MxMIndia

Tag: talent

  • Once you've got your core competency (ability to conjure up fantastic ideas) and remarkable talent in place, follow the 5 commandments to become the Rajnikanth of advertising, Amod Dani style.

    The Anchor: 5 commandments for ad stardom

    By Amod Dani

     

    Some say stars are born. Others believe they are created. In advertising, however, stars are a result of both. Beautifully blended in a pressure cooker environment of tight deadlines, a dash of revealing briefs and a spoonful of client feedback.

     

    You must have it in you to become an Ad-guru, the zing, the X-factor, the mojo jojo. Call it what you may but this is the most important ingredient if you want to become an Advertising A-man.

     

    So once you’ve got your core competency (ability to conjure up fantastic ideas) and remarkable talent in place, follow the 5 commandments to become the Rajnikanth of advertising.

     

    And get ready to bask in the hot Goafest Sun, Don Draper style. Godspeed!

     

    #1 ‘P’seudonym

    What’s in a name, they ask? Everything. Take a look around at all the advertising biggies and you’ll see. The top guns have one thing in common: the letter ‘P’. According to Pandit Suryakumar, Onomsatics (the study of names) has played a significant role in determining the future of advertising in India. ‘P’ stands for Precision, Persistence, Perseverance, Positivity and above all Perfection. So ‘P’lease move over Ekta Kapoor, the days of ‘K’ are numbered. By the way how does ‘Pramod Dani’ sound? Naaah!

     

    #2 A.K.A

    Pops, Paddy, Balki, Aggie: A talent pool like that is truly unique. But what do all of them have in common? A nickname of course. Now that’s the second most important commandment.

     

    An alias, a shorter name or a unique nickname will truly put you in good stead for advertising stardom. But stay away from the names that your mother, grandmother and thousands of your relatives call you. Shontu, Monty, Bunty, Baby, Chotu, Bubbles, Pingoo and Vishambhar are not your ideal aliases. And yeah, do check for patents before you sign up for one.

     

    #3 Be the cover page

    Making a fashion statement plays a vital role in becoming an ad-star. So whether it is wearing all black or donning the latest top-hat, let your style be as unique as your work. Douse yourself into the pages of GQ or pester the daylights of your local darzi and dig out a style that defines you. From variations of facial hair to plain white shirts, from baldness to the badhti ka naam daadi look: ensure that you are a not just an ad-icon but also a style icon. Let caricature artists have a field day.

     

    #4 Bollywood, thy middle name

    Become a name frequented by the Khans and the Kapoors. Keep your feet on two rocks, one firmly placed in the ad-world, the other, nimble-footed, in B-town. Be associated with Bollywood in some way or the other. Music, Direction, Script writing, Screenplay, DOP, Spot, who cares, just make sure you are around a damn set. Flop movies or not, you being a part of Bollywood comes with a big plus: Dropping names!

     

    #5 Have your own Mnemonic

    Like the big brands they create, all the ad-biggies have their own unique Mnemonic. A brand property that is unique to their own personalities. From an exaggerated laughter to a short temper, from poignant hand gestures to exquisite catch phrases that remind you of your mother and sister, figure out what’s your Mnemonic.

     

    However this commandment comes with a big caution. At times, your Mnemonic might not be the one you’d really want as an Ad-star. So the next time you scratch your behind, burp vociferously or drive your finger into those nasal corridors, be careful, the peering eyes might just make that your Mnemonic. And not a pleasant one to say the least.

     

    And if the 5 commandments don’t help you become a star, then Sorry Mate. Kind of like my Pre-Happy April fool’s day. Not like you didn’t see it coming. As for all us mere mortals, it is back to the tried-and-tested mantra of simple hard work and passion. That’s how Piyush did it, that’s how Balki did it, that’s how Aggie did it and that’s how we must to do it.

     

    To be a star or not, well, only our stars will tell.

     

    Amod Dani is ECD, Leo Burnett.

    Click here to view all Goafest 2012 stories

     

  • In conversation with MxM India, Dilip Cherian, Consulting Partner, Perfect Relations talks about the talent crunch turning into a big area of concern, something he regards as India's huge pitfall in coming years.

    [PR Channel] We are producing pathetic people for almost every kind of task: Dilip Cherian

    Text and Videos by Shruti Pushkarna

     

    He is one of the first names that crosses anyone’s mind when speaking of public affairs management or image management. Addressed by many as an ‘influencer’, he is known for his roles as an image manager and a policy advisor. Dilip Cherian, Consulting Partner at Perfect Relations started the company in the early nineties and now the firm is South Asia’s largest communications consultancy with 14 offices and 550 professionals on the team. Mr Cherian has also been the editor of the business magazine, Business India and the Observer before he entered the communications business. His work goes well beyond public relations and media. Mr Cherian is the member of the Board of Advertising Standards Council of India and on the Governing Council of the National Institute of Design. He has also been a member of the Censor Board.

     

    In this conversation with MxM India’s Shruti Pushkarna, Mr Cherian confesses to being an ‘image guru’ and shares his views on various subjects like managing public affairs in the PR space, lobbying, policy making, PR in a social/digital world and the biggest challenge he thinks the PR industry is facing today. While many in the communications business have admitted to the challenge of attracting talent into the business in the past, Mr Cherian goes a step further when he says, “I think talent is going to be India’s huge pitfall in the coming years. We are producing pathetic people for almost every kind of task.”

     

    Dilip Cherian Interview Part 1
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z4b_10_GWk[/youtube]

    Q: You are often referred to as the ‘image guru of India’. And a lot of people address you as an ‘influencer who opens the right doors for his clients’. How do you react to that?

    A: The image guru part I confess to, the opening doors part… I don’t do that. What I do however is, as an image guru, I try and help my clients to focus on what are the issues they should be communicating about. I also help them understand what are the implications of what they are doing and whom they are communicating to. So what I am good at is, pointing in a direction and also very often enhancing their skills in being able to project themselves correctly. This kind of situation requires knowledge of who they are communicating to, so it’s not that I open a door, it’s just that I tell them when they walk through the door, what should they say and how would that impact their image.

     

    Q: So you do confess to being an ‘image guru’?

    A: It’s both the kind of appellation which works in a positive sense for the company because I only work through Perfect Relations and through the five group companies that we have. I think that the designation, as it were, helped me focus on what my real work is. My real work is more in the nature of someone who provides coaching to my own people, or to the people we work with, to enhance their skill sets in being able to better manage their image. So the ‘guru’ part is about the teaching part and that really is about helping others enhance whatever skills they may have, or to reduce sometimes, and this is equally important in my view, to reduce the aberrations which prevent them from having the image which they desire.

     

    Q: You have done an extensive amount of work in public affairs management. Tell us a bit about your experience of work in this area of PR. Also, how critical do you think is public affairs management to the communications business?

    A: Public affairs management is a relatively new science as far as India is concerned, and that’s because of the fact that public affairs used to be, the way it was practiced, largely a dirty word because it had nuances of ‘off-the-balance sheet’ activity. Where we have come in and over the last ten years what Perfect Relations has done is that in the public affairs space, we have created space for a new kind of activity. And that is, helping to communicate with policy makers to influence the direction of policy; policy when it’s wrong or policy when it is being created or policy as it’s being created. In the public affairs area, the relationship with the client is that of the guru kind but also of a confidential advisor, telling them what are the aspects of decision-making they need to focus on rather than the people. Because what’s happened over the past is that too much enthusiasm has been expended on people. It’s not about people, policy making is about a process, and that’s the first skill set we have managed to bring into this area of public affairs. The second thing that we do in public affairs is we help global companies understand that decision-making in India is not uniquely different from anywhere else. So Perfect Relations is the only company which has had experience and skills set in working at a panchayat level, at a district level, at a state level and at the central level. The decision-making vectors and the parameters in each of these spaces is different. Global companies don’t necessarily have somebody who can lead them through this; this is not about market entry strategy, this is about understanding the policy landscape of the country.

     

    Dilip Cherian Interview Part 2
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDi643AWsD4[/youtube]

    Q: How critical is the function of crisis management in PR?

    A: Over the last 25 years of existence if there were one function for which we’ve been called in at the highest level, whether it’s in the public sector when for example there was a fire on an oil rig, or whether it’s in the case of a global company when there was a firing in faraway Goa, or whether it’s in the case of an Indian company whose licence got cancelled, Perfect Relations has always been the first port of call for somebody who is in really deep trouble. So crisis management is something that happens as a plug-on rather than as part of a process. Largely we have come in when the agency that was currently handling a client was seen as not geared to have the bandwidth, the experience, the specialized people and the local teams available on the ground; and that’s the reason why we get called in. Over the last 25 years of doing this in India we also realized some years ago that crisis preparedness as a module needs to be put into companies. So for some of the clients who have the budgets to be able to do this because this is expensive, today we have teams that go in and train top management in the five life-saving skills, life-saving in terms of corporate life of a company, that are needed to ensure that crisis preparedness is at a higher level than it ever was before.

     

    Q: What are your views on lobbying? Do you think past controversy has tainted the image of PR as an industry?

    A: Lobbying is a dirty word in terms of the kind of nuances and practices that a large number of players have indulged in. Is this a result of the way our democracy functions? I don’t quite know. But is it possible to function differently? The answer is, absolutely yes. It takes more patience, it takes much deeper skills and it takes a lot more of focused attention of top management. The problem with ‘bad lobbying’ as I call it, is because sometimes CEOs or owners want to outsource it, saying, we are not doing this. Let somebody else take care of the dirty work. And then it becomes a dirty job. So where we are concerned, what we advise our clients and owners of companies who work with us is, that this is something that you need to integrate yourself into because when the mud starts getting splattered it’s bound to hit you; so rather than outsource it, be part of the process and ensure that you take liability and responsibility for what goes into it. We find that kind of lobbying does not have a bad name, whether it’s a government department, whether it’s a minister, whether it’s a panchayat, everybody is willing to talk to the person who is actually the ownership person in terms of what he or she is planning to do on the ground. Very often they get heard and very often the problems get sorted out. So lobbying of the kind that we call ‘ethical lobbying’ is something we are quite happy to say that we do, and we’ve had no problem dealing with multiple organizations using these techniques.

     

    Q: How do you think PR can be more than just mere press relations?

    A: I think PR is already more than press relations. What is happening is that, like any industry, you follow the 80-20 rule – 80 percent of agencies in the business do what is easiest to do, which is, merely handing some pretty pathetic material to journalists who are absolutely uninformed. There’s a market there and so 80 percent of the companies like to do it. The 80-20 rule when flipped on its head, today we get 80 percent of our revenue not from our press relations work but from the advisory work where we talk to the brand managers and we talk to marketing directors, we talk to the people looking after the digital space. For example, digital – it’s a huge new way for corporations and companies to reach out to customers, it’s a one-to-one designed sort of communication. It’s difficult, it requires the same set of skills which PR people thought they used to have, which is communication. But it’s a whole new technology landscape and it’s a whole new idiom. So what we do now is to try and ensure that 80 percent of our revenue comes from the activities which are no longer those that 80 percent of the players in the industry try and do.

     

    Q: How do you think social media has impacted PR and its functioning?

    A: I think it’s important to distinguish two things. Social media is changing the way humans communicate with each other, that’s one. But digital media goes far beyond that. It’s also about ensuring that your reputation is intact in the vast new internet space. So the way we look at digital PR is probably along the same lines that we look at press relations. It’s not about putting one-to-one communications in a mass market, it’s about actually changing the platform from which you communicate so that you don’t need to say too much and you already are in a sense transmitting those values to everybody who reaches out to you. So you need to communicate less but you need to have much higher quality. So it’s strategic, it requires a vast volume of monitoring which our teams now have tech tools to help them do, and it’s about training – because like in the case of lobbying, in the digital PR space, we recognize it is the voice of the CEO, it is the voice of the brand, it is the voice of the marketing specialist that needs to be communicating directly to the customers who reach out to them.

     

    Q: Tell us a bit about your role as a policy advisor?

    A: I took a decision about ten years ago, which is about 15 years after running the company full time, that you need to put a certain part of your skills back into society. So whether it is working with the Censor Board, which is taking calls on which films could cause communal disharmony or relate in sexually inappropriate kind of behaviour being encouraged, I spend a certain part of my time in ensuring that I am available with my skills to organizations that in a sense implement policy. At the other end of the spectrum is the Advertising Standards Council, which helps corporations to figure out in a pure industry-based platform what is appropriate behaviour for advertising agencies and what is not. I am a great votary of self-regulation for some of these industries. If you want to prevent strangleholds of government, you’ve got to have powerful industry bodies that do self-regulation. So at the ASCI, my contribution is to ensure that as a PR person, I am able to look at advertising from a slightly different standpoint and provide guidance to the other advertising people about the way it would be looked at in government, by the media etc. So in the contribution to the debate, to the framing and the implementation of public policy, I hope that in the last ten years that I have spent, I am putting this contribution back in terms of the life skills I have built up.

     

    Q: How was the transition from a senior journalist to that of a PR practioneer, especially since, at the time when you moved to communications, PR was not taken very seriously?

    A: Whether it was working with an editorial position at Business India, or whether it was running a newspaper for the Ambanis called The Observer, or whether it was setting up a journal for parliamentarians, all the journalism that I used to do actually impinged on some of the areas which I today work on. So in Business India it was the element of business strategy, in the Observer it was the ability to understand how the government at the bureaucratic level functioned, and at the paper we were launching for parliamentarians, it was looking at policy-making inside the rotunda. So I thought with the skills I had, over a period of time, I was beginning to repeat myself and I felt that rather than repeat myself ad infinitum, I need to move to the other side, flip it over and become an advisor to corporations. So it was in a sense a random decision which was sprung up on by circumstances but also it was something I had prepared myself for. Was it for this, the answer is no; but was it for something else, the answer is yes. It just happened that this was the something else.

     

    Q: It is believed by some that PR professionals influence journalists and content is published in lieu of money. Do you think it’s a correct allegation?

    A: My read on paid content is that for a variety of reasons and not a small element to do with social media, I think it was an idea which came and it is an idea that’s not going to last because the piercing of that kind of pretended journalism veil is over. So today when there is paid content, it gets pilloried in a manner that social media alone can do. On the other hand, there is at a social level the whole issue of right to information. So between the right to information and social media, I think the days of conventional paid media is reaching its end already very fast.

     

    Q: What are the challenges that face the PR industry today? Do you think attracting talent to PR is one of them?

    A: I think talent is going to be India’s huge pitfall in the coming years. We are producing pathetic people for almost every kind of task. Also with this new urbanization that’s happened over the years, people have created a new generation of people with expectations that simply cannot be fulfilled in the workplace. So people are hopping around hoping that they can find someone who will recognize their talent. That’s not going to happen. The world over, today Spain has somewhere like 40 percent of the youth unemployed, the UK has 30 percent youth unemployed, I think unemployment is a result of not preparing a new generation for what a work field actually is. It’s not about jobs, it’s about talent and it’s about recognizing that talent needs to do it every day to become talent, it’s not talent because they think they have it. I think the PR industry has a huge talent problem. What are we doing to address our problem of talent as an industry? Eighteen years ago we set up an institute to work on training PR professionals. It didn’t work. But we have started one again because I think the time was too early then. I think now, seeing the demand there is for PR, the time has come, the industry is recognizing, also students are recognizing they don’t have the skills. So we are now beginning again the process of creating talent. And the first batch should be out in a few months.

     

    Q: Where do you think is the PR industry headed in the next five years?

    A: I think the industry is headed to greater growth without a doubt because industry will grow at at least twice the pace at which industrial growth happens, so that’s almost a given. The direction to go in the future is going to be specialization and specialization at all levels, press relations, strategic advice, digital advice. Another big change that’s going to happen is that you are going to probably have to bring back people from retirement to find jobs because I think you are not going to get the talent you are going to need for many of the things that the PR industry will need to do. So I see the age profile in the industry actually going up instead of going down as is the case with most service industries.

     

    Q: Who do you think does the best PR for himself or herself in the country today?

    A: I think the people who do PR for themselves perhaps do it unwittingly because they have natural skills at it. So I would say that if one looks at individuals who are doing a great job at portraying who they are, the one who is kind of a runaway success is Abdul Kalam. He has done a fabulous job as a President and he’s actually found an afterlife. In terms of stars, Amitabh is a shining example of PR and he is also one of those who have managed the transition to social media quite cleverly.

     

  • Call it the mystique of art or just hardboiled application of effort, creativity still does not get its due in India. Sandeep Bomble draws up the chargesheet.

    The Anchor: 9 reasons creativity in advertising is underpaid

    By Sandeep Bomble

     

    Famous Myths

    #1 India still believes in paying for tangibility. Working hard is often recognized. Man hours matter and define work. Thinking is still an intangible quality which is perceived to be present in everyone.

     

    #2 Creative beings are often mistaken and perceived as souls only hungry for quality work. They can go to any extent to attain their desired passion. Money is secondary for them as long as their passion is groomed on the right track.

     

    #3 In India, qualifications and degrees are everything for a well-settled life. A degree holder can demand a big pay cheque. And why not! After all he has spent a bomb on his professional course. How could he consider a 10th pass Art professional as his peer? How can creativity come with a ‘qualified’ tag? “He can’t possibly be creative with no degree backup,” is something often heard, whereas this creative fellow could be a visionary with immense guts to break every clutter.

     

    #4 It is about the client’s attitude towards creativity. The “anyone can do what you do” attitude. Today, a creative agency goes all out to crack a brilliant communication strategy. Intensive research. Deep thinking. Uncompromised approach on the final execution. Great efforts together bring out that distinctive piece of work. Which can be simple in nature. And the simplicity which isn’t so easy to achieve after reading the most complicated brief often draws the comment: “Oh, even my secretary can write better than this.” Or “My 6-year-old son can draw a better logo for me”. Well, so how would creativity get its due respect and worth?

     

    Brutal Facts

    #1 The clients have become better negotiators than the agencies. With the advertising market expanding, the retainer figures are going down considerably. even the biggest of the agencies are going low on retainership. Consequently, suppressing the quality small agencies to further compromise on creative fees. As a result, the agencies aren’t comfortable in approving heavy salary cheques down the line. It’s sad but true. This is definitely affecting the quality of work. As the industry isn’t working on what they deserve, but is rather content with what is available.

     

    #2 The growth in advertising revenue, though being healthier every passing year, can in no way be compared to a lot of its major peer sectors. The turnover of the advertising industry is significantly less in contrast to telecom, IT or financial sectors. Thus the advertising agencies cannot afford to pay their creative employees more than their annual budget.

     

    #3 Many of the budding creative people lack confidence to ask for the best price for their creative abilities, during their onset. It is only after some years that they realize their creative potential and develop enough self-esteem to rely on the instincts, abilities, conviction and gain the right exposure to demand a more lucrative pay slip.

     

    #4 The young guns who are fresh entrants seek a break to release their potential to the best of their abilities. They vie to work with the best of the creatives, so, if they go to the well-known industry they come mentally prepared to work for peanuts in bargain for their own development. They fear losing an opportunity in a reputed, sought-after ad agency, and thus sadly settle for whatever the agency wishes to pay them.

     

    #5 If the creative guys ask for double the salary as compared to their peers or what the agency thinks is best for them, then they have a greater possibility of not being selected because equal numbers of creatives are ready to work for the same or even lesser amount than the industry standards. Thus the agencies rather go the cliched way of having two brains for the price of one expensive quality brain.

     

    If only we could break these hardbound myths and dispose of them, by practising a common slab of retainership. For instance, charge Rs 5 lakh as retainer fees even to the smallest client. In return, the client enjoys the gradual brand growth, justifying the creative fees in the long run. This way we could standardize the industry format, solving some of the brutal realities, so that creativity breathes fresh and takes pride in matching shoulders with other mighty sectors, head-on.

     

    Sandeep Bomble is the founder of Palasa.

     

  • When is an agency not an 'agency'? When it wants to be a magnet for talent, observes Partha Sinha.

    The Anchor:6 ways ad agencies can attract top talent

    By Partha Sinha

     

    By abolishing the term ‘agency’ : Nobody, absolutely nobody from Harvard or Rhode Island School of Design would like to join an ‘agency’. Anything, even if it is as vague as a brand house or a communication company, sounds more respectable than an ‘agency’.

     

    By not behaving like an ‘agency’: The term ‘agency’ was born because advertising companies represented the media owners as their agency. Today the creative agencies don’t do that, but they represent another lot – the film producers. Today ad agencies are the agents for filmmakers. More time and energy goes into pushing a producer to the client than anything else. Again, no talent wants to come in to help producers buy very expensive cars and apartments.

     

    By changing the agency business model : By behaving like true middlemen, agencies never kept any IP with them. So today, the agency valuation is a joke. Again great talent will never join an industry whose current and future valuation is worthless. The advertising industry should be ‘valued’ for the assets they create, and that calls for IP-based remuneration.

     

    By getting rid of agency fears : Today, the confidence level of agencies has hit rock bottom. Fear is the primary driving force for the functioning of an agency. Agencies are afraid of not only the clients but of film producers, hoarding contractors, research agencies and all other sundry people. No young talent would work in an atmosphere like this. Agencies can become a bit more confident by shifting the conversation from ‘I think’ to ‘I know’. Young talent would love a place that’s more confident of its creations and not just based on hunch and judgment but based on knowledge.

     

    By restructuring the agency organisation : There are people in agencies whose primary job is to second-guess the client . They are clients’ agents inside the organisation (and they can come from any discipline, even creative). No self-respecting talent wants to work for a client, he/she wants to work with a client. Agencies need to rethink their organisation and put emphasis on creation rather than managing expectations. This will increase the inflow of talent.

     

    By discarding some of the agency presentations : There are many occasions where the senior agency types cut a sorry figure in front of a young audience with their sepia-tinted presentations and dead thinking. Even some of the advertising and brand talks that happen on TV shows can scare young talent off. For their own good, ad agencies need to change their thought pieces and representatives. Otherwise young talent will soon start referring to advertising in the past tense.

     

    I know that all 6 of these are virtually impossible to achieve. But then, who said attracting great talent was easy?

    Partha Sinha is the Managing Partner at BBH India.

     

  • Anil Thakraney on why and how it's not just money alone that's taking away talent from advertising agencies

    Hard Knocks: Why does the ad world lose talent?

    During my interview with O&M’s chief Piyush Pandey for MxMIndia, he mentioned that the biggest challenge the industry faces today is one of hiring and retaining talented people. That some of the most interesting people don’t want in. His theory is that it has mainly to do with remuneration, and the problem of agencies not being able to pay people properly. Surely he’s right, he must know being an industry leader. But I think there’s more to it than money. Here are two other reasons why I believe the ad world does not attract as much talent as it should, and why many of its stars defect to other industries.

     

    One, there is killer competition amongst ad agencies, and the pressure and anxiety to win and retain accounts is intense. Now while business rivalry is healthy, when it borders on desperation, something’s gotta give. So not only do clients suck the agencies dry, some also tend to treat agency personnel with disdain and disrespect. This leads to loss of morale within an ad agency office, and the inevitable happens. One is always looking around for better career options. We must remember not all ad agencies are led by heavyweights like Piyush and Balki. Who can stand up to an unreasonable client. For most agencies, putting up with all sorts of demands from clients becomes a way of life. There’s the sword of losing a client perpetually hanging on the head. And frankly, I really can’t see a way out of this mess. It was like this decades ago, and it’s pretty much the same now.

     

    The other thing ad agencies have done is to give up the strategic planning function to the clients. Sure, large agencies have the so-called planning department, but these guys often do a cosmetic job for the brands. And are more like an extension of the market research agency. There was a time when client servicing people would offer major strategic insights. Now no one expects any from them. Either the creative directors figure out their own strategies, or the brand managers inflict one on the agency. It’s no longer cool being a suit in the agency business, it’s become more of a maintenance job. How can we then blame the officers for leaping over to brand management?

     

    And that’s also the case with media specialists, post the disbanding. I wonder if there are any media planners left. I only hear of media buyers being in demand purely for their abilities to cut sweet deals with media owners.

     

    It can’t be only about money. It never is.

     

     

    ***

     

    PS: With Twitter on a roll, every Seeta, Geeta and Reeta thinks she can be a journalist. Guys and gals, while I appreciate your enthu, do give us journos some credit, we must be in possession of at least a few skills, if not many! Ghazal master Jagjit Singh (who’s very much alive at the time of writing this, and all the best to him) was declared dead by some over-excited tweeters. Clearly, the khujli to “break news” is not restricted to the media.

    The lesson: Dear tweeters, leave news to us. And stick to sharing your lunch menu.

  • Anil Thakraney interviews Ogilvy India supremo Piyush Pandey. Great questions, super responses.

    No place for Sonal Dabral and Prasoon Joshi at O&M

     

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    It has been a fantastic advertising career, to put it mildly, for the 56-year-young Piyush Pandey. Enough has been said about Ogilvy & Mather’s top dog and the Indian ad industry’s most celebrated player. So let’s just sneak in some yorkers and see if the bat still packs in the punch. It’s always a joy to meet the man because of his joie-de-vivre and the on-the-tap humour. Tonight it’s even more fun as we lounge by his sea-facing apartment off Shivaji Park, with Piyush downing vodka shots.

     

    Q: Don’t see you much in the media these days. Finally got fed up of the over-exposure?

    I have never approached any journalist ever in my life. And I have never said no to any journalist either. Actually, I have been travelling quite a bit these days. But I have never felt I am missing out on anything. And sometimes journalists call to ask about things one doesn’t know. Anything that happens, I get a call! (Laughs.) Also, in the earlier days, I used to attend parties but now I seldom go. I even avoid judging (ad competitions) these days because it takes away five days of my time.

     

    Q: You’ve spent a lifetime in the ad world. Still get the same buzz? Aren’t you bored?

    The day I stop getting excited about this business I will go. You don’t know what a kick I get out of this profession. Gratification comes to people from various things. Some get it by playing golf. Others by spending a day at the club. I get my kicks out of meeting people in my office, and out of the ideas. I have never thought of my job as a burden, I am having a ball.

     

    Q: Oh ok. After you built yourself that palace in Goa, I thought Piyush would disappear to the beaches.

    It’s a three-bedroom house, not a palace! And when I am in Goa, I look at my watch and say, “Oh! It’s only nine o’clock!”

     

    Q: O&M’s big boss, Shelley Lazarus, famously said you are the brightest mind in the network. And we all thought Piyush would take global charge of the agency.  

    It doesn’t make sense to the company and it doesn’t make sense to me. I do sit on the worldwide board, I have a view on the worldwide policies. But I will never re-locate myself. Also, I don’t believe in controlling the world, I enjoy being in India. I think we are still on a graph which is unfolding. And I love having Indians around me. So I can give all that I have learnt to the world, wherever relevant, but I don’t think that burden is mine. (Laughs.)

     

    Q: I suspect the key reason for your huge success is understanding the Indian culture and ethos. By extension, that means you will struggle in other nations.

    Markets don’t scare me, I do help if there’s a need somewhere. I go there and discuss the idea and then leave it to the locals to express it. What I once hated happening in the good old days, how can I do that to the others now that I am a worldwide board member? I will never do all those things which I disliked. Even when I discuss ideas with Pakistan, I tell them I don’t think I am capable of understanding their local nuances.

     

    Q: Ah, I get it. You don’t want to do what Neil French did to you. Which is to try and interfere in your work. I remember you told him this: “Neil, come help me, don’t f*** with me.”

    I did tell him that. Because he tried to (interfere). But he couldn’t do it. My first conversation with him was, “I will show you some work we have done for Cadbury’s and I don’t want your comment on it”. (Laughs.) I must share another incident with you. Many years later at a creative meet near Jodhpur, Neil saw the Hutch boy-and-dog film and tried to make fun of the song. And in the evening my boys went and got the Rajasthani musicians to sing the same song for him! (Laughs loudly.)

     

    Q: Your rival agency heads are pursuing other passions and enjoying a lot of success in those. Making movies, writing songs. You don’t feel the need to experiment?

    Those things come to you when you are bored of what you are doing. And I don’t think three hours is a greater achievement than one minute. I did it once, I wrote the script for the film ‘Dus’ for Mukul Anand but it never got completed because he passed away. But it (movies) never excited me. The kind of people who wanted me and Prasoon (Pandey) to write… from Yash Chopra to Subhash Ghai to Dev Anand… and I told all of them this is stuff I would do on a weekend or at night. That my first job is advertising. I can only handle one thing at a time.

     

    Q: New media is upon you in a big way. Ready for it? Honestly.

    One, we are investing heavily in the new media. There is no technology that we haven’t provided to our youngsters. And two, in my working life, things aren’t going to change. I see maximum activity in the mass media at least for the next five years. So the idea is to invest for the future. Which we are doing.

     

    Q: And you aren’t on Twitter or Facebook.

    I am not even on the internet. I don’t even know how to start a computer.

     

    Q: You are joking.

    I am not joking. I did not study all these years to become a typist. Every computer user is a fantastic typist. (Guffaws.)

     

    Q: So if a client wants to know how he can promote his brand on the digital media, you are in trouble.

    I will sit with him (the client) to assess the solution. And tell him that I have people on my side who will help him. To give you an analogy, I know what a good ball is, but I can’t bowl it. So I will get Kapil Dev to bowl it.

     

    Q: I think you are a test match player who now has to deal with the T20 format. And you don’t understand that game.

    I am saying to the client, I will put together a team that can satisfy his needs. I will not play the T20 match. But I will come and watch every match. I will hire the best T20 players. And I will cheerlead them.

     

    Q: There’s a flip side too. Does it worry you the excess use of tech may make the youngsters get disconnected from the real world? Which is where big ideas come from.

    I didn’t write the MP Tourism ad, the kids wrote it. Also the Asian Paints work featuring the two brothers. They wrote it. So I think the next generation is very savvy. They know that even in the digital space it is the idea that will win. The idea is to know the medium, but express the same kind of engagement that we have done all these years. But yes, about being buried in technology, there is a worry, and for the world at large, not just for Ogilvy. I say to the youngsters: go to Facebook, but don’t become faceless. That, interface is the greatest way to connect with people.

     

    Q: The one big challenge facing the ad world?

    We need better remuneration from clients to be able to hire interesting people in the industry. I don’t have the answer to this challenge right now. But before I leave this company, I will make every attempt to make sure this is solved. If we don’t pay people well, how will we get the best people into the industry? Every agency is under so much pressure, we are not negotiating properly with clients. Maybe clients are better negotiators than us. If other industries are taking our people away, then we have a problem.

     

    Q: Does it hurt when you nurture young guys, train them, and then they go and head rival agencies?

    Sometimes, yes. But not with guys who are leaving to do the same job that I am doing. That is a natural progression of life. I regret losing those people who had misconceptions about themselves and their abilities, and left to do it on their own. And then disappeared. And all that talent Ogilvy alone hasn’t lost, the industry has lost it. Because in the next job, if the guy is a failure, he simply disappears.

     

    Q: If Sonal Dabral and Prasoon Joshi wanted to return to O&M, and you had place only for one, who would you pick?

    None of them. Because our people have grown. And in the last five years, they’ve done work that’s the best in the industry. So why would I put anyone on top of them? Sometimes when you vacate a position, others grow into that position so fast, it becomes difficult for them to be brought back. If you missed three matches, and Vinod Kambli came and scored three double hundreds, how do you get Kambli out of there? It’s important for all of us to be at the right place at the right time. Suppose I decide, before my retirement, that I want to be in Goa and am going to write my book. Then somebody will obviously occupy my position here. Now if I want this position back two years later, and if that guy has done so well in the meanwhile, they’ll say ‘Sorry!’.

     

    Q: Are you planning to write a book?

    I will write one. But it will not be a prescriptive book. I will write something that people read between the lines. It will apply to life and not just advertising.

     

    Q: Any red hot-tips for youngsters?

    One, celebrate life. Don’t crib. Because if you crib four hours a day, you don’t approach anything with a positive mind. Two, if you are passionate about something, go ahead and do it. Don’t worry about society. You might actually become the role model for that. And three, in the world of communications, respect your environment. If you don’t think of the receiver, you will never make a good giver. For example, on your way to Jaisalmer, did you notice, in that 48 degrees heat, those guys who are tarring the roads, they are singing songs to distract themselves from the adversity? That is what will give you insights.

     

    Q: Your retirement is due in exactly two years. Will you actually leave?

    Maine aaj tak life plan nahin ki. Did you, in your younger years, ever hear from me that one day I want to be the Chairman of this company? You didn’t. I don’t make long-term plans, I only make plans for tomorrow. That I will wake up at five in the morning and go for my walk. And even that may not happen! (Laughs.)