Agency Leadership Decoded: Havas Vietnam’s Alexandre Sompheng on building more than just another passing agency

Excellent marketing often begins with excellent communication skills. How brands speak, listen, and connect remains a key factor in driving growth.

This is the challenge that Havas Vietnam chief executive officer Alexandre Sompheng has observed over years of leadership: too often, people excel at doing, but struggle at clearly expressing what they do.

In this latest MARKETECH APAC Agency Leadership Decoded piece, we sat down with Alexandre to unpack how the Vietnam market shaped his leadership approach—and how his leadership, in turn, is reshaping the agency’s culture around voice, trust, and long-term growth.

Not just an agency passing through

As Havas continues to strengthen its footing in Vietnam, Alexandre reflects on the cultural, structural, and leadership challenges that have shaped the agency’s evolution over the past decade.

“One of the biggest challenges has been the strong execution mindset in Vietnamese culture. People are excellent at doing, but often less comfortable with speaking, challenging, or proposing new ideas. So we worked hard to create a culture where people feel safe to talk, disagree, and think.”

While the agency has been present in the market for more than ten years, Alexandre shared that it was only in 2022 that the agency marked a turning point: Havas reestablished their brand with a clear ambition:

“To align fully with our global core values while respecting local culture,” highlighted Alexandre.

To execute this, he shared that they started to build international working environments where Vietnamese talents can benefit from global standards, projects, and mindsets, while keeping the strength of local creativity and execution.

“This repositioning has strengthened our reputation as a serious, long-term player,  not just another agency passing through, but a group committed to building something meaningful in Vietnam,” remarked Alexandre.

Beyond this repositioning, he also pointed out that helping his team understand what a ‘career path’ really means was a challenge.

“Growth is not automatic; it is built through learning, responsibility, and sometimes patience. Making this clear was not easy, but it was necessary.”

In their early years, turnover, for Alexandre, was also a major challenge. But over time, especially during COVID in 2020, he noted that they were able to retain a hundred percent of the jobs, rooted in people’s true understanding of their company.

“Today, loyalty is much stronger, and the team knows that the company tries at its best to protect its people when times are hard,” he added.

However, building this amount of loyalty requires stern leadership. Which is why Alexandre named his non-negotiable values: transparency, commitment, and honesty.

“These are not slogans on a wall,  they are rules I apply to myself first, before applying them to anyone else. I strongly believe in leading by example: the standards I expect from my team are exactly the same standards I impose on myself,” he said.

In addition to this, he also shared how he favors long-term vision over short-term comfort, a mindset that has influenced his leadership through the years.

“Some decisions may seem harder or slower at first, but if they are right for the future of the people and the company, they are always worth it. I involve my teams as much as possible in discussions and reflections. I listen, I consult, I challenge ideas. But once a decision is made, I explain it clearly, and I expect trust, alignment, and commitment,” narrated Alexandre.

From here, he coined a discretion: that leadership often means helping his team become better at what they do, and sometimes, also requires him to help them change direction entirely.

He stated, “A company should not only use talent, it should build it.”

On loyalty, leadership, and the human core of agencies

When asked about his leadership advice, Alexandre emphasized that in this day and age, where the world is reshaped by technology and constant innovation, human relationships matter more than ever.

This is why he underscored one of the meaningful initiatives they practice in Havas: a loyalty program based on seniority.

“As people grow with us, they unlock real benefits not only for themselves, but also for their families: extended health insurance, life insurance, additional leaves, additional allowances, and more,” he explained.

While retention is part of the goal, Alexandre personally leads with this in mind.

“My first piece of advice is simple: take care of your relationships, with your family, your friends, your colleagues, your clients, and your partners. While this feels natural in our personal lives, it has become just as essential, if not more, in our professional environment. Leadership begins with respect, empathy, and genuine connection,” he continued.

This, according to him, establishes that loyalty has value and that commitment is recognised.

“In Vietnam, motivation is often approached mainly through financial rewards. Money matters, but it is not enough to build long-term engagement. I try to create an atmosphere where people feel seen, respected, and emotionally connected.”

For example, he banned money as birthday gifts and encouraged his team to share personal gifts instead. 

“The goal is not to spend,  it is to care. Experiences and emotions stay longer than cash,” he added.

This is where his second piece of advice resonates, where he coined ‘transmission’ as the real foundation of leadership.

“If you know how to transmit values, knowledge, culture, ambition,  then everything else follows: quality, scale, growth.”

Finally, he underscored that beyond fondling relationships and enabling transmissions, living with authenticity is still what he highlighted most.

“Be authentic, sincere, and fully committed with your colleagues, your clients, and your network. Never underestimate the consequences of failing to live by these core values,” he added.

Alexandre continued, “A reputation takes years to build and only moments to damage. A strong reputation is not something you claim; it is something others give you: your team, your clients, your peers. “

While he pointed out that most of his team are more inclined to just do, rather than speak, it can be coined as a paradox that Alexandre still pointed out that leadership is only genuine when ‘they speak well of you.’

“True leaders are not those who talk the most about themselves, but those whose people speak for them.”

In retrospect, what Alexandre stated to be essential for leadership are what most professionals do daily already: building relationships, but this time, beyond networking; transmitting values and not just influence, and authenticity rooted in sincerity.

His leadership philosophy circles back to a simple but demanding truth: agencies may run on ideas and innovation, but they are sustained by people. By choosing to invest in relationships, prioritise transmission over instruction, and anchor decisions in authenticity, he frames leadership not as a position of authority, but as a long-term responsibility to shape character, culture, and careers. 

For him, success is not measured only in growth or awards, but in the voices of those who carry the values forward—because, as he believes, the most credible measure of leadership is not what a leader says, but what their people become.