This Women’s day, MediaNews4U.Com is acknowledging women leaders of the Media, Marketing, Broadcast and Advertising fraternity who have given more than expected.
Dentsu is the largest agency brand and fifth largest agency group in the world. We provide a wide range of services in eight business domains: Marketing Digital Marketing Creative Sphere Promotions Media Content PR Global Business.
In this segment Women leaders Anita Kotwani, Anupama Ramaswamy and Sujata Dwibedy at Dentsu share their experiences and breaking the gender stereotypes and how she continues to inspire many other women who are true leaders in the making.
Anita Kotwani – CEO – Carat India.
Journey
After having spent 16 years with WPP (Mindshare), in June 2020 I moved on to take the mantle of leading the Carat brand in India. From the timing perspective, given the pandemic situation in India it was a gutsy move to take on as a CEO amidst the crisis.
The role was challenging but the desire to excel has always been an innate quality that I imbibe with complete humility. Being a firm believer of “strategy without execution is hallucination”, I took forth the responsibility to drive meaningful progress across Carat India. The brand has a very strong heritage and I felt proud of leading it as it was the first media independent outfit.
The journey has had its own set of challenges which included, building momentum and creating rapport with the teams over a video screen, delivering client delight with servicing standards that set us apart, bringing to life our proposition of “designing for people” inspired by design thinking & setting up a talent pool that rises to the occasion to deliver. Every area needed to be reviewed and strengthened for the business
This holistic approach to drive the 4P’s of People, Product, Process and Profit especially in the order that it is called out stands testimony to the culture of the organisation.
The journey required one to wear multiple hats as a CEO, where the “E” kept on changing. At times it was of a Chief Empathy Officer, where one had to put themselves in the employees’ shoes to understand their challenges and feel their pains. The other role was of a Chief Engagement Officer which kept the team motivated to do better and also helped create occasions to stay better connected with the larger team at regular intervals. The role as aa Chief Enticing Officer, was also crucial as it helped position the agency as a place which gives its talent the opportunity to do the best work of their career. It is simple, you take care of your people and when they are happy, they take care of your product delivery which in turn will take care of your profits. So as a Chief Enterprising Officer one had to look at collaborative ways of working leading to healthy growth and business for Carat India.
Inspiration & Inspiring the Team
I have been an avid reader, especially of books that drive a disciplined way of working. My personal favourites have been “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”, “Essentialism” and “The Infinite game”. Each of these are great reads for leaders to take inspiration from and when you put them into practice magic happens.
When it comes to your team, you need to “walk the talk”, they need to see you as a role model who they can look up to. You need to set the bar for yourself and set it “high”. Seeing the leader leading from the front motivates the team too, they feel energised and go that extra mile for the leader. It’s imperative to understand that the “game of business” has no finish line. Here consistency is more important than intensity.
As leaders it’s imperative to demonstrate the courage to change. If I can have my team wake up inspired, feel safe at work and return home fulfilled I think it would be a job well done for me.
Empowering Women
I have always had reservations on calling this out separately, why is there so much focus on empowerment of women.
When you talk of empowerment it should be agnostic of gender it’s about the trust and faith that you put into your teams to give them the space to grow. They should feel confident as team mates to experiment, plunge into newer things, even fail, as with each failure there is learning that allows you to only get better as professionals.
I genuinely believe that meritocracy needs to be rewarded and not gender, there is no special treatment I would like to be given to grow in my career trajectory, give it to me because I am able to do the job better than my male counterpart. As a leader I would equally use the same yardstick to grow my leaders within Carat and if in that I have more women / male leaders that is purely based on outcomes that they deliver on the role.
Anupama Ramaswamy – National Creative Director & Managing Partner – Dentsu Impact
Journey
Well, 21 years is a long time being a woman in the advertising boys’ club. I think we evolve over the years from wanting to be “miss popular” to becoming the most alpha and hated to finally finding a middle path. Feminine, Feminist and Feminazi are all stages of evolution. In these years, I have had the privilege of working with some fantastic bosses, both genders and so much to learn from each one of them. Mavericks, structured, safe, brave, witty but each of them taught me something precious. While I have learnt from all, I still needed to find my own ground. My own way of working and a unique style.
For me, it is hard work. Possibly, the whole middle-class upbringing teaches you, “mehnat karo, kaam pe chalo” and eventually you will taste success. But is that a good thing? The problem with me and I say problem, with all honesty, is that I am extremely self-driven and a workaholic. However, I don’t really expect my teams to be like me but they feel pressured and that, I say, is a bad thing.
I do feel that the kids around me get demotivated very easily. And want an external force to bring back the motivation levels. Now that is the way it is. I am not saying everyone is like that but most are. My spiel to them is that they shouldn’t exhaust their energy on the negative. Advertising creative professionals are the most positive people on earth. To have their ideas rejected at least 2-3 times a day and not let that affect you, speaks about your positivity. Some people do get riled up, energized by negative forces. But I say, why not see more good than bad? More beautiful than ugly? But what I do for sure is not let gender stereotypes enter the work culture. While I am most open about jokes and fun, but not something which creeps in gradually with a lens of gender. It is for us, at the senior positions, to make sure that our people feel safe. Safe to open up, safe to speak up and safe to believe in.
Inspiration & Inspiring the Team
Right now in my career, I feel I am trying to make a conscious shift in the way I work. I always micro-manage. My fear of failing is something I was born with, so I don’t want people around me to fail. The reason for this – I used to work on the belief that every client, every brief and opportunity would be the last one. And that is when survival instincts kick in. So recently I have been wondering if I have ever seen one piece of communication make or break a brand. No right? So we shouldn’t be afraid of failing. I think the move should be from surviving to thriving. It is hard but not impossible. Someone recently told me, if you allow people to fail they will get better.
It is not just about creating new stuff. It should be about building brands. It takes time to understand the business, brand, people and client cultures you are working with, to be able to create a relationship with them and make them believe that you love their brand as much as them, if not more.
Empowering Women
I believe women are playing a much stronger role in this industry today. But it is still not enough. Till we achieve a 50:50 status, we will be talking about empowerment. The idea is to stop asking for empowerment and become equal. We need to consciously move from being “one of the boys” to being a leader whichever gender that might be. Women should be encouraged to bring their “feminine” side to the workplace to be comfortable, committed, and passionate and eventually equal in their careers.
Sujata Dwibedy – Group Trading Director – Amplifi India, dentsu
Journey
My journey in the media industry has been a pretty good one. I have been a part of the media for almost half my life, so this industry has truly made me what I am today, even as a person. I can never think of myself not being related to the media. Having said that, I cannot deny the fact that it is not easy to outlast in the industry. My mentor once told me that if you survive in this industry for more than a year and have a good amount of work, you can survive anywhere. I did survive and I am a fighter! As I look back at my journey, I realize that each experience, good or bad, teaches us a lot, enriches us as human beings and as professionals. When I started my career in Delhi, I had refused several on-campus jobs as I wanted to pursue a career in advertising only I wanted to join client servicing but opportunities coming my way were in media, so, thought of giving it a shot. A year down the line, I loved media so much that I decided to not move. It was just the right mix of numbers and creativity, so it kept me going. We did not have sophisticated software or machines like we have now, so we had to do a lot of things manually, sitting back late because it was time-consuming and machines would hang! The good thing was that we used to work like one big family, every colleague was very supportive and bosses were like an umbrella, who would protect & take care of us. I was fortunate to have got opportunities with the best of agencies and in the best of roles. I also consider myself unique because I got an exposure to media planning, buying, research, trading, and business solutions, across both offline and digital mediums.
Through all these years, balancing family and work has made me realise that there is nothing perfect and there is never a right balance. Responsibilities do overlap and whatever is on priority has taken precedence.
Inspiration & Inspiring the Team
My first inspirations are my Dad & Mom. Dad has been my pillar of strength. Since childhood, he has inspired me with his sincerity, commitment & loyalty. On the other hand, my Mom is a go-getter, she has made me dream, she is the one who has always inspired me to rise if, in chaos, she is the one with whom I need to speak every single day, to get my daily dose of positive vibes & energy. I have also learnt a lot from the industry stalwarts with whom I have had the opportunity to work closely with. I am thankful, that they have been very kind and was so open to imparting knowledge. During our days, there were rarely any media colleges; we have learnt everything on the job, by getting into the details, making mistakes and by getting into the thick of all the facets of the job. I find inspiration in many little things and I feel that there is a lot that we can learn from the youngsters today. My daughter’s patience and creativity has also been inspiring me in many ways every day so, I continue to learn each day.
In our industry, it is crucial to be a people’s person. So, working like peers with one’s team is of utmost importance. It not only gives the team the comfort to ask questions and discuss if required but also gives us the window to know a different perspective. I have learnt these little things very early on in my professional journey..
Empowering Women
Around Women’s Day, every year we speak about Women empowerment but it will occur only when Women are treated equal. Female representation on boards of large Indian corporates has increased by 5.9 percentage points from 11.4 per cent in 2015 to 17.3 per cent in 2021. However, it is still significantly below the global average of 24 per cent, as per a report by Credit Suisse Research Institute. The number of mid & senior-level women dropping out of corporates due to lack of support is huge. Many policies are made but only on papers and for awards & other entries. Empathy & actual participation is critical.
Even in the larger society, educated women fall into the trap of the backward thinking herd. In such cases I would say, it is about their choice. Unless women feel powerful from within, we will only be talking about empowering them. Power is from within but the society also needs to be conducive. Safety of a girl child, woman or even older woman should not be a concern in the 21st century, should not be a concern for anybody! Government should ensure strict and fast execution of due penalty processes for crimes against women. For that the Government, judiciary, corporates and the society at large needs to work closely. Assuming the Government understands that education for girls must be made compulsory so that women can become literate & make a living for themselves. Women must be given equal opportunities in every field and on pay scale as well. There must be a standard process for it. Why should women even be treated differently? Financial knowledge and self-dependence would not only lead to empowerment but benefit the society in many ways.
