Gate One Consulting, a unit of creative services giant Havas, is growing its international presence with new offices in Paris and Bengaluru.

Havas has an organizational structure that is fairly rare outside the world of publicly traded marketing firms. It employs over 23,000 staffers across dozens of business units, many of which operate under separate brands. In many cases, the lineup of services available to clients also varies from unit to unit. Some Havas businesses provide marketing services, while others help clients with IT projects or board-level business initiatives such as acquisitions. Gate One is among the few Havas units that compete in all three of those areas.

The London-based consultancy joined Havas through a 2019 acquisition. The new Paris and Bengaluru branches bring the total number of offices it has opened since the deal to four. Kate Martin, Gate One’s Chief Marketing Officer, gave Boardroom Insight an overview of the business rationale behind the expansion shortly after it was announced. As she put it, “this isn’t about geography – it’s about proximity.”

“Real transformation doesn’t happen over Teams calls or fly-in–fly-out visits; it happens shoulder-to-shoulder with clients who trust you to help shape their future,” Martin said. “There’s no substitute for being local and being present.”

Gate One’s technology professionals help clients with tasks such as deploying AI-powered automation software. On the management consulting side, it provides M&A advisory services. One of Gate One’s specialties is planning the series of organizational changes necessary to integrate a newly purchased subsidiary.

The Havas unit also competes in other parts of the consulting market, including the marketing services segment that accounts for most of its parent company’s revenue. Gate One can help corporate marketing departments identify capabilities they’re lacking and figure out how to implement them. That might mean, for example, modernizing the software toolkit the advertising team uses to create personalized offers.   

“A local base means we can co-create solutions within our clients’ ecosystems; working alongside their teams, with shared values and cultures, and building lasting relationships that drive meaningful change,” Martin explained.

Gate One’s new office in Bengaluru is led by Karan Ingle. He earlier worked as a director at Deloitte Digital, the Big Four firm’s creative services arm. The Paris office, in turn, is headed by Havas executive Orianne Trouillet. She previously led the marketing giant’s ekino unit, an IT services provider that helps companies with tasks as automating the management of public cloud environments.

Martin stated that Gate One will draw on Havas’ existing presence in France and India. ”By combining Gate One’s transformation expertise with Havas’ established footprint in each region, we can offer clients something different: a consulting experience that’s more human, more connected and more creative,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Havas