Our industry has talent, but how does it go about grooming young achievers to be future leaders, asks Simran Sabherwal
According to the Campus Track Business School survey 2012, conducted by Nielsen, students of B-schools saw advertising and marketing research as the “Industries of the Future”. This news holds good tidings for the entire media fraternity as students from top B-schools in India are now opting for a career in media. This has helped soothe earlier fears that the crème-de-la-crème were turning their back to this sector. The turn in tide could also be explained by the fact that now media companies are looking to recruit from premier institutions like the IIMs, XLRI, etc. Bennett Coleman & Company Private Limited (BCCL), for instance, went to the IIM campuses at Kolkata and Bangalore for the first time last year and picked up six recruits. Though new to the campuses, the company got Day 1 slots and received 140 applications from a batch of 300 and now intends to go back to the campus this year.
Not just BCCL, RBNL, MICA and other media organizations are also making the trek to the top-end institutions. Looking across the industry, this means that today, both people at the top end of the ladder and new recruits come from the same alma mater. For media organizations, this is just the first step in grooming the future leaders of tomorrow, as once the recruit is on board, the process of identifying promising talent and then continuous monitoring in terms of review, training, mentoring are designed and also tailor made in order to cull out the best from the best.
IDENTIFYING TALENT
According to most, identifying talent is actually not that difficult, because in any group of young individuals, two or three automatically emerge as front-runners. This talent eventually starts to attract attention as these youngsters have already delivered more to the company. According to Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT South Asia/JWT Mumbai, “Training, development, leadership is a two-way street; as a company we will give as much as we can, that has always been the intent and that will not change. If somebody really wants to build a career with JWT, we will do everything to make it possible. But, if that person doesn’t want be like a sponge and absorb all the opportunities provided, then they lose out and that’s when a career breaks down.”
Once the potential talent has been identified, media companies across the board put the young turks through various programmes and training initiatives. At RBNL, for example, the potential talent identified for the CXO levels are moved through the business and put through on-job rotation to experience all the different functions and roles. This exposure is planned stage-wise and any additional experience required, be it theoretical classroom sessions or hands-on training, is provided. According to Meenakshi Roy, Sr. Vice President, Human Resources, Reliance Broadcast Network, “The young ones who were groomed as station heads are now leading businesses. They have moved systematically from handling a smaller location to a larger location to more than one location at a time and so on.” In other words, improved productivity, the prime focus of all companies, helps the identified talent move up the ladder at a faster pace and thus the company invests a lot on this front. Adds Madhvi Pahwa, Global Talent Director, Maxus, “At Maxus, we have been focussing our efforts to up-skill our people on our proprietary tools and processes like Relationship Media and other media planning tools to improve productivity.” And, moving up the ladder automatically means more opportunities for the people concerned.
However, Arunabh Das Sharma, President, BCCL, sounds a note of caution when he says, “Leadership cannot be taught so however many programmes you put people through, either you have it or you don’t. If you have it, courses can help develop it, but if you don’t, the courses will not help and you will still not be a leader.”
But, when the young recruits adapt well and take the plunge, this means more opportunities and faster growth in the organization. Apurva Purohit, CEO, Radio City 91.1 FM says, “We have quite a few of our Programming Heads, Regional Sales Heads and Marketing Heads who joined us many years back as RJs and at the executive level and today have grown into senior leaders. In fact, half our people have spent more than four years working with us because of the culture and the opportunities to learn and grow. This trend can be seen in all the functions.”
Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group, India & South Asia says, “Potential leaders are identified and always given additional responsibility; this sometimes happens because of the situation or is a pre-meditated move to aid the grooming process. We strongly believe that all of us need our space to work in and deliver. We do not micromanage but support and supervise. The top leadership is accessible and open to dialogue.”
MENTORING THE YOUNG ONES
Mentoring young talent is an important part in the business and all leaders invest their time in this process. Madhukar Sabnavis, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather India, & Country Head Discovery & Planning, says, “I take great pains in trying to mentor the next level of talent. I do it through three Es-Enlightening- sharing of experiences and wisdom; Empowering- giving them opportunities to lead and do things and Encouraging- telling them ‘Karo, daro mat, main hoon na’. I consciously take time off from brand and client discussions to have side chats with key servicing and planning people at the next level. And provide counsel when they reach out to me.”
At BCCL, Das Sharma has identified mentors who he believes have leadership qualities and will be able to impart these qualities to the younger people. While this programme is currently limited to management trainees, the future plan is to extend this programme to include junior and mid-career professionals. At RBNL, CEO Tarun Katial is also personally involved in the grooming process and devotes 12-15 hours a month on training where he also conducts sessions on leadership. RBNL also has a ‘leaders as coach’ programme where the leaders work as coach for the midlevel team. The idea is to build a deck of leadership at every level. JWT’s Colvyn Harris, in fact mentors a young talent based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as part of JWT’s HIP club mentorship programme.
Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO, South East Asia, Aegis Media, adds, “Our business leaders mentor one or two potential youngsters and almost all of our senior managers are regularly mentoring someone or the other in the company.”
Havas’ Nayyar believes that being a midsize agency helps ensure that everyone in the Havas team at all levels is constantly mentored by his or her group head or director at a micro-level.
For Gautam Kiyawat, CEO, Madison Media, mentoring means bringing out the talent in his team. He says, “There are nuggets of leadership at every level at Madison. And then there are full blown leaders who›ve been kept in the shadows for long. My role is to bring talent to the front row, define goals, enable teams and give them the space to do their job. Succession planning and merit-based reward systems are critical to motivating an organization and creating future leaders.”
EVALUATING POTENTIAL
While compensation is strongly driven by whether the objectives set in KRA/KPI have been achieved or not, and rewards are usually both in terms of monetary benefits and job roles and responsibilities, this is not the only way to evaluate and reward talent. BCCL’s Das Sharma says, “Any appraisal process has a linkage to increments - there are two ways of looking at a person, one is looking at their performance and second is looking at their potential, so what determines their increments and remuneration is their performance, but what determines their rate of growth is their potential.” Das Sharma also believes strongly in the process of rewarding achievers outside the compensation process. He adds, “Leadership is an attitude and a behavioural thing, it is not an intellectual or a cognitive thing. So when leaders exhibit those attitudes, they need to be rewarded instantly, so that reward makes a statement of reinforcement and when you reinforce that behaviour, it gets repeated.”
HOLDING ON TO TALENT
With the talent identified, companies seek to ensure that youngsters learn and look to grow and contribute to the organization on a long term basis. One way to avoid losing talent is clearly earmarking the future career path for potential leader. As RBNL’s Roy says, “When we have identified a talent, we make a career plan and we try and address that career plan with that individual. Ideally, if I know this is the destination, this is where I want to go and if I know that the organization can provide me with that destination, I am automatically retained in that environment.” RBNL also has a policy of IJP – Internal Job Posting - where internal candidates are the first choice for any job openings.
While companies and leaders have expectations from youth, the youth too have certain expectations from the higher-ups. From the other side of the table, Samyak Chakrabarty, Chief Youth Marketer, DDBMudra Group says, “It is important to make people feel that they are an integral part of the organization, so that they take initiative and interest in its success. The company and mentor should also be able to sustain a team and keep them motivated. Another thing is to give them virtual ownership of the company.”
While we may try and decipher whether it’s the right attitude, correct skillset, etc., that make a good leader, Harris says that at the end of the day, there is no substitute to hard work. “There are no short cuts to career growth, and very few people get lucky, so it is about hard work over many years with diligence, dedication, sincerity, and all work commitment and accountability.
These words are easy to say, but it is very difficult to maintain the standards over the years. Youngsters today should ‘Stay Hungry And Not Foolish’ and that will straighten everything for them.”
Colvyn Harris,
CEO, JWT South Asia/JWT Mumbai
Until last year, we were doing over 2,000 training mandates - if 30 people go on a four-day intense training programme, then we would calculate it as 120. That’s how we arrive at 2,000. Last year, we actually refocused our training into a lot of digital understanding. At 2,000 I think we are doing a good job. Of course, some years we have cut back a bit, but again there is purpose and intent to train and the process and intent to equip our people to be the best professionals
Madhukar Sabnavis,
Vice Chairman, O&M India, Country Head Discovery & Planning
The next line of leaders at Ogilvy India – across disciplines and functions – are all strong upcoming leaders. They are there because they have leadership qualities. In today’s world, leaders need to display three key qualities – be open-minded, be influential in a collaborative world and yet be decisive
Arunabh Das Sharma,
President, BCCL
The one thing that I have learnt is the important role attention to detail plays in people’s lives. That has really helped me with my career. People have taught me the importance of being humble, being approachable, working hard. I don’t think I learnt any specific skills from my teachers and mentors, but I definitely learnt a lot of values and life’s most important lessons from them.
Apurva Purohit,
CEO, Radio City 91.1 FM
In the initial days of expansion, we did face poaching since we were one of the very few players in the industry with experienced radio professionals. The right mix of talent and attitude was originally difficult to come across, but is increasingly becoming easier. At Radio City, we have put in a huge amount of work in creating the right culture which attracts and retains talent
Ashish Bhasin,
Chairman India & CEO South East Asia, Aegis Media
We sincerely believe that if a manager has the right attitude, he/she can be taught the skills and can be groomed to be a leader for the future. However if their attitude itself is wrong, then it is very hard to correct that
Anita Nayyar,
CEO, Havas Media Group, India & South Asia
Everyone in the Havas team at all levels is constantly mentored by his group head or director at a micro level, one of the benefits of being a mid-size and closely knit agency. We strongly believe good professional human beings can always be groomed to reach professional heights
Gautam Kiyawat,
CEO, Madison Media
I’ve learnt to keep it simple and stay authentic. Focus on doing the right thing and speak your mind. And that doing business with integrity gives you a good night’s sleep
Sam Balsara,
Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World
Consciously become a leader. There are certain actions of yours which makes others recognize you as a leader. Leadership cannot be given out like a title; I think it can only be earned. That’s how I would define leadership.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
