A man every global brand in China must meet

Serge Dumont, photo by Luk Tsz Chun

█ You may not have heard of Serge Dumont, but for the last four decades, he has been the go-to person for foreign brands wishing to build a presence in China. As a young entrepreneur in the early 1980s, he founded China’s first independent communications group, Interasia. Today, he is widely referred to as the “godfather” of China’s communication industry, yet he rarely gives interviews and deliberately keeps a low profile.

From 2006 to 2018, Serge Dumont acted as vice chairman and chairman Asia Pacific of Omnicom Group, Inc., a global marketing and communications holding company. Currently, he divides his time between philanthropic and investment activities. Dumont’s 40-year career has been characterised by a global focus, the creation and management of companies in challenging markets, and by his commitment to philanthropy and community service.

Dumont has consistently focused on delivering excellent results. During his 12 years at Omnicom, which employs more than 70,000 people worldwide, one of his key responsibilities was developing and managing the Greater China advertising market, which is now the second-largest after the US. With on-the-ground business experience in Asia, Europe and the United States, Dumont brings an international perspective to his endeavours. His role as a global citizen extends beyond business to encompass philanthropy, particularly in the areas of health and education. He believes that companies must serve a purpose beyond simply making a profit and that social responsibility is an integral part of success.

Dumont has received honours and awards from national governments and international organisations for his contributions to business, philanthropy, health, culture and education. He also serves on the boards of several academic and nonprofit institutions.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

First decade: 1980—1990

Q：How did it all start for you

in China?

A：It all started in the late ‘70s, during my first year at Sorbonne University. At the time, I was very focused on the US and had made two trips there. I could have easily ended up living in New York instead, but a friend invited me to visit Taiwan, so I went for what I thought would be a few weeks’ holidays. This trip turned out to change my life.

I am very grateful to my home country, France, for the exceptional education its school system provided me. But this trip to Taiwan made me realise that my whole education had been very Western-centric, which was not good enough for the kind of world citizen I aspired to become. I knew a lot about Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, but very little about the historical events that had affected the largest part of humanity. (If you look at it in terms of the number of people, 60 per cent of the world’s population lives in Asia.) Besides clichés, I knew very little about China’s history or culture. Since one human being out of five is Chinese, China is bound to play a key role in our collective future. If you don’t know the past, it is hard to comprehend the future.

I decided to change that situation and moved to Taiwan for three years; learned how to speak, read and write Mandarin; studied at the political science university.

I also made my first trip to mainland China in the late ‘70s, which was an eye-opener. Travels like this change your worldview. I agree with Mark Twain, who once said: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Q：You founded China’s first independent communications group and today, you are widely referred to as the “father” of the country’s communications industry. What were the media, advertising, and communication landscapes like in China back then?

A：As a young man in the mid-80s, I decided to quit my well-paid job in Paris and start the first independent communications group in China. Everybody I knew, including my parents, told me I had completely lost it. By now, many people have followed that path, but at the time it was very unusual. I recall some French media calling me the new Marco Polo. It tells you how adventurous they thought it was.

You have to put their reaction in context. China in the ‘80s was very poor and isolated diplomatically. It was not on business people’s radars. At the time, Japan was the next big thing. I even started to learn Japanese but knew in my heart that China would be the place to watch.

Honestly, even in my wildest dreams, I could not have predicted how fast China would grow. In four decades, China has achieved a level of urbanisation and industrialisation that Western countries took two centuries to realise. When I first arrived in China, one could frequently see donkey- or horse-drawn carriages in its main cities. Running a business in that environment was not for the faint of heart.     

I always tried to acquire the most advanced technology of the day – we had one of the earliest fax machines and one of the earliest mobile phones in China – but we had to deal with the lack of overall infrastructure. Before computers, we used this huge Chinese typewriter, but we had to have a full-time person who was the only one who had a clue about how to operate it. Overseas calls had to be booked through an operator, and they could take days. Having a telephone line was a rarity.

Talent is the most important thing in the service industry, but it was hard to find. You could not appoint headhunters to find talent – there were no headhunters. You couldn’t poach people from competitors – competitors did not exist either. You had to learn to identify key talent in government organisations, and you had to discover the hidden gems, not necessarily the obvious ones who spoke the best English, for example. Then they still needed to train relentlessly.

Another issue was that there was no office space in Beijing. The few foreign companies there opened offices in the Beijing Hotel or the Minzu Hotel. I wanted something different from a hotel, something more connected to Chinese culture. I visited many places, but finally, an official in charge of Beijing’s Xuanwu district took me to this amazing Chinese courtyard with a pond in the middle of Xuanwu Park. This became my office in Beijing.

Overall, the nature of the industry was very different. Nowadays, the focus is on simply increasing sales using all channels available, but in those days, the biggest brands weren’t even known in China. The challenge at the time was to build awareness of both the brand and the category and to encourage consumers to try things they had never tried: chocolate, KFC, things like that. At the same time, you had to be careful with “luxury language”, as a bourgeois lifestyle was frowned upon. 

Q：What were the highlights and milestones of this period?

A：There are many examples. These were the days when all major foreign firms were finding their way into China, trying different approaches.

One major thing was that I helped Vidal Sassoon launch in China. It was one of the first high-end brands to come to the country. Vidal and his wife came to China several times. After I hosted a dinner for him at my residence, he wrote a note in my visitor’s book saying that it was a time of great expectations.

Q：What was the fashion landscape like during this period?

A：Mostly grey Zhongshan zhuang, what we call Mao suits in the West, dominated, but it would not take long before we saw an explosion of colour.

The earliest foreign fashion brand was Pierre Cardin. He was a pioneer and his partner in China, Madam Song, was a legendary and a remarkable lady. In those days, I spent a lot of time with them at [Cardin-owned French restaurant] Maxim’s in Beijing.    

Montagut was there too. It was a mid-range French brand I was not familiar with, but it was positioned as high-end in China. They hosted what I believe was the first fashion show with foreign models or one of the first, at least. The brand became a great success, which shows that in given market conditions, the right positioning is everything.

Serge Dumont on the street of Beijing in the '80s. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Philips “Lighting Up of the Nanjing Bridge” ceremony in the '80s. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Second decade: 1990—2000

Q：You organised many fashion events, including the Fendi fashion show at the Great Wall and the Louis Vuitton Classic Cars tour. How did you pull them off? How did these big events play a role in the changing fashion world of China?

A：We managed many beautiful, history-making events over the years. In 2004, Richemont held their first Watches and Wonders here. It was the first time all of the Richemont brands, including Cartier, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin, worked together and it was held in the Forbidden City.    

In the late ‘90s, there was the Louis Vuitton classic car rally, which was the first of its kind. Louis Vuitton was such a visionary to even think of doing an event like that in China at that time. This was an event of huge complexity because it was a first for everyone, including the local governments involved.

As for the Fendi event at the Great Wall, Michael Burke, who was CEO of Fendi at the time, approached me to discuss this idea. Everybody said it would be impossible to pull off and so did I, but he was persistent, and we all really liked the idea. So we put a team together, a number of agencies and consultants and service providers. I recall that the night before the show, I hosted a dinner at my home in Beijing for Karl Lagerfeld, Bernard and Hélène Arnault, Michael Burke, Sidney Toledano, Silvia Fendi, among others. A very complex project, but when it finally happened, what an incredible sight.

Q：What were other highlights and milestones of this period?

A：When people talk about China, they tend to focus on economic statistics, but I think the human stories behind these statistics are remarkable, as well as the enormous cultural changes that were taking place.

From a country that had very limited exposure to the West and its culture, people started to get exposed to Western music, classical or pop, popular characters from Disney or Sesame Street. We also saw the emergence of local [pop-culture] creations.

Mindsets were changing. In the ‘90s, I met Jin Xing, a well-known male dancer who, a few years later, became one of the most acclaimed female choreographers and dancers. She had one of the first sex reassignment surgeries in China in the mid-90s, breaking all taboos and clichés in the process.

I love music, and some of my best memories are associated with operas. One of my favourite memories will remain the spectacular production of Turandot in the Forbidden City in 1998. I went to see it twice.

Interasia office in Xuanwu park 1990. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Serge Dumont's M&M car 1990. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Louis Vuitton's Classic China Run in May 1998.

Louis Vuitton Classic China Run Poster.

2007 Fendi fashion show on the Great Wall in Beijing. Credit: ChinaFotoPress / Newscom 

Third decade: 2000—2010

Q：You were vice chairman and

chairman Asia Pacific of Omnicom Group from 2006 to 2018. Why

did you join the group, and what was your role?

A：I had experienced the life of an entrepreneur, then run some larger organisations. Having had those experiences, there were a number of attractive aspects to the opportunity to work with a group like Omnicom.

Omnicom is the largest US holding group in marketing, advertising, media and communications services. The group owns well-known brands in the industry, including BBDO, DDB, TBWA, FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Interbrand, PHD and OMD. My role there allowed me to look at the industry from a different perspective and to understand more deeply, its various disciplines and facets, including its various business models and evolving client needs, all while contributing my expertise in the areas where it helped.

It was a perfect platform to understand where the industry’s past successes came from and where there were future opportunities for success.

Q：What were your biggest accomplishments during your Omnicom years?

A：It is for others to judge one’s accomplishments, but let me say this: this is a “people’s industry”, so in the final analysis, you have to focus on the areas that directly affect both the business managers and the clients and help lift them to the next level. The area where I feel I made a significant impact on many people’s lives was to bring Omnicom University to Asia every year since 2007.

When you are a $15 billion group, employing over 70,000 people, managing hundreds of agencies, dozens of brands and serving thousands of clients around the world, one of the key issues you face is encouraging cooperation and partnership among the workforce to help deliver outstanding work for clients beyond what one is capable of doing alone.

This is where programmes like Omnicom University come in. The programme is held at Babson College in Boston, focusing on leadership with a faculty of Harvard professors. In China, we partnered with CEIBS, which Bloomberg ranks as the leading Executive MBA in Asia. We held it in Shanghai every year since it started, with people coming from all over the region to study leadership skills and case studies detailing how to deal with real-life situations.

It probably had an impact on more people than anything else I did and will have long-lasting consequences, more so than any new business win, key executive hire or acquisition deal, although those are all very important as well.    

The other thing I think of fondly is the first thing I did when I joined Omnicom in 2006. I spearheaded a deal to rename the historic building that houses the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication to the “Omnicom Building”. I have always had a deep belief in the power of education, so I was pleased to have an impact in this area.

Q：What was the fashion landscape like during this period?

A：During that period, all the major fashion brands came into China. I had the pleasure to be involved with many brands’ entries into China, and to be part of many designers’ first visits to the country, including Giorgio Armani, Tiffany’s Elsa Peretti, Hennessy, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Richemont, Karl Lagerfeld and Fendi.

I also had the honour to act as the honorary representative for China at the Comité Colbert, the French luxury brands industry association. This gave me an overview and lasting respect for the remarkable maisons that are part of France’s heritage.

Giorgio Armani in Beijing 2004. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Bernard Arnault in December 2003. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Fendi on the Great Wall private dinner, including Bernard Arnault and Karl Lagerfeld in 2007. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Fendi on the Great Wall private dinner in 2007, including Karl Lagerfeld. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Serge Dumont and former French President Giscard d'Estaing in 2005.

Richemont's first Watches & Wonders in the Forbidden City with Franco Cologni, Executive Chairman of Cartier in 2004. 

Serge Dumont as UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador in Africa in 2009.

Fourth decade: 2010—2020

and the future

Q：Why did you decide to leave Omnicom after 12 years?

A：Two fundamental elements — first, the appeal of entrepreneurship never left me, and I have been itching to go back to the world of startups, where one can explore how to do things differently and where the sky’s the limit. Secondly, I also had a desire to spend more quality time on philanthropic pursuits.

Sir Winston Churchill once said that “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Time is the most precious thing we have, and we don’t have an endless supply of it, so it’s essential to prioritise and use it wisely.

Q：What are the challenges in today’s media, advertising and communication industries in China?

A：I wouldn't focus on the challenges because there will always be challenges in everything you do. I always focus on opportunities. In the last four decades, China’s GDP has gone from $300 billion to $14 trillion. It’s become the world's largest consumer market. It is a digital-first market, far ahead of anywhere else in areas like mobile payment. Chinese customers have wholeheartedly embraced the digital lifestyle and emerging giants like Alibaba, Tencent, JD and Baidu. This offers significant opportunities for the communications industry. I just described how I started the first independent communications firm. Last year, the PR industry in the country was about RMB 62 billion ($9 billion). There was no advertising industry 40 years ago, but China is now the second-largest advertising market globally. It’s true that there has been an economic slowdown lately, but I expect China to continue to surprise.

You're really dealing with an industry that is reinventing itself constantly. This is true globally, but is particularly true in China, given the pace of change. It is an industry that continues to offer significant opportunities.

Q：What are the challenges for sustainability and fashion?

A：The global fashion industry is one of the largest, most dynamic and influential industries on the planet, generating over RMB 11.5 trillion ($1.7 trillion) a year in revenue. However, it is also one of the most polluting industries in the world.

Fashion also has the power to play a pivotal role in leading the shift towards a more sustainable future. Fortunately, companies are taking action.

One initiative deserving of praise is the Fashion Pact, launched during the recent G7 meeting in Biarritz in France. [French luxury group] Kering chair and CEO François-Henri Pinault revealed he’d been selected by President Macron to assemble a “coalition” of brands. Over 32 companies, and roughly 150 brands, have joined thus far. Following Pinault’s suggestions, the pact revolves around science-based targets in three areas: global warming, restoring biodiversity and preserving the oceans, namely by reducing the usage of single-use plastics. [Former Unilever CEO] Paul Polman and his team have been active in this process.

Initiatives like this demonstrate that collective action by key industrial players can have far-reaching consequences that none of them would be able to achieve on their own. We have only one planet, and as populations around the world become wealthier, we need to think about how to consume sustainably.

Q：You talk about devoting more time to philanthropic and investment activities, can you share any specific plans with us?

A：I organised the first celebrity AIDS ball in China at a time when AIDS was not recognised as an issue there. It was a very difficult subject to discuss, but I decided to focus my efforts on this particularly complex challenge to raise awareness and raise funds. It was a very sensitive time and not an easy thing to do, but we pulled it off with the help of our partners, including the UN, Amfar, the EU, the Chinese CDC and Barry & Martin’s Trust. China has since come a very long way in dealing with AIDS.

During the Sars crisis, I acted as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the Beijing municipal government. After the crisis, I realised that it would be beneficial to expose some top students to major communications challenges. Partnering with CYDF and UNAIDS, I created a foundation for students at Tsinghua University, to offer scholarships and internships at the UN offices in Geneva, Bangkok and Beijing.

At that time, I also became a UNAIDS special representative. Although I was working alongside people far more experienced than I was, Dr Peter Piot, who was the head of UNAIDS, said that when it comes to AIDS, journalists and communicators can save more lives than doctors. I had never seen the industry in this context. It moved me deeply, and I tried my best to fulfil the high expectations put upon me and my fellow goodwill ambassadors.

I feel I’ve been lucky to witness a key period of history and privileged to be a part of it. This is a period that will have a profound impact on the world moving forward, and I very much look forward to the next chapter, which promises to be just as interesting.    

With Michelle Yeoh in Beijing. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Serge Dumont Fund – Preservation of the Dongba Intangible Cultural Heritage, Lijiang, Yunnan, China – December 2018. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont

Serge Dumont at the World Economic Forum. Image courtesy of Serge Dumont