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Article source: http://www.canada.com/iconic+modern+house+tours+North+America/6632012/story.html

Waiting: Architect Albert Abut, speaking at his office in Tokyo, points to the mockup for a biotechnology plant in Chiba he designed but was never built.

MICHAEL KLEINDL

His second concern as he watched the light poles sway was about the schools he had designed. But he knew their construction surpassed Japan’s strictest safety standards.

His third thought was about the roiling intersection’s asphalt.

“I was amazed that it didn’t buckle and burst,” he admits with a smile. “Superb technology was used in that stuff.”

Such attention to detail, he adds, is one of the things he admires about Japan.

Born, raised and educated in Paris, Abut first worked as an architect in France, Sweden and then Holland, where he developed his focus on energy-efficient buildings. In 1983, he was introduced to Mitsuru Senda, an architect specializing in cultural and children’s environments. Senda hired Abut to work in his Environment Design Studio in Tokyo, where he designed schools and museums for several years.

“But the first thing I realized when I came to Japan,” he explains, sitting behind the work table he designed, “was the problem of the tsunami.”

In 1988, he proposed an inland residential project to the Chiba Prefectural Government in which all the flatland in the Omigawa and Tonosho areas along the Kurobe River would remain agricultural but all the people would live on the hills.

“Look at this,” says Abut, spreading old blueprints out on his work desk. “There are residences, event spaces, amphitheaters. I even organized schools here on the hills,” he says, pointing them out. “All the schools must be above 30 meters. It’s a must for the children, of course.”

His plan included some very experimental apartment buildings constructed atop steel barges chained to the bedrock. “They were like houseboats,” says Abut. “If the water in the river rose from a tsunami, the barges would float up safely.” Ultimately, though, the project was never realized.

In 1990, Abut started his own architectural firm. By making use of specific attention to detail, the minimalism from Japanese minka-style buildings and his own French heritage, he’s had many successes: the Saint-Gobain Japan headquarters in Hanzomon, the L’Osier restaurant and Shiseido head office in Ginza, the Yves Saint-Laurent fashion offices in Kojimachi, the Hakujo Concert Hall in Shibuya, and the MK Seed Center in Chiba.

However, his path has not been easy. General contractors, he explains, get the vast majority of all design projects. The 3,000 independent architectural firms get only 10 to 15 percent of the contracts.

“When I learned this from Senda, I was shocked,” Abut said passionately. “From those contracts, the top 100 firms take 80 percent of the projects. Then the final 20 percent are shared among the remaining 2,900 firms.”

Abut is a youthful-looking 60. Playing squash every weekend, practicing yoga and eating organic food keep him fit. He leans forward to make a point. “The number of foreign architects established in Japan, and doing business in Japan, are just a handful,” he said.

“It’s a miracle that I, being a foreign architect, got my projects — and not just small things. I did schools, factories and concert halls. I was lucky,” he shrugs. “And I am very grateful that in Japan I was recognized as an architect that could be trusted. I feel I’m blessed in this context.”

Despite the competition, Abut enjoys working closely with Japanese general contractors during the execution phase of his projects, which have included 25 buildings and planning and design for a section of Kohoku New Town in Yokohama. “Each time it’s a pleasure. Every day I’m running to the construction sites to see how everything is put together, the organization, the cleanliness, the attention to detail — the bolting of the steel beams or how the concrete is done.”

With his background in urban planning and naval architecture, Abut has a special affinity for anything to do with water. He’d love to work on all water-related projects in Tokyo — the rivers, the canals, the waterfront.

Tokyo, he says, largely ignores the element of water, pointing out that many expressways and other elevated structures have been built over rivers that run through downtown Tokyo.

In 2004, he presented a visionary plan, the Edo 21 project, to a conference of Japanese engineers. This long-term endeavor would place the Shuto Expressway, the JR railway lines and all subway lines that cover waterways underground. The city would then open up, blooming with more free-flowing water, greenery and small parks.

“Water brings freshness and new energy to a city,” he explains. “When (Junichiro) Koizumi was prime minister, he once mentioned my plan. But nothing’s happened since then,” he adds with a smile.

Abut has another visionary plan — rebuilding Tohoku and the entire Pacific coast of Japan.

“I am personally involved,” he says as he clicks on a Google Earth map on his computer. “Look at this photo. Can you believe it?” he asks incredulously. “My wife’s mother is from Iwate, from Taro in Miyako. It’s all gone. Flattened completely.”

He points to the map again. “Do you see what they did? They put a golf course on the top of the hill and the poor people are down below.”

“That’s the problem here,” he says clicking through more views of Miyako, shaking his head. “All devastated. Gone, gone, gone, gone. Here, these buildings not gone, because they’re on a hill . . .”

Abut’s plan is simple. “All towns and villages must be above 30 meters on the entire Pacific coast,” he states. “There is no other solution.”

It will take 10 or 20 years to rebuild, he explains. “When I design a city, I’m not designing for me or for our generation. It’s for our children and the children of our children. That’s the future.”

The fishermen are part of his plan too. All the harbors should be floating platforms, he explains, based on current oil rig technology. The fishermen would tie up their boats to these floating wharves. The harbors are connected to the sea bottom with heavy chains, and in a tsunami, the fishermen could take refuge in these harbors, which would float safely up while remaining anchored to the seabed.

“I am completely against building residences at sea level,” Abut stresses.

So far, though, no one has taken his advice. In 2004, for example, Abut was the master planner for a hotel resort in Fiji. “I put all the collective areas, the common areas, the club house, the restaurants, etc. . . . at the lower levels and all the villas above 30 meters,” he says pointing to a set of drawings.

“When I made the presentation, they said, ‘Are you crazy? We want all the expensive villas near the water!’ So I was eliminated from the project.” Six months later, the Indonesian earthquake struck and the ensuing tsunami swept away many seaside executive villas in Phuket, Thailand. Some of his acquaintances were killed in those villas.

In 2009, he made a similar hilltop proposal for a resort on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture, but that plan was called off for financial reasons. “We must use what the Earth gave us — the hills,” Abut said. “With Tohoku, we must really think innovatively.”

But it would be a massive effort. The new towns would have to be grouped in central areas, he says. They could become technological communities with artisans, shops and residences based on the model of Sophia Antipolis, a technological park in southwest France. All should be built as “green” cities with minimum energy consumption.

The people in Tohoku are very creative, he says. “In areas like electronics for the automotive industry, for example, these guys come up with solutions for little parts of this and that,” he said. “They should be given that chance again. The government should subsidize the ateliers or small factories of those people who lost their factories along the coastline.”

Abut doesn’t believe that such an immense rebuilding project is impossible or too expensive.

“Of course it’s possible to do,” he says. “There’s a lot of money in this country.”

Rebuilding Tohoku, he says, would revive the construction industry and the steel industry. “Such a plan would give work to all engineers, architects, factories and workers. The whole country will go back to work.”

“So much could be done. Should be done,” he stresses. “Look at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi,” he says, referring to Abu Dhabi’s new, two-decade-long project to build a global clean-technology city for 40,000 residents. “If Abu Dhabi can embark on such an ambitious project, why can’t Japan?

“At least let’s rebuild the city of my wife’s mother. At least start with that. Make an example out of it.”

He leans forward again. “I want to give back to Japan what Japan has given me. I am proposing my services for these projects, but, so far, nobody is taking it,” he says. “But it’s time now to do it.”

Article source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/rss/fl20120519a1.html

“Our system is messier, slower, more frustrating, and far better,” Sebelius said in her speech’s conclusion. “It requires conversations that can be painful and it almost always ends in compromise. But it’s through this process of conversation and compromise that we move forward, together, step by step, towards a ‘more perfect union.’”

The two time Kansas governor and Health and Human Services Secretary never directly mentioned the provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring contraception be supplied by all employers, including religious institutions. But she was heckled during the speech by a member of the crowd, yelling “baby killer” before being escorted out.

The health care law’s provision has come under heavy fire form religious leaders across the country, including the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. Although the mandate does not apply to churches and other places of worship, it does apply to religiously affiliated universities such as Georgetown, which has been a Jesuit institution since its founding in 1789.

Sebelius was invited to speak at the top-ranked school in the nation’s capital because of her expertise in policy and her lifetime of public service. Although Georgetown students at the ceremony cheered when the heckler was removed and listened attentively to her call to not “let your critics or your opponents define who you are or what you do or why you do it,” many others were put off by her invitation to speak.

The Archdiocese of Washington, DC called her invitation “unfortunate” and “shocking. Meanwhile, Georgetown University President John DeGioia, the institution’s first president without a rank in the Catholic faith, said she would be retained to speak but her presence did not indicate a university endorsement for her policies.

DeGioia added Georgetown was open to free speech from all and an equitable exchange of views, but also highlighted the decision to invite Sebelius came before the contraceptive mandate of the healthcare law was made public.

Although the Catholic News Service reported 35,000 people signed a petition asking for Sebelius’ invitation to be rescinded, only around 20 protesters showed up Friday on campus. Sebelius, who has ties to the university through her husband and sons, seemed unperturbed by the small ruckus.

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Article source: http://www.rttnews.com/story.aspx?Id=1890206

Patrick Britton joins Carousel as vice president of video and A/V integration, and will be responsible for the service and delivery of Carousel’s industry leading video and A/V solutions. Michael Fitch has joined Carousel as vice president of managed and Premier One services, where he will be responsible for Carousel’s services delivery component. Nick Kolintzas, meanwhile, comes to Carousel as vice president of engineering operations, and will be tasked with driving innovation and process improvements across Carousel’s pre-sales engineering teams.

“Patrick, Michael and Nick have over 50 years of combined experience in the technology sector, and each bring unique skills that will help drive Carousel’s excellence in operations and customer service,” said Jeff Gardner, CEO, Carousel Industries. “I’m pleased to welcome them to the Carousel team and look forward to their contributions in making our A/V, managed services and engineering teams even stronger.”

Videoconferencing and A/V integration is among the largest growing business segments for Carousel. Britton’s focus will be on the integration side, where he brings 15 years of experience in project management, engineering, system design and sales. Prior to joining Carousel, he was general manager for the Mid Atlantic Group of integrator AVI-SPL. Britton has also been an active member of the InfoComm Professional Ethics and Training Committee and InfoComm Sub Committee.

As vice president of managed and Premier One services, Michael Fitch brings 20 years of technical and managerial skills to his new role at Carousel. A technology manager and solution architect known for his ability to bring together top-performing technology teams and provide hands-on leadership, his primary focus will be on ensuring Carousel’s success in delivering and maintaining the highest levels of customer service through its managed and Premier One services businesses.

Previously, Fitch was the Assistant Vice President for Program Management at Science Applications International Corporation, where he was responsible for program management, managed services delivery, strategic planning, customer relationship management, and risk assessment in leading large IT outsourcing programs.

Finally, as Vice President of Engineering Operations, Nick Kolintzas will be responsible for leading Carousel’s Contact Center practice and driving innovation and process improvements across the pre-sales engineering teams.

Prior to joining Carousel, Kolintzas was CTO and senior director of the managed services division at Quagga, a Windstream Company, where he was responsible for engineering and the positioning, promotion and placement of managed services. As a 15-year industry veteran, Kolintzas has led multiple market transitions, including digital to IP telephony and IP telephony to unified communications.

About Carousel
Carousel Industries designs, delivers and supports technology solutions that become the foundation of our clients’ businesses. This includes unified communications, managed services, virtualization, Voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and collaboration and data infrastructure solutions. Since Carousel was founded in 1992 we’ve grown an average of 30% – 50% per year with 2011 revenues of $320 million. Today we have over 5,000 customers, including 35 of the Fortune 100. Carousel has been recognized by both VAR and CRN Magazines as one of the top technology integrators in the US and we’ve been listed in the Inc. 500/5000 six times.

Carousel is headquartered in Exeter, RI with over 1,000 employees working from offices in 27 locations across the US, including over 250 service technicians deployed across the country. For more information visit http://www.carouselindustries.com

Jeff Touzeau
Public Relations
Hummingbird Media, Inc.
(914) 602-2913
Email Contact

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/carousel-industries-recruits-top-industry-151600806.html

BEIJING (AP) — The futuristic building — with two leaning towers linked with a 90-degree twist at the top — has attracted much controversy since the day its design debuted a decade ago.

Now, it is ready for occupation by China’s staid state TV broadcaster, China Central Television.

Construction of CCTV’s new headquarters officially concluded Wednesday — 10 years after Dutch architectural firm OMA envisioned a skyscraper that would symbolize China’s rise on the world’s stage.

Like the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube — signature venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games — the CCTV building is part of a new architectural wave that is redefining the landscape of Beijing — a city that is transforming from drabness to vibrancy.

Officials from the powerful CCTV, inspectors, engineers and architects did a final walk through the 54-story, 234-meter (772-foot) structure on Wednesday, chief architect Ole Scheeren said.

Nestled amid a cluster of skyscrapers in the city’s central business district, the CCTV building has two leg-like structures that lean toward each other, meeting in mid air with a right-angled deck-like connecting body that hangs 160 meters (528 feet) above the ground.

Its bold design has drawn praise and detractions and earned the nickname of “big boxer shorts” from local residents. Scheeren — a German who co-designed the building with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas — said the building is designed for interconnectivity crucial for a media giant like CCTV.

“One thing this building has done is it has asked a lot of questions. It has questioned what is architecture, what can architecture be, what can it do,” Scheeren told The Associated Press. “This question can be answered far more deeply and interestingly now that the building will start to live and will start to be utilized.”

CCTV looked worldwide for the design of its new headquarters building in 2002, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization and won its bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. That forward-looking momentum explains China’s embrace of an unconventional design, Scheeren said.

China “was set to appear on the world’s stage in a new era,” Scheeren said. “That psychology of a very future-oriented moment was very important to make this project possible.”

Construction began in 2004. By summer 2008, its exterior was completed, just in time for the world to view it during the Olympics.

But then disaster struck. A fire in February 2009 engulfed an adjacent 159-meter (520-foot), 44-story building in the CCTV complex that was to house a luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which was only weeks away from opening. An illegal fireworks display arranged by CCTV to mark the end of the Lunar New Year started the blaze. One firefighter died and eight others were injured.

The disaster became an embarrassing episode for CCTV. The head of CCTV, Zhao Huayong, was replaced amid a high-level investigation and 20 people were sentenced to prison. That building is now being repaired, but the blaze prompted mocking from some Chinese who resent CCTV for producing dull propaganda-style programming while spending lavishly on grandiose projects such as its new headquarters.

Scheeren declined to reveal the project’s cost, though outside estimates have put it at hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said the architects hope the building can be a force of progress in China’s development.

“It’s mainly the end of our work, but it’s actually the beginning of its life,” Scheeren said. “From here on, the building finally will be what it’s made for.”

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-distinctive-cctv-headquarters-completed-171853970.html

The audit confirms an

earlier probe’s findings of wrongdoing by some of India’s best known scientists who were at the helm of the national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

The charges relate to a 2005 deal to sell satellite space or “airwaves” to a private firm Devas by state-owned Antrix, in violation of rules, such a failure to set up a proper bid.

Antrix is the commercial arm of the Isro, while Deutsche Telekom is an investor in the privately-held Devas.

The deal was revoked in February 2011, after the government discovered several irregularities.

The audit did not put a definitive figure to losses in potential government revenue as it had done in the 2G scam, but to give an idea of its worth, the CAG cited Rs. 38,543 crore earned by the government’s subsequent auctioning of a comparable broadband-carrying airwaves of 60-megahertz capacity.

Had the deal gone through, the government could have incurred similar losses, the top report concluded. Among its most flagrant violations, the deal gave Devas 70 megahertz of a special type of radio spectrum, of which 10 megahertz was for “strategic” national use only.

“The Antrix-Devas agreement was a classic case of promotion of interest of an individual private entity viz Devas, at the cost of public interest,” the CAG said.

The audit specifically blamed ex-Isro chief Madhavan and his colleague A Bhaskaranarayana for subverting rules, concealing “facts” and exercising powers they never had to unduly favour Devas.

Article source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/CAG-report-slams-ex-Isro-chief-for-Antrix-Devas-deal/Article1-856141.aspx

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Article source: http://my.news.yahoo.com/french-architect-could-pivotal-figure-china-scandal-110032093.html

Patrick Henri Devillers, 52, is one of two Westerners in China known to have had close business ties to the family of deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai, specifically with Bo’s wife who is accused of murdering the other expatriate, Neil Heywood.

Until now, only Heywood was alleged to have also had a close personal relationship with Bo’s glamorous wife, Gu Kailai – a factor that has led Chinese police to treat his murder as one where intense feelings of betrayal played a part. Gu is alleged to have poisoned Heywood in November after a row over money.

But one man who knew Heywood and Devillers during the pair’s association with the Bo family said Devillers had shown much more affection and intimacy towards Gu than Heywood had done, and that he had assumed Gu and the Frenchman were lovers.

“Heywood was an interesting and amusing character,” said UK businessman Giles Hall. But he added, “Devillers was the one who used to pat her on the back and put his arm around her in a restaurant. They were definitely, I would have said, an item.”

Hall had business dealings and socialized with Heywood, Devillers and Gu over a decade ago, mostly in the UK where Bo’s wife was carrying out some business and her son was attending school. At the time, Bo was mayor of Dalian, in northeast China.

The suspicion Devillers had a romantic link with Gu – in addition to business ties – suggests the Frenchman could be more than a peripheral figure in the Bo scandal, details of which are sketchy. The police case against Gu has not been made public.

Devillers and Gu gave the same residential address when they set up a UK company in 2000: a top-story flat in an office building in the faded resort town of Bournemouth. Some office workers inside the building said they remembered Gu from that time but did not recall her having any male companions.

Devillers’ whereabouts are unknown. He declined to comment through his lawyer, Stephane Biver of law firm Godfrey-Higuet, a specialist in international tax and finance law in Luxembourg.

His father and sister said they had had little or no contact with Devillers and did not know how to reach him.

Gu, a murder suspect, is detained. Her husband has not made any public comments since March when he was sacked as party boss of China’s biggest municipality, Chongqing. Just before then, Bo accused his critics of pouring filth on him and his family.

Devillers’ father did not dismiss the suggestion that his son might have been sexually interested in Gu.

“It is possible, all the more since, according to the photos, she seemed attractive,” Michel Devillers said at his home in Rainans, a sleepy rural village in eastern France.

‘WHIFF OF SCANDAL’

The Bo scandal is extraordinary on several levels, having brought down an ambitious Politburo member and ruffling a once-in-a-decade leadership transition in Beijing.

It has exposed the unusual extent to which an elite Communist Party family – Bo’s father was a revolutionary comrade of Mao Zedong and Gu’s father a military hero – allowed foreigners so far into its inner circle and raises questions about the family’s murky financial affairs.

Sources familiar with the police case against Gu say Heywood was helping the family move money offshore, and that he was killed after threatening to expose her dealings.

UK businessman Hall, who sold a hot-air balloon to Gu for promotional use over Dalian, said he had been asked by Bo’s wife to help in the illicit movement of 150,000 pounds ($240,000) offshore, a request Hall said he rejected.

Gu had suggested Hall’s firm should add the 150,000 pounds to an invoice for the supply of a winch for the balloon, and that his company should use this sum to pay UK school fees for her son, Bo Guagua, Hall said. He added that Gu withheld a final payment for the overall balloon deal after his refusal.

“The whiff of scandal associated to it, we couldn’t have it. That’s when we said ‘No’. She got very irked about it,” said Hall who negotiated the balloon deal between 1998 and 2000.

Chinese citizens are only allowed to transfer $50,000 out of the country each year. Police believe Gu was using Heywood to help skirt this restriction, sources have said, though evidence of this has yet to emerge. Heywood’s widow has no knowledge of any such transactions, according to a family friend.

“It’s a little out of the norm,” said Steve Vickers, head of business intelligence specialists Steve Vickers Associates, referring to a powerful Chinese political family allowing foreigners to become so close to its personal affairs.

“But it could be quite useful to have an expat “Mr fixit” who can move things around, cross borders and not be on the radar screen.”

One other foreign businessman was also close to the Bo family: Larry Cheng, a Taiwanese American who was Gu’s partner in her Horus Consulting business in Dalian. Cheng later set up a new consulting business of the same Chinese name, with the financial help of Xu Ming, a plastics-to-property entrepreneur described by executives as Bo’s closest business ally.

Cheng, now based in Shanghai, said he had not worked with Gu since he left Dalian in 1999. Xu has been detained since the eve of Bo’s ouster for reasons that have not been made public.

WELL-DRESSED FRENCHMAN

Tall and always well-dressed, Devillers entered Bo’s inner circle while living in Dalian in the 1990s. A Chinese company had refused to pay the Frenchman for some architectural work and he and his Chinese wife wrote a letter to the mayor’s office.

Then-mayor Bo Xilai intervened on Devillers’ behalf and later referred work to him. In 2000, Devillers returned to France, leaving his wife to care for her aged parents and young son. The couple divorced three years later.

His ex-wife, Guan Jie, who still lives in Dalian, said she could not believe Devillers had had a romance with Gu or had been involved in moving large sums of money offshore for her.

“Patrick wouldn’t have gotten mixed up with anything like this. He was a very straight person, very polite, very honest,” Guan said, adding she had lost contact with him since the divorce. “He had a mental wall to block out anything bad. He didn’t like complicated things, society things.”

Devillers’ sister also said she lost contact with him many years ago and had no idea of his whereabouts.

His only known business address suggests Gu may have known where to reach him until relatively recently.

In 2006, Devillers registered an investment firm, D2 Properties, in Luxembourg, using the Beijing address of the Ang Dao Law Firm – a firm affiliated with Gu Kailai, who had merged her own law practice with it. Staff at Ang Dao Law Firm, housed in a dingy office block not far from Beijing’s Olympic stadiums, declined to comment when asked about Devillers.

D2 Properties owns minority stakes in boutique property projects in France, Monaco, Martinique and Geneva developed by Devillers’ father, a real estate investor. The father’s Rainans Investissements owns 2 percent of D2 Properties, according to a Rainans financial statement.

Before D2 Properties was formed, Gu and Devillers had been co-directors of a UK-based firm, Adad Ltd. Registered in 2000 and dissolved in 2003, its business purpose was unclear.

Devillers’ paper trail shines little light on the extent of his business relationship with Gu, but businessman Hall said the Frenchman had represented himself as a fixer in Europe for Gu, who used the name Horus in many of her dealings, Hall said.

“Without me Horus is nothing,” Hall quoted Devillers as saying.

(Additional reporting by William Maclean in TAUNTON, Peter Griffiths in BOURNEMOUTH, Michael Martina in BEIJING, Marc Joanny in PARIS and Thomas Hals in BOSTON; Editing by Don Durfee and Mark Bendeich)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-french-architect-could-pivotal-figure-china-scandal-104159887.html

May Issue

2012 AIA Honor Awards, five building features, three on-the-boards projects, contemporary mosque design, working for the GSA, Calatrava’s Peace Bridge, the new green codes, building around D.C.’s height restrictions and its new streetcars, the Architect of the Capitol talks Unbuilt Washington, Moeller talks P/A Award winners, and more …

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Bates India has lost one of its senior-most hands, Dheeraj Sinha, in a top-level churn that has been on for the last few months at the WPP-owned agency.

In January, it had lost India chairman and regional creative director Sonal Dabral and chief executive officer (CEO) Sandeep Pathak in quick succession.

  

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Now, Sinha, regional planning director at the agency, has called it a day. Bates had only two days ago named Sanjay Thapar, group president (north east), Ogilvy India, as a replacement for Pathak. Thapar takes over as the CEO in July.

It was widely believed that Sinha — the chief architect of the agency’s new philosophy, engage-engage, which involved identifying changes in consumer behaviour and then using new codes of engagement to communicate with them — would be the CEO after Pathak’s exit.

In a recent interview with Business Standard, Bates India’s new chairman, Ranjan Kapur, also country manager of WPP, had acknowledged the contribution made by Sinha, especially in the wake of the exit of Dabral and Pathak. He had said, “Dheeraj brings continuity and knows all the clients. They love him.”

Sinha said he was looking for a change since he had spent seven to eight years with the agency. “I am passionate about the business of creating ideas; of bringing together people and brands. I hope to continue with this in the future.”

While Sinha refuses to be drawn into a conversation about his new assignment, persons in the know say that he has offers from a number of agencies. Unlike many other high-profile executives who quit to set up their own ventures, Sinha is not likely to go down that road, they say.

Top-level churn is not new to the advertising industry in India. The trend is most pronounced in those agencies where there is a crisis — either the agency has lost significant business or is struggling to find a place under the sun or has been acquired by a new entity. Rediffusion, for instance, saw top-level churn two years ago, when it lost some high-profile accounts such as Airtel and Colgate. Dentsu India and its group agencies saw significant churn, when they were fully acquired by their Japanese parent in 2011.

In the case of Bates, the problem has been its inability to prove that it is a strong creative-led agency. Kapur had admitted that 60 per cent of Bates’ revenue came from work done outside of advertising. The agency, in fact, had restructured its operations and teams, following the appointment of Kapur as India chairman in March. People across disciplines were encouraged to sit together and work, and more importantly, come up with media-neutral ideas that could be used across platforms. “We do not want to fall into the trap of being a TV, print or digital agency,” Kapur had said.

But the question is: will it work? Industry observers say in India, print and TV advertising are still dominant — comprising 42 and 46 per cent of the advertising pie, respectively — in contrast to the scenario abroad, where new media has made significant inroads into a client’s budget.

“So, an agency in India is considered strong when its print and TV work stands out of the clutter,” said a creative director of a Top 10 agency.

How tough the competition is among ad agencies in India can be gauged from this: All the big names such as Ogilvy, JWT, Mudra, Lowe, Leo Burnett and McCann-Erickson have a strong creative product. In the last few years, even smaller agencies such as Taproot and Creativeland Asia have come into their own.

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Article source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/bates-dheeraj-sinha-quits/474148/