launched a long-
awaited consultation on audit and corpo-
rate governance rules in the UK last year
but is yet to formally outline its plans for
reform, which will include replacing the
Financial Reporting Council with a new
watchdog with greater powers to pena-
lise accountants and company directors.
A senior auditor said intense scrutiny
meant they were less willing to take risks.
“In the past, if you were 99 per cent of the
way there and just checking some final
disclosures, you would say, ‘OK, well the
numbers won’t change so we’re fine to
release,’” they said. “Now, you have got
to be 101 per cent complete.” They
added: “The FRC are giving the audit
firms a really hard time, so people are
pushing back [against management].”
Sorrell made his name in adland as
finance director of Saatchi & Saatchi, bestS
ir Martin Sorrell does not
take kindly to insults. Just ask
Jim Prior. The diminutive
advertising tycoon who built
WPP into a global empire
slapped his former protégé at
a Lisbon tech conference
over remarks he had made
following Sorrell’s high-pro-
file departure in 2018.
In an interview, Prior, who runs WPP-
owned Superunion, described Sorrell’s
new digital advertising venture S4 Capital
as a “speck in the rear-view mirror”. Sor-
rell, 77, took umbrage and confronted
Prior the following year backstage at the
event. The man dubbed an “odious little
shit” by advertising tycoon David Ogilvy
admitted launching into a foul-mouthed
tirade, but denied slapping him.
It wasn’t the first scuffle for the pint-
sized pugilist who elbowed his way to the
top of the advertising world before leav-
ing WPP under a cloud. Sorrell faced alle-
gations, which he denies, that he paid for
a sex worker using funds from the FTSE
100 giant; after an investigation he was
allowed to walk away as a “good leaver”.
But after a remarkable comeback, Sor-
rell now faces another scrap. This time,
he must fight to salvage both his own rep-
utation and that of his business. Last
week, PwC was unable to complete its
audit of S4’s annual results, fuelling spec-
ulation of accounting problems.
The hold-up marks the second time in
a month S4 has delayed the 2021 results.
On March 1, the company pushed back
the release date by a couple of weeks, but
even that was not enough for the audi-
tors. The first time, S4 blamed Covid and
a lack of resources on PwC’s behalf for
the delay. This time, it said nothing of the
sort. PwC declined to comment, while S4
said it believed the results remained
within market expectations.
The news caused the shares to fall by
more than a third on Wednesday, wiping
£1 billion off the value of the company.
Speculation grew. Had S4 been booking
sales too soon? Are writedowns coming?
Had Sorrell’s insatiable appetite for a deal
finally got the better of him?
“The guys at PwC don’t take these
decisions lightly — to upset a client andshort as possible. Ingvar Kamprad, the
founder of Ikea, divided his life into
ten-minute units, which is perhaps a
little extreme — but how can any meeting
last more than an hour?
9) Make decisions quickly. Over my
nearly 50 years in business, I have
prided myself on “getting on with it” —
and that includes not dithering over
what comes across my desk. On balance,Time is your most valuable possession, so look after it
Rockefeller once
advised it was best
not to make a big
decision after 6pm
early mornings are an ideal time to write
or to read complex reports. And I find a
short afternoon nap does wonders for
my work capacity.
7) Continually prioritise your jobs list.
What wasn’t urgent last week might well
be urgent today. And if it doesn’t need to
be done immediately then don’t stress
yourself out over it, making yourself late
for what does need prioritising.
8) Do you really need to have those
meetings so frequently? Maybe you did
at first, if you were developing a team or
nurturing a colleague with problems,
but can you reduce them over time and
free up some space? And though we all
like to see our friends, surely they will
understand if you are under the cosh
and have to see a bit less of them.
While we’re on the topic of meetings,
ensure they start and finish on time (you
will soon get a reputation for this,
ensuring that colleagues arrive
promptly). And please keep them asI
normally start writing these articles
at 5am. I was already a busy chap
when I took on this column — I am
still involved in the two businesses
and several charities I have set up —
but I am certainly not a workaholic.
I love spending time with my Mrs
and our friends, travelling and
doing normal stuff. Like all of us, I am
trying to cram as much as possible into
the few years we have on this planet.
And I overslept today, on the morning
I had earmarked to write about time
management — typical!
So without further ado, here are a few
tips on the subject that I find useful.
1) The most valuable possession we
have is time, so use it wisely — and that
means owning your diary. Only you
should put things in it, and you should
be ruthless about what goes in there.
I had the best secretary in the world for
27 years but I still decided how I
allocated my time.2) Leave contingency time in every
day for those surprises, dramas,
unexpected demands and interruptions
that come from left field (or in case you
occasionally oversleep). And time to
help a friend or colleague in need.
3) You must have time for yourself,
too — time to exercise, time to think,
time for family and friends and hobbies,
time to pray (if you do), time to do
nothing and time to sleep, otherwise you
will be miserable and make yourself ill.
And then what’s the point?
4) We all have different body clocks. I
am an early bird (usually); others are
night owls. No matter, but respect yours.
5) Do one thing at a time. Work in
batches. Phone calls, meetings, emails,
reading — all are quite different.
Remember Adam Smith and his pins? An
incredible lesson — do look it up. Or
Henry Ford. Specialisation is efficiency.
6) Your mind is naturally clearest after
sleep. I liken mine to a still pond then, soJulian Richer Sound Advice
is to justifiably decline due to the
pressure of work but ask the person to
come back to you in, say, six months,
when you might be more free. Not many
will — so the few that do, you’ll be happy
to help.
13) Keep trying to improve your time
efficiency. At school I was taught a lot
academically that I didn’t use in life, but
sadly not how to touch-type. During
Covid, at the age of 61, I finally taught
myself using a free online site,
keybr.com. It’s one of the most satisfying
things I have ever done, and saves me a
huge amount of time by making the 100-
200 emails I write a day fly by.
Finally, a word of warning. The
American tycoon John D Rockefeller
once advised that it was best not to make
an important decision after 6pm. I
would add to that: after you have had a
drink. Good luck!
Julian Richer is founder and managing
director of Richer SoundsGERARDO JACONELLIconfront any client, particularly some-
body like Sir Martin,” said Conor O’Shea,
head of media research at stockbroker
Kepler Cheuvreux. “So they must have
their reasons.”
O’Shea fears PwC is combing through
problems similar to those suffered by
French IT firm Atos last year, when audi-
tors unearthed errors at two US units.
They found “matters relating to internal
control weaknesses over financial report-
ing process and revenue recognition”.
In marketing, revenue is recognised or
booked when certain criteria for con-
tracts have been met, not when the
money actually lands in a company’s
bank account. Ultimately, it is a judgment
made by management. Push the bounda-
ries too far and an auditor might hit back.
PwC highlighted the risk of fraud in reve-
nue recognition as a “key audit matter” in
S4’s last accounts.
After Sorrell left, WPP was forced to
restate its accounts for 2017, 2018 and
2019 after statutory losses were under-
reported by £301 million. Last Septem-
ber, the US Securities and Exchange Com-
mission (SEC) fined WPP $19 million
(£14.5 million) over “violations of the
anti-bribery, books and records, and
internal accounting controls provisions”.
The company said the SEC’s findings
“relate to control issues as well as the
acquisition and integration of companies
in high-risk markets until 2018”.
In a jibe at Sorrell after the fine, WPP
said the new management had intro-
duced “robust new compliance meas-
ures and controls” and “fundamentally
changed its approach to acquisitions”.
Sorrell said he had “no part or involve-
ment” in the settlement and his commit-
ment to compliance and controls at WPP
was “rigorous and remains so”.
Mark Read, his less abrasive successor
at WPP, has been simplifying the com-
pany and unravelling a number of the
deals, including offloading a 60 per cent
stake in market research business Kantar.
It has been all change in S4’s finance
department. Chief financial officer Peter
Rademaker, the former finance chief at
MediaMonks, stepped down in Decem-
ber, replaced by Mary Basterfield. Last
July, Simone van Bijsterveldt quit as
MediaMonks’s chief financial officer.Just Martin: ad
boss back on
naughty step
ILLUSTRATION: TONY BELL