E: After the purchase, what will your business model look like?
JS: Our business model is not going to change. Brian Burlingame took over as CEO of Jeffrey in 2015 and will continue. And our executive directors, Mauricio Gutiérrez here in Mexico, will continue as executive director. He’s also our regional director of strategy and so he’s going to continue and I’m going to continue as the president of JeffreyGroup.
Brian will report to H+K Americas CEO Richard Millar and join the H+K Global Leadership Council. He will also become the CEO and leader of Hill + Knowlton Latin America. As part of that process we’re going to try to take the best practices we can from both agencies, so they can continue to grow to their full potential. The transaction will be successful and in fact we hope that the opportunities will increase, so when we put one plus one together it will be much more than two.
E: But then, what changes will customers perceive?
JS: Clients will have their same account team. For our team there are going to be some changes, but they will be in the administrative part, there will be new accounting procedures, since we are now part of a publicly traded company. WPP’s headquarters are in the UK, so we’re going to have to follow public accounting procedures that we didn’t have previously. We followed all the ITA standards, but we didn’t have to publish our results publicly.
And for the team, growth opportunities will open up that they didn’t have before. WPP is made up of 109,000 people in 110 countries. Jeffrey has 330 people in four countries. So a lot of opportunities open up for our employees and I think it’s something positive because people want to develop their careers, they want to move, they want to work to learn. What we’re doing today is a transaction that creates a lot of opportunities for all of those things.
E: What is your vision of the future and what do you hope to achieve in the coming years?
JS: Brian Burlingame, CEO of JeffreyGroup, and the management team have many plans for how the agency can continue to grow. Through WPP you will have access to many more global resources than ever before. Going forward, I think communications will continue to be a very vital part of business success for any company. I mean, if you have the best product in the world, but you don’t have effective communications, you’re not going to be successful.
E: What do you think about the competition in your industry?
JS: There has been a lot of competition in our industry, but the good thing is that the demand for communication services has continued to grow and grow. So the fact that it is a growing sector means that there are plenty of business opportunities for everyone. Although there is a lot of competition, we are not stealing business. There are many more business opportunities than have ever existed. In other words, companies are very aware of how important communications are to having a successful business. These days you can’t have a successful business without having an effective communications program.
E: As an entrepreneur, what inspires you and how do you make your business decisions?
JS: Sometimes people ask me, what is the main reason for my success. Well, if you mean success in business I should say that the main reason is because I hire very smart people. When I started with JeffreyGroup I always depended on other people to make the agency successful. And I have been very fortunate to hire and work with a great management team for decades.
What has been exciting for me is creating JeffreyGroup from scratch. And what inspires me today are all those people working at the agency throughout Latin America. Maybe one day I was an inspiration to them, but today they inspire me. And one of the things I always tell them is that it’s not about JeffreyGroup anymore, it’s about the whole group.
E: What kind of books do you like to read?
JS: I have to say that I am not the kind of person who reads business books. When I read, I often read something that takes my mind off business. But I love reading, I really enjoy reading. One of the things about me that no one who works with me is going to tell you is that I’m not a very patient person. I do not have much patience. And that is why sometimes it is very difficult for me to watch movies or television, because my mind always goes very fast. That’s why I like to read, because I can go as fast as I want and it keeps me busy. I usually read more fiction. And if you ask me what the last business book I read was, I’m not sure I can tell you what it was.