The Obsessive Sacrifice of Innocence

Four things that the Indian media industry should watch out for

I have always believed that for an industry that claims that it’s about people, advertising and media industry is appallingly indifferent about people when it comes to putting its mouth where its money should be.

That’s why when IMPACT asked me to write a piece about the four things Indian media industry should watch out for, I thought of writing all four things in the context of people and what organizations should be doing about them.

It is my belief that while each person has her own talent, how people use their talent is guided by the context in which they operate and expectations set on them by their environment. This is why some people good at opening locks help us get into our house when we lose our key, while others try to break in when we are not around.

Over the last few years, I have seen organizations give up the common sensical focus on people and their nurturing, that I and several of my peers benefited from when we were at the early stages of our careers. As a result, four things that are so important in today’s exciting world are all but lost.

Curiosity

I remember that in the first few years of my career, all I had for people around me, my seniors, my clients and peers, was questions. Many things around me intrigued me. Much as the Economic Times on the surface felt like a boring paper, it was full of stuff I knew nothing about, things I had avoided in the macro economics class in my business school. Once I saw a book on direct marketing lying on someone’s table and I could not sleep properly, until I had read that book cover to cover. There was this print processing studio in Delhi called Ajanta, where I often hung around asking all sorts of questions to the technicians about their equipment, just for ‘time pass’. Going on market visits, observing housewives buy things at the kirana store and asking them a few impromptu questions, were things we ended up doing without thinking much about it.

Where did we drive curiosity away? I find youngsters today mouthing platitudes about marketing, making sales pitches, using PowerPoint and other tools effortlessly, but I don’t find them curious enough about business and marketing and communication. That worries me a lot.

Conviction

Conviction is different from loose opinion, which I find in abundance these days. Every time I read a book about an inspiring business leader or watch a movie I really like, I see conviction. I see people standing up for things they believe in. Early in my career, I met copywriters who would actually want to quit if you didn’t buy an idea they believed in. I had met film producers who would spend hours trying to persuade you about a frame in a commercial. Conviction comes from principle. I see too much of expedience in young people today. I have heard seniors teach things like ‘if the client wants to waste his money, I would rather he wasted it through me’. A lot of people today have an opinion; but who wants an opinion from you on a subject you don’t know? Conviction is not rigidity; it’s about true heartfelt belief. We need to encourage people to have conviction, rather than lose patience with them.

Conversation

This may actually seem to contradict with what I said before, but the truth is conversation is more important than ever in our life and in business. People are conversational on social networking sites, at hang outs, but why not in the work place? Conversation leads to participation, lack of it results in submission. At workplace, we need our people to question the way we have always done things, and take charge rather than passively accept board room dictates. When people become conversational at work place, they will respect conversations between brands and consumers, something that is crucial to building connections today.

Collaboration

A hyper competitive world has somehow misled us to believe that we can win the war on our own. No one wins the war on her own. We need to relearn and re-teach the value of collaboration. This is not just theory; it is an absolute necessity today. Collaboration works directly against ego clashes, land grabbing and turf battles, just the kind of things that come in the way of prosperity. It produces value for customers, companies and our own people.

We need to teach our people how to be innocent again and let common sense guide us as much as acquired knowledge. In my view, if we can create a culture of curiosity, conviction, conversation and collaboration, we would be channelling so much of young people’s energy for meaningful purpose.

[Published in IMPACT Annual Issue July 2008]