noshtradamus

Yesterday I read an interesting article in Mint, where CEOs of six of India’s large advertising agencies shared their perspectives on attrition and how they’re coping with it.

The article, because it appeared in Mint which is a “business paper”, set the context as “attrition being a part of reduced ad spends and global slowdowns”. The CEOs likewise, donned their CFO/leaderspeak hats and spoke about how the market is affecting/not affecting them.

Good show gentlemen, I am sure most of your clients who read the article are going to sleep easy now knowing that you have your resources under control.

Or can they really rest easy..?

With all due respect to the six CEOs, three of whom I have personally worked, I think they left out some key factors which affect attrition, and advertising agencies in particular.

It’s not that they are not aware of these issues, and it’s not that attrition is something that’s popped up with the recent global slowdown. Attrition and Advertising are synonymous in many ways, since forever.

Here’s my perspective; the perspective which the fully aware gentlemen did not share…

WHY DO PEOPLE LEAVE?

The obvious answer is a combination of remuneration, individual ambition, scope for growth, relationships, brand opportunities, and such. These are always discussed and then ignored as “part of life in our business”. By accepting this is so, ittle or no mentoring is done. And ironically, attrition is nurtured instead.

WHY DO PEOPLE STAY?

While the answers to this question is the same as the above, little or nothing is done to go deep into the matter, and make a concerted effort to make people stay. Remember, it is cheaper/easier to make people stay, than constantly be on the lookout for newbies to join the ranks.

In my opinion, here’s what you can do to make people stay:

DEFINE A CULTURE:

The longevity of a employee/company relationship is almost always based on culture fitment. You either fit in, or don’t. So you stay, or you don’t.

In most agencies, culture is neither defined, nor practiced as a religion. Instead the agency culture remains a closely guarded secret of the top management. And in a best case scenario people are second guessing the culture in order to fit in; or in the worst case, doing their own thing.

And if you think about it, some of the elements of culture are the same reasons for leaving or staying.

So:

Discuss Define common goals (we want to be seen as the best…)
Discuss and Define ambition (we want individual stars in our agency vs we emphasise teamwork vs …)
Discuss and Define remuneration (financial, emotional, short term, long term…)
Discuss and Define work style (slave drivers, pushovers, proud professionals…)
likewise…

IMP: Do this as a part of culture and pre-emptive process, not as a last-ditch effort in exit interviews!

While culture should be the umbrella thought/practice, here are some specific drivers of attrition:

Role Definition:
In most ad agencies roles are loosely defined and bastardised to suit the moment. As a result, people duplicate and ignore certain aspects of their job.
As a result people either slack off, or clash with each other, never attaining efficient use of talent.
Result: You stay until you feel good and useful. You leave when you feel you will be useful elsewhere.

Documented Best Practices and Process:
Very few agencies have best practices and processes in place. Even if they are documented, they are not always practiced.
This leads to arbit functioning, varied interpretations of briefs and deliverables, and general overall ‘might/desig is right’.
Result: People don’t really learn and take away anything satisfying. Because the next day, “the best way of doing something” will be another way!

Working Hours:
Working late, working nights, and weekends at a stretch seems to be the way of life in most agencies. Worse, people flaunt their late hours as greatness and valor, and as a sign of their committment.
This is actually delusionary greatness, covering up for the above lack of role definition and best practices.
Result: You don’t have a work life balance, and even though most agency people live in denial, they keep shifting agencies thinking the grass is greener on the other side, until they eventually reach creative flameout.

Training:
Few ad agencies today can claim to provide adequate professional training and refresher courses to its people. Add to this the fact that most people hired from scratch haven’t been trained to be “an advertising professional”.
Everyone is plug-and-play, brining their own set of values, protocols, beliefs and way of working.
People swim or sink.
Result: You swim until you get tired, or discover you don’t know how to swim. Then you go to another pond, hoping you last longer, or they don’t realise you cannot swim. And so on, to another pond. 

Respect:
Respect comes in many forms. Financial and Emotional. Agencies often believe by throwing money at people they can ignore emotional respect. Or by providing “good work” opportunity they can ignore financial needs.
But keeping “business and client needs” usually over-rides everything leading to a “do what we can to deliver” attitude which then over-rides role definition, best practices, and working hours leading to a total lack of respect for fellow human beings and their individuality.
Result: People leave, not just for other agencies, but as the trend suggests, for other industries!

The Bottomline:
While we complain about bizarre salaries being given out to our people, and their subsequent demands for more, we forget who perpetuated this practice in the first place.
We ourselves over the years have pursued talent with sky-high salaries and fancy designations. We have created legendary stories of growth, and perpuated himalayan levels of management that now only create and feed expectations all around.
At the same time, our industry has grown much faster than our resources and talents have professionally.
Result: We find ourselves today constantly fishing in a sea of mediocre flotsam and complaining about their demands for name and fortune! Complain we do, but we pay, and then pay some more when they leave for some other bait.

Okay, so this is not rocket science. And it can be seen as the perspective of someone who has left the rat race of advertising to pursue other things “less challenging”.

Yes, life in advertising is challenging. The question is does it have to be?

What are we as leaders doing to reduce the challenges and make the industry happier, more efficient, and more effective.

What are we doing to gain the respect and loyalties of not just our clients, but also of our own people?

What are we doing to stand proud as an industry that can add incredible value to the lives of all those it touches?

da Bombay Bitch is bitchin!

She’s in my face (and probably yours too) every morning. She’s got attitude. She’s very aware of what’s going on. She has a clear point of view ~ which she expresses with wit, sarcasm, to-the-point-bluntness, and a whole lot of flair..! Yeah, she’s a whole lot of fun, and I love to see her in my inbox every morning!

I am talking about this new website on Bollywood and its related masala - Bombay Bitch. I receive a daily update from her every morning, which hightlights the days stories and links to the main site. Besides all the above (which you discover once you click-through to the website), the first thing that strikes you are the headlines and subheads (see picture alongside). And the writing that follows is just brilliant.

Reminds me of the “good old days” when we had great writers. The “good old days” where the writing was insightful of the subject, heartfelt-expressive, and sans any agenda or political correctness.

Sadly, the former two elements are lacking today in most places because of the pressures of turnaround times, and of course, sheer lack of talent. The latter two elements thrive today with the indulgence of advertising rupees, and the blackmail of mob protests and random PILs.

Good writing, is unfortunately hard to come by nowadays - in the print media, in advertising, and public relations (don’t even get me started on the inane non-des-scripts we hear on the telly).

In light of all this, dear Bombay Bitch, you are a breath of fresh air… even though it often brings some bollywood biggies gasping for some! Needless to say, my inbox is always open for you :)

Check out Bombay Bitch here

Related reading: Where have all the writers gone

Update: Just to add, since I trashed writers in general, I also enjoy reading things like Mint, and Mail Today (the latter, while being great in its approach, still needs to work on crafting).

As for writers, there are many who’s craft I enjoy, like Jug Suraiya, Swaminathan Ankleshwar Iyer, S Mitra Kalita, Bachi Karkaria, Karan Thapar, Himani Dalmia, Amit Varma… and some more…

It’s been three whole months since I wrote my last post. During this time, I was busy, and then I was on holiday :) While I might not have been writing, I have been watching. I have been watching everything that’s going on around us in our world, and in the advertising n marketing world in particular. And I am sure, that’s what you have seen too.

Here’s a summary, in no particular order:

We have seen Indian agencies, led by JWT rock Cannes with brilliant work (it is real work, for a real people)! And we have seen that McDonald’s India continues to turn out crap in the name of advertising (the obnoxious, dum-witted TVC with the “flight attendant mangta kya” reaches a previously unimaginable low in creativity and sensibility!) 

We have seen the first chance of having a woman as President of the US, fading to the first chance of having a black man as President of the United States (note: this is positive+positive)

We have seen retrograde communist ideology (ego?) come in the way of Indian nuclear (and other forms) progress, even if it means bringing down the government! And we have seen supposedly retrograde politicians come to the rescue of the same nuclear and other agreements.

We have proudly watched Indian companies take over international big names like Land Rover and Jaguar… And we have been saddened to see an Indian company sell out to the Japanese.

• We have seen Indians fight for equality and honour all over the world… and we have seen Indians fight among themselves over communal issues, and for lowered, reserved status in our own country.
• We have seen women doing well in day to day life, and in the corporate world. Yet we continue to hear of sexual harassment of women by men all around, and in the corporate world.

• We have been held ransom by politicians and mobs in the form of mindless protests and bandhs over subjective issues like “cultural sensitivity” and “hurting sentiments”. We have seen the same politicians and mobs turn a blind eye to real, criminals cases and unequivocal violations of human rights.

We have seen a the wonderful sport called cricket, turn into pure entertainment, for 40 packed nights. We have seen the same entertainment interrupted and blacked out by intrusive and disturbing ads in every broadcast.

• We have seen the arrival of the National Creative Directors and Executive Creative Directors. But we are still to see the arrival of one decent professional training program for people in ad agencies.

• We have seen the internet and mobile world explode with new ideas, technologies and forms of entertainment. Yet the only “new media innovations” we from most brands are “a website!” and “a website”!!

“We have seen lots of lists like this… but not in the middle of the year…

(to be continued… perhaps)

As I was writing the post below, it suddenly struck me how I automatically used the terms “Agency Heads” and “Corporate Leaders”.

I then realised that they’re part of common parlance, and how we in the advertising and marketing business, including related media, address the people at the top of their respective entities.

So Agency CEOs are just “heads” and not “leaders”?And Client CEOs are “leaders” not “heads”?

Are we subliminally saying ad agency CEOs rise to the top, but then sit back while someone else does the leading? Or worse (shudder) agencies are actually leaderless and their work and culture is dictated by clients?

Which brings me to client CEOs. Are we subliminally saying that they may be leading the team, but they’re not necessarily the head of the company..?The real head (or line manager) is someone sitting in Hong Kong, Singapore, London or New York?

Heh, heh… don’t take me too seriously… just think about it ;)

In a move aimed at making the advertising and marketing business more professional and scientific, rather than amateurish and arbitrary, top agency heads and corporate leaders are expected to meet today and arrive at certain common guidelines for recruitment, training, work processes, and campaign evaluation.

The meeting is supported by all the Ad Clubs of India,  various Advertising Agency Associations, various Associations of Marketing Professionals, and the United Front for Marketing Standards.

“Our focus will be on hiring qualified people from good art and management schools, and not just picking up those who don’t get jobs in other more demanding industries” said the head of one advertising agency, refusing to be named in this article.

“The attempt will be to design and develop systems and processes that will make our work more scientific, and measurable rather than getting away with saying there are no right answers in our business” quoted another agency creative head.

On the other hand, the Country Head of a large multinational corporation said “We have treated our agency people like idiots for too long. And ignored the fact that we put clueless junior people at the helm of things in marketing. I admit these people take it upon themselves to create tension for the agency, or else they won’t be seen as doing their jobs! All this will change post our meeting today!”

Another CEO admitted to this reporter “Well honestly, I get involved in the advertising process at the last minute and end up creating confusion because my objectives and requirements from the campaign are unknown to the teams until then… plus my people have been second guessing me, and nothing makes sense anymore. I will give clear written briefs to my teams to pass on to the agency from now on!”

“Egos, high-handedness and time-wasting tactics will be a thing of the past from now on” reads a joint statement of the agenda released to the press today “the focus will be for timely delivery at low cost, accompanied by mutual professional respect all around” the release added.

Needless to say, advertising and marketing professionals all over the world are looking forward to the guidelines and way ahead as defined by this group, in their unprecedented and historic meeting to be held today, Tuesday the 1st of April 2008! 

Almost a decade ago, I was going through an emotionally tough phase of my life - questions about what I was doing, where I was doing, and whether I would get what I want were flooding my mind, causing me much anxiety and generally making me restless.

Then suddenly I received this email. I forget who it was from, and who the original author was, but it really touched my heart and opened up my mind. And I approached life from then on, with a new perspective. The perspective contained in this email, which quite simply, changed my life forever.

I am reproducing it here below, in the hope that it will have a positive impact on other people, as it did on me.

I call it, the Secret of Happiness!”

“There is little correlation between the circumstances of people’s lives and how happy they are…

Did you know of the notion that we have to work at happiness to achieve it?

Most of assume that happiness comes as a result of good things that just happen to us, things over which we have little or no control.

But the opposite is true: Happiness is largely under our control. Happiness is a battle to be waged, and not a feeling to be awaited.

One of the effective and easy ways to sabotage happiness is to look at something and fixate at the smallest flaw, like looking at the Sistene Chapel ceiling and concentrating on a missing tile!

We all know of people who have had a relatively easy life and yet are essentially unhappy. And we all know of people who have suffered a great deal but generally remain happy.

The first secret to happiness is Gratitude. All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy.

We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain. But it is truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.

The second secret is having passions, and the more passions we have the more happiness we will experience.

Thirdly, we need a philosophy of life which will guideus towards a path of happiness. A belief that our existence has some larger meaning, thereby transcending our so-called unhappiness.

Just some thoughts to mull over.

Cheers to Happiness”

:) :) :)

Last week I was chatting with the CEO of a brand new company in the entertainment business. And as we talked about his business strategy and marketing plans, the conversation naturally veered towards advertising. It turned out he was on the verge of signing on an agency, which he admitted gave him the second best ideas during the pitch!

It turned out, he chose the ad agency which gave him the second best ideas, because it was a small local agency, and he felt that they’d give him more importance and better service than the large multi-national agencies!

This conversation brought up a subject that always got me thinking. It made me wonder about the decision making process when I was in an agency myself. And it still confuses me, when I help some of my clients choose an agency for themselves.

What is the right way of choosing an advertising agency?

Admittedly, like everything else in this business, there are no right answers; only calculated risks, based on some experience, some gut-feel, and mostly relationships.

Whether it is hiring people for the agency, the marketing department, or choosing the agency many of us follow this basic thought-flow:

1. Are their ideas good?
2. Is their idea for my business their first good idea, or are they consistently good with other brands?
3. Do they have the bandwidth to handle my business?
4. Do I like these people?
5. Are we culturally similar, and will we be able to get along if the business gets tough?

Note, I said “many of us” before I started the list, because I believe that while many of us go all the way down
to point 5, most of the people/brands I know stop at Point 3.

And most people stop at Point 3 because of two reasons:

1. They think liking people and getting along with them is irrelevant if the work is good, and you get good results. They’re here to do work, not make friends.
2. They are ignorant of the fact that cultural mis-matches and not getting along with people is the biggest cause of strife in the world today, and it is very relevant in the workplace, and in business as well.

But putting these two points aside, let me just address points 1 to 3, and share some thoughts with a list of questions you as client must ask during the pitch process. Forget “Pitch consultants” because, as experience tells us, pitch consultants are a complete waste of time and money (But more on that later!).

Here’s 20 questions for which you must get answers:

1. Do I like their Credentials?
2. Are their Credentials relevant to my business and category?
3. Do I like the case studies they used to showcase their capabilities? 
4. Will the teams that worked on the case-study brands work on my business, or will I get some other team? If its the latter, what have they done?
5. Are the people who led the teams that did the showcase work, still with the agency? Will they be leading my business as well?
6. Will I get dedicated resources? If shared, whom am I sharing my resources with?
7. Are the teams in place, or will they take a while to get going on my work?
8. Does the agency have a clear structure, or is it ambigious? Is leadership clear, are roles clear within their setup?
9. Is there a clear line of contact? Is there a clear process for escalation of issues/problems?
10. Do I like the ideas they presented for my business?
11. Are the ideas long-term and sustainable?
12. Do these ideas give my brand a differentiator, relevant to my value proposition?
13. Do they look like they can implement these ideas?
14. Am I willing to implement these ideas?
15. Do I have the money to implement these ideas?
16. Do I like these people, or am I going by reputation?
17. Do they like me, or are they just here for the business?
18. Do our organisations cultures and aspirations match?
19. Can I imagine a long term association with this agency?
20. Am I willing to trust them with my business, and will I give them the respect due to them, especially since “yes” seems to be the dominant response to all my questions above?

If you get the answer “yes” to the questions above, go for it!

And after you go for it, don’t ask these questions again for at least 2-3 months. Because it takes that much time for an agency to settle in. Quite like it took time for your brand to settle in with your customers.

Finally, here’s a bit of advice for both agency and client, on maintaining boundaries of mutual respect.

For the agency: When you get full of yourself, you don’t leave any space for improvement.

For the client: You don’t keep a dog, and then try to do the barking yourself.

For both agency and client: Perhaps the other guy is right…

Note: You can apply the same principles to:
How to choose a PR Agency (no, not the “they’ve got nice babes” method)
How to choose a Website Design company (no, not “the lowest quote” method)
How to choose a Media Buying house (no, not the “they’ve got the best cricket deals” method)

Forbes just released its annual billionaires list.

And guess what..? ‘Poor’ India has 4 individuals in the top 10 list; 6 in the top 100; And 43 others down the line; bringing the total number of acknowledged Indian billionaires to 53!

The top 10 list includes (the Indians are in italics):

01. Warren Buffet US$ 62 bn
02. Carlos Slim Helu & family US$ 60 bn
03. William (Bill) Gates III US$ 58 bn
04. Lakshmi Mittal US$ 45 bn
05. Mukesh Ambani US$ 43 bn
06. Anil Ambani US$ 42 bn
07. Ingvar Kamprad & family US$ 31 bn
08. KP Singh US$ 30 bn
09. Oleg Deripaska US$ 28 bn
10. Karl Albrecht US$ 27 bn

The top 100 list includes the following Indians:

43. Shashi & Ravi Ruia US$ 15 bn
60. Azim Premji US$ 12.7 bn
64. Sunil Mittal & family US$ 11.8 bn
76. Kumar Mangalam Birla US$ 10.2 bn
86. Ramesh Chandra US$ 9.6 bn
91. Gautam Adani US$ 9.3 bn

These 53 Indians account for a net worth of US$ 334.6 billion, which is around 33% of India’s estimated GDP for 2007-08.

What’s heartening to note is that almost all these Indians in the top 100 are self-made men. They are leaders of companies which are at the forefront, and at the core of India’s economic growth today - in sectors such as steel, real estate, telecom, energy, and information technology.

They are not investors raking in moolah off the efforts of other people, but they are individuals who are working hard themselves, day in and day out, to build their companies and build their country!

What I’d like to have seen is more women in the list. There is just one Indian woman (Savitri Jindal & Family - US$ 8.2 bn) and 98 other women in the list of over a 1000 billionaires worldwide. But making up around 10% of the list today, I’d like to believe, this is just the beginning! 

Also read: Asia’s booming billionaires on LiveMint

This morning I read a news report that Japanese 2-wheeler giant Yamaha plans to replace its existing JV in India with a new JV with Mitsui and Co. The given reason: The current JV is making losses since 2001.

The reports go on to say that Mitsui will pick up a 30% stake in Yamaha India for Rs. 168 crore. And “the new investment will go into launching new products in the domestic market with contemporary Yamaha technology, as well as start new marketing initiatives to turn around its fortunes”

Am I missing something?

Why would they make such a redundant and self-derogatory statement about themselves?

Why would they try to introduce the new JV as a solution to their problems (failure) in India?When this JV seems to be a natural progression of Mitsui Corporation buying 3% stake in the parent Yamaha Motor Company, in Japan.

The way I see it is:

1. They’re admitting they were launching old products with out-dated Yamaha technology till now (which explains their dismal market share of 4%).

2. They’re admitting their marketing initiatives till now were a complete failure (and I completely agree)

3. They’re admitting they are totally screwed right now.

I am not sure of their current JV composition, but this exercise also seems to lay blame on the current set-up. Either way, they’ve got bad advice, and are indulging in bad PR!

Let me address the situation of Yamaha India, with a marketing perspective. While its clear their objectives would include beating the big boys of Ludhiana and Pune, their advertising is invented in Tokyo and communicated in Greek.

And this classic cross cultural misunderstanding is leading to consumers not really getting the point of the brand or its advertising - Large product shots, repetitive and inane spouting of the brand name in commercials, irrelevant juxtapositions or products and context - they are all what Yamaha has been dishing out to audiences in India over the past few years!  

Or is the agency/agencies to blame for these bad clones of classic japanese-style advertising?

How would you explain tacky lines like - life rocks>> you don’t have a moment to lose, ride hard (take off on DieHard) and other atrocious commercials like the ones with Saif, or the incredibly ridiculous Yamaha Alba commercial?

If Yamaha thinks that changing the JV will change their fortunes, they’ve got another think coming. Because if that’s the only reason for change, it’s a classic example of throwing the baby out with the bath water!

My suggestion to Yamaha, look at what other “cultural outsiders” like Samsung, LG, and Sony have done, and how they have taken key marketing decisions in a different country/culture, and are doing extremely well!

I’d also remind Yamaha that there are some very good advertising agencies in India, who don’t have a two-wheeler client and hence are available to you.

If not, chances are you’ll be announcing another JV in a couple of years. And instead of standing tall in Ludhiana or Pune, you’ll still only be looking downhill!

Related Reading: The Great Indian “Superbike” Dilemma 

As Finance Minister P. Chidambaram revealed the Budget 2008 in the Indian Parliament yesterday, an expected lot of reactions were heard from politicians all around. Without naming names, here’s some of the key comments and a tongue-in-cheek take on what they really mean:

When they say:
It’s a populist budget, aimed at the elections
What they really mean:
Damn. It’s a good budget, and they’ve screwed our chances at the next elections!

When they say:
It’s against the people
What they really mean:
It’s against the people in our party

When they say:
It’s against the common man
What they really mean:
Damn. It will help the common man rise above the common. Hard work will actually get rewarded.  And people will no longer get government sops and goodies by just shouting and protesting!

When they say:
Too little, too late.
What they really mean:
Wow. I never thought they’d do it. Now I’ll have to find another argument against them.

More later…

Note: I fully endorse this budget. I am glad there’s focus on the core of issues. I am glad that people will have more disposable income. I am glad cigarettes will be more expensive. I am glad that it is a budget for progress, even though it sounds like one for politics. After all, if I have more money in my bank, and cheaper stuff to buy on shop shelves - who am I to complain?!