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<ul><li><keyword id="10032656" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="dentsu-international">dentsu international</keyword> introduced the 'new' iProspect to the world last week.</li><li>In the word of the network, it is now a game-changing agency that offers digital-first end-to-end media approach that could be marked as the beginning of a new era of performance-driven brand building in India.</li><li>We reached out to <keyword id="3932871" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="rubeena-singh">Rubeena Singh</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="3142170" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="iProspect-India">iProspect India</keyword> to understand what the new in iProspect is.</li><li>She shares a few factors that will help the agency get a clearer edge in the market, how changing people’s preconceptions about iProspect -- that it is no longer just a performance agency -- will be the biggest challenge ahead and the growth plan for 2021.</li></ul>dentsu International’s new iProspect is the first agency in India to offer performance-driven brand building on a global scale. Earlier this year, dentsu International also integrated Vizeum with iProspect, bringing together the former’s media strategy and planning, storytelling, and brand-building capabilities with the latter's digital expertise, audience knowledge, and performance mindset. Globally, the agency network has been on a consolidation spree. It is trying to simplify how it operates to deliver greater agility and flexibility for clients through a more focused portfolio. Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India told us how everything is changed at the agency, but its name. It isn’t just a logo or website revamp. iProspect has a completely new all-sizes-fit-within approach to offer to its clients. It will look at the advertising world with a combined lens of human-centric solutions that drive growth for its clients; it is designed at the intersection of brand and performance. She further shared with us how the agency will continue to keep inclusion at the centre of all its communications and why she thinks the agency will attract a unique portfolio of clients with its new avatar. Excerpts: <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) Walk us through all that new about iProspect now?" text="Q) Walk us through all that new about iProspect now?">Q) Walk us through all that new about iProspect now?</cmsannotation> Two agencies with a lot of heritage and globally scaled brands have come together to make this new iProspect. We have a new proposition, a new approach to working, enhanced capabilities and integrated teams. The only thing that has remained the same is the name, the reason for this is two-fold… Firstly, and most crucially, we wanted to spend more of our time and energy on building solutions for our clients than building our own agency brand. Secondly, the iProspect brand name already has a huge global footprint and is universally synonymous with digital excellence that has performance at the centre. We, therefore, felt that keeping the iProspect name was the right thing to do, as so much of the brand recall is already in place. By integrating two award-winning agencies, we bring Vizeum’s media strategy and planning, storytelling and brand building capabilities together with iProspect’s digital expertise, audience knowledge, and performance mindset. Clients will have access to the unique capabilities of both agencies, all from one integrated team of highly skilled experts from across a multitude of media specialisms. We are in a unique position to help brands accelerate their growth by offering a digital-first end to end solutions. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) From a structural perspective, how will things be different? Are you planning to train more employees in performance marketing in India or hire new employees?" text="Q) From a structural perspective, how will things be different? Are you planning to train more employees in performance marketing in India or hire new employees?">Q) From a structural perspective, how will things be different? Are you planning to train more employees in performance marketing in India or hire new employees?</cmsannotation> We have reorganised ourselves in India to be able to offer this integrated approach to our clients. Where there were specialists that were looking at particular silos we have brought them together now and integrated them as a team. Today, at one unit, we'll be able to offer clients access to expansive new audience insights, integrated and more effective strategies, market-leading planning and activation, and unparalleled business performance. We will continue to upskill our current talent and also bring in new people as the business grows. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) What will be your focus areas as the agency dons its new avatar?" text="Q) What will be your focus areas as the agency dons its new avatar?">Q) What will be your focus areas as the agency dons its new avatar?</cmsannotation> The launch is just a beginning. We will now start demonstrating our digital-first, end-to-end solutions and also focus on building a culture for our teams where our teams can thrive. As an agency, we want to be behind the biggest growth stories in the business. Our mission is to deliver smart, scalable, honest, and relevant work that grows business, enriches our clients and makes media momentous. To do this, we need to focus on our current clients and understand how we can better help them succeed and grow their businesses through our dual-lens perspective of brand and performance. We will also look to partner with other brands, both domestic and international, who find themselves at a pivot point in their digital transformation in media. This is where we will make the biggest difference and where our skill sets can drive bigger and better growth for our clients. Q) Tell us a bit about the gender ratio at the agency. Your press statement mentions that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is inherent at iProspect and within dentsu international, tell us how have you tried to make your agency inclusive and what are some of the things you would be doing this year to make it more inclusive? Because diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is inherent at iProspect and dentsu international, the new brand rollout also sees inclusion at the centre of all our communications. At iProspect India, we are trying to do our bit to remove/reduce some of these hurdles/difficulties that working women face. Women@iProspect, an initiative launched in 2018, is a small step towards it. Enhancing one’s chances to climb the ladder with much more confidence is our way of producing tomorrow’s leaders. Similarly, we launched Female Foundry in India, 2 years ago, to support female entrepreneurs in the country. We want to build a healthy and rewarding digital ecosystem for all. Such small steps can create a big impact if we all come together. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) What is the future of performance-driven marketing in India?" text="Q) What is the future of performance-driven marketing in India?">Q) What is the future of performance-driven marketing in India?</cmsannotation> As the world becomes more connected, we don’t believe in separating Brand and Performance. We believe growth lies at the intersection of brand and performance because all advertising is about performance; all advertising can and should build brands and drive growth. We unite brand and performance to drive growth in a way that also builds brands. Brands must capture the value and potential impact of every touchpoint to both drive sales and build lifetime value. However, brands can’t just focus on driving short-term sales at the expense of long-term brand health. We balance optimisation and transformation delivering growth today whilst unlocking growth for the future. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) Now that you will bring a global perspective to the table for your clients, what would be some of the challenges and opportunities for you? How are you preparing yourself to face it?" text="Q) Now that you will bring a global perspective to the table for your clients, what would be some of the challenges and opportunities for you? How are you preparing yourself to face it?">Q) Now that you will bring a global perspective to the table for your clients, what would be some of the challenges and opportunities for you? How are you preparing yourself to face it?</cmsannotation> I would say that we have the challenge of changing people’s preconceptions about the agency – and to show we’re no longer just a performance agency, but one which is new and offering full end-to-end solutions for clients. However, this is something our clients want; they’re looking for stronger and more integrated solutions from their agency partners. By having just one go-to for our clients we’re able to make it simpler for them – a single-core team of experts that understand their brand, their customer and their business needs. A team that can drive real-time performance that can better inform the long-term acceleration of brand growth. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) What are the plans for 2021, in terms of expansion, new business targets, talent acquisition, and technology development? What is your vision for iProspect?" text="Q) What are the plans for 2021, in terms of expansion, new business targets, talent acquisition, and technology development? What is your vision for iProspect?">Q) What are the plans for 2021, in terms of expansion, new business targets, talent acquisition, and technology development? What is your vision for iProspect?</cmsannotation> We need to focus on our current clients and understand how we can better help them succeed and grow their businesses through our dual-lens perspective of brand and performance. We will also look to partner with other brands, both domestic and international, who find themselves at a pivot point in their digital transformation in media. This is where we will make the biggest difference and where our skill sets can drive bigger and better growth for our clients. We believe this new offer will attract a new type of client. Clients who are: • Digital Economy brands - or brands who are trying to master it • Brands who are focused on digital or data transformation to unlock new growth • Growth and performance mindset brands who are looking to outgrow their category. Increasingly, this will attract clients who measure business outcomes and not just media metrics and clients that are looking to challenge the rules to unlock new sources of growth.

The only thing that has remained the same for the agency is its name: Rubeena Singh, iProspect India

<ul><li><keyword id="4120995" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="iProspect">iProspect</keyword> has launched its Future Focus report that explores the intersection of consumer attention, commerce and data.</li><li>It has taken in account responses from 200 brand marketers in 29 countries.</li><li>Around 61% of the marketers polled for the report considered ‘building a highly convenient experience for the consumer’ as the most powerful lever to generate business growth.</li></ul>In today's world, convenience and relevancy of <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> to the consumer is key and 61% of marketers, polled for iProspect's '<keyword id="11085763" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="future-focus-2021">Future Focus 2021</keyword>: Brands Accelerated' report, considered ‘building a highly convenient experience for the consumer’ as the most powerful lever to generate business growth. The report addresses some of the most pressing aspects of modern marketing including; the battle for attention, wholesale changes in data privacy, and the emergence of assisted commerce. Combining evidence-based research with interviews and responses from over 200 brand marketers in 29 countries, the Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated report delves deep into the challenges and opportunities faced in the current global climate and within the immediate media landscape. The findings showed that around 2 in 5 marketers (42%) still think the linear path to purchase is as relevant today as it was decades ago, despite the rise of digital. While at the same time 32% of marketers feel that expanding commerce capabilities is important for the 2021 roadmap, however 26% see this as one of the most difficult challenges this year. <keyword id="10937590" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amanda-Morrissey">Amanda Morrissey</keyword>, Global President of iProspect, commented, “Despite the challenging times we live in, I believe there have never been so many opportunities in media. With our new and unique approach of performance-driven brand building, we are firmly optimistic about the future and resolved to make it happen, today. With Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated as their guidebook, I hope all marketers will be able to leverage the growth potential afforded at these significant intersections of media, data, commerce and culture.” <keyword id="10538998" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Prerna-Mehrotra">Prerna Mehrotra</keyword>, CEO, Media, dentsu APAC and MD, Media Group, dentsu Singapore, commented, “Our aim is to guide marketers to explore these intersections at the new connection points for business and brand growth. By leveraging these trends where culture, technology, commerce, data and content converge, we can help them design experiences that are meaningful and valuable to consumers. The future focus at iProspect in APAC will be on working with clients to deliver on the promise of 'Brands Accelerated'.” Commenting on the report, <keyword id="3932871" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="rubeena-singh">Rubeena Singh</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="3142170" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="iProspect-India">iProspect India</keyword> said, "The report, is a detailed guide for marketers to help them with future-ready solutions specially in the current uncertain times. It helps understand how consumers behave in the digital world, and how this learning can be applied that to real-world scenarios via a highly connected and creative use of media. As a digital first, end to end agency, our perspective allows us to rapidly optimise the work and adapt to ever-evolving human intent at the pivotal intersections in life when culture, content, data, and technology meet." Practical Advice to Marketers: In addition to discussing and dissecting the impact of major global industry trends and innovations, the report spotlights the relevancy and opportunity for brands, regardless of sector, to capitalise on these seismic shifts in the media landscape. Examples of the report’s advice and guidance for marketers worldwide include: #1: Commerce is Everywhere Organisations should strive to build and maintain an accurate picture of their commerce capabilities across five key dimensions: desirability, availability, findability, buyability, and repeatability. This will help them define the most profitable commerce model for their brand, better integrate their e-commerce and stores into an actionable omnichannel strategy, explore new growth channels, and turn media opportunities into transaction opportunities. #2 The Battle for Attention Brands should consider factoring attention into their media optimisation and measurement efforts to elevate the impact and efficiency of their investment. To maximise audience attention, they should ensure the content and experiences they design truly align with consumer intent, and that the campaigns they develop do not relegate diversity and inclusivity as afterthoughts. #3 The New Data Playbook On the data front, organisations should embrace the new privacy-conscious world by re-evaluating the value exchange they offer to their audiences and anticipate technological changes to minimise business disruption. This is the occasion to explore opportunities for automation, evaluate the quality of the data they collect and process, and more broadly reflect upon how data is effectively used to inform decisions. The last point is of particular significance as the report found in some circumstances there are huge disparities between what the consumer and brand marketer think, when it comes to assessing data value. Only 9% of marketers believe helping a company improve products or services is an incentive for consumers to share their data, while 44% of consumers believe it is a good enough reason to release personal identifiable information (PII) to the brand.

61% marketers feel a highly convenient consumer experience is the most powerful lever for business growth: iProspect report

<ul><li><keyword id="180259" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dentsu">dentsu</keyword> international announced the launch of the new iProspect around the world as a game-changing digital-first end-to-end media agency. </li><li>The iProspect teams, in India and in partnership with over 90 other markets, will now collectively define a new era in media and be the first agency to offer performance-driven <keyword id="6698170" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Brand-Building">brand building</keyword> at a global scale.</li></ul>Today, dentsu international has officially launched the new iProspect around the world as a game-changing digital-first end-to-end media agency. The iProspect teams, in India and in partnership with over 90 other markets, will now collectively define a new era in media and be the first agency to offer performance-driven brand building at a global scale. As part of the launch, the <keyword id="3158204" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="New-Agency">new agency</keyword>’s global proposition was revealed: iProspect is an agency born at the intersection, where the science of performance marketing and the art of brand building come together. This unrivalled perspective, grounded in deep digital specialism, enables it to optimise in real-time and with precision, in order to accelerate brand growth, in the short and long term. Through the belief in this proposition, iProspect has adopted the “Brands Accelerated” tagline to sit beneath a reimagined logo within a new, bold and accessible brand identity and website. <keyword id="10937590" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amanda-Morrissey">Amanda Morrissey</keyword>, Global President, iProspect said, “We are a new force in the industry, one that draws on decades of expertise carefully brought together to create an agile, scaled, digital first organisation built for the future and delivering today. In fact, the only thing that has stayed the same is the name, but even that looks different. With precision and at pace, the new iProspect is able to learn, flex and scale its output to transform a brands’ performance and provide effective business growth; immediately and in the future. Created from the ground up, the new agency has been collectively built by 93 local market teams working together and understanding the necessity for global consistency yet having the insight to locally adapt for their unique client, consumer and market demands. With this approach, the new iProspect is not a classic top-down ‘one size fits all’ global agency model, but more of an ‘all sizes fit within’ agency framework, with the same global vision and purpose” Commenting on the launch, <keyword id="3932871" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="rubeena-singh">Rubeena Singh</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="3142170" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="iProspect-India">iProspect India</keyword> said, "With the launch of iProspect’s new structure, we are extremely proud to be the first agency to offer performance-driven brand building at scale. Over the years, our mission and vision have definitely evolved and with the rapidly evolving environment, one has to change. The one thing that has stayed constant is that we continue to remain focused on driving business results for our clients. By launching as a new digital-first end-to-end agency, we at iProspect, look forward to bringing future-ready solutions, which will further accelerate brand growth for our clients. With the might and scale of dentsu behind us, this structure is indeed set to define a new era of performance-driven brand building, not only in India but also globally." Evolved capabilities: The new agency will fuse existing capabilities such as brand building, strategic planning, business intelligence, marketing activation and performance optimisation, plus the capabilities of scaled services within dentsu international; to give the teams huge breadth and depth of skills to draw upon to accelerate client growth. Morrissey highlights how iProspect adapts to client need, “We will of course continue to do what our existing clients expect from us, but increasingly we know they want more and, I’m not just talking about upselling bolt-on services, but truly integrated holistic thinking. By bringing together the deep specialisms we have with our brand building experts and also our digital and performance specialists, everyone benefits, and our total offering is enhanced too.” The new iProspect is set up to focus on how consumers behave in their digital world and apply that to real world scenarios via a highly connected and creative use of media, regardless of channel. As digital specialists, its perspective allows it to rapidly optimise the work and adapt to ever-evolving human intent at those pivotal intersections in life, when culture, content, data, and technology meet. These evolved capabilities are delivered by 8,000 dedicated specialists, operating across borders and in 93 markets worldwide. In India, Singh will lead the new agency along with Muddassar Memon, <keyword id="188436" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kaushik-Chakraborty">Kaushik Chakraborty</keyword>, Krishna Kumar, Santosh Mishra and Venkata Dontha to ensure that this new proposition not only meets, but also exceeds, all local and international client’s end-to-end media, marketing, and advertising needs. Regarding local clients, Singh added, “We already partner with some amazing brands here in India, including Fossil, HDFC, Max Life, Biba, KFC and ICICI. Through our new proposition we will continue working with clients, carefully matching their individual needs and our capabilities, so we drive maximum growth for them and their brand.” An accessible brand identity: As well as a new iProspect logo and the “Brands Accelerated” tagline, today’s launch also introduces a brand-new website and representation of its credentials. The new iProspect brand has been designed with accessibility and inclusion at its core. The typography, colour, and visual executions have been reviewed with leading accessibility experts at Microsoft Advertising to ensure that digital environments, platforms, and assets are accessible to all people. These forward thinking and universal design principles open up the brand to everyone, regardless of abilities or other characteristics that can make visual communication challenging, such as colour blindness. Because diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is inherent at iProspect and within dentsu international, the new brand rollout also sees the inclusion of closed captions across its calls, presentations, and videos.

dentsu International launches iProspect as a new agency in India and globally

<ul><li>On <keyword id="6696937" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Womens-Day">International Women's Day</keyword>, we shone the spotlight on women in leadership in the advertising, marketing and media industry. We spoke about their learnings and asked them for their advice, towards making a more gender-equal industry.</li><li>Here are a few key takeaways from the panel discussion that comprised <keyword id="3932871" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="rubeena-singh">Rubeena Singh</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="4120995" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="iProspect">iProspect</keyword> India, <keyword id="3123098" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neena-Dasgupta">Neena Dasgupta</keyword>, CEO and Director, <keyword id="3541423" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZIRCA">Zirca</keyword> Digital Solutions, <keyword id="2738740" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Priti-Murthy">Priti Murthy</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="1860596" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="OMD-India">OMD India</keyword> and <keyword id="5500567" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Roopa-Badrinath">Roopa Badrinath</keyword>, Chief Talent Officer, <keyword id="7067090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wunderman-Thompson">Wunderman Thompson</keyword>, South Asia.</li></ul>Advertising, media and marketing is one industry that has a lot of women entering the workforce. It is also perhaps one industry that has many leaders who are women too. However, we still have to cover a lot of distance when it comes to achieving <keyword id="6372584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gender-equality">gender equality</keyword>. To understand how things are in the ad world and what more needs to change, we spoke to a power-packed panel comprising Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India, Neena Dasgupta, CEO and Director, Zirca Digital Solutions, Priti Murthy, CEO, OMD India and Roopa Badrinath, Chief Talent Officer, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia. The conversation threw up some really interesting insights and solutions to the problems we have been trying to solve, from leaders who have been a part of the industry’s evolution. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Past" text="The Past">The Past</cmsannotation> Speaking about how things were in the industry when she just started out, Dasgupta said, “There was a time when I had to work very hard to make myself heard. A male voice would be considered 'information' and a female voice would be considered as 'emotions.' From there, we have come a long way. Ad and marketing today has many senior women leaders. There’s a massive change I have seen and only for the better.” Singh added, “I started my career withe Sales where there would always be snide remarks like, ‘Oh girls get easy appointment with clients because they aren’t rude to you.’ It seemed like a bias that you are getting the job done because you are a woman and not because of your own merit and hardwork. But today there is so much awareness and sensitization that people are very careful about how and what they say.” Sharing how she was lucky to have started working with a lot of bosses who were women, Murthy said, “I have had a wonderful journey in this industry. I did see some bumps but it wasn’t as harsh because I had a lot of women leaders who helped me on this journey. And the beautiful part is, there are more of them now.” Speaking about her journey, Badrinath added, “Many years ago, I had almost got a job with a leading FMCG player, till the interviewer asked me about my plans for settling down. I was naive and frankly shared my thoughts with him, only to be told later that they will get back to me. It’s been years and I am still waiting for them to get back. That was when I decided if I ever held a position of power, I would make sure women did not have to face these biases.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Present" text="The Present">The Present</cmsannotation> A recent Linkedin study revealed that 1 in every 5 (22%) working women in India said their companies exhibit a ‘favourable bias’ towards men at work. In India, more than 4 in 5 working women (85%) claim to have missed out on a raise, promotion, or work offer because of their gender. More than 1 in 2 women are also looking for more professional connections and mentors who can help them advance their careers, as 65% women agree that lack of guidance through networks is a key opportunity barrier. So how do we make women in the industry more confident about their own merits and encourage them to demand what they rightly deserve? “Women do play small, they want their worth to be seen and identified. They are scared to share a point of view or say that they are as deserving of the role as a man is. There are a lot of people who still look at roles as being dependent on gender. Women have to be extremely conscious about not playing small,” shared Dasgupta. Giving an interesting perspective, Badrinath said that how women think of their own worth also has to do a lot with social conditioning. “There’s a lot of confusion that takes place in people’s minds when they come to the workplace. You have a workplace that is trying to be contemporary, upbeat, talking about equality but at home, there is a completely different thing happening. There, the roles played by say a sister or parents is very different. That confusion leads to a sense of low confidence. You aren’t sure of whether what you are asking for is rightfully yours because the conditioning is saying something else to you,” she said. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Future" text="The Future">The Future</cmsannotation> Dasgupta shared that there was a need for the industry to have more mentorship programs. “We definitely need more mentorship programs but we also need the mentees to be equally serious about the programs,” she said. Badrinath added, “As an industry, if we are going to be having say a jury for an award show, make sure you have an equal representation of men and women. Because if you have a jury with 8 men and 1 woman, you’re sending a strong signal to the younger generation that all that is happening when it comes to gender equality is just posturing. So the industry has to lead by example in small ways like this. Watch the full conversation here: <div type="twitter" handle="admediainsider" handlename="Advertising and Media Insider India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1281482517443305472/8RPcjmow_normal.jpg" favoritecount="2" retweetcount="1" status="For #InternationalWomensDay this year, @samarpitab in conversation with @iProspectIndia's @rubeenas, @ZircaDigital'… https://t.co/DZ3KykSFMh" createdat="1615199940000" id="1368873883424595969"></div>

Women in Leadership: Past, Present and Future

<ul><li>On the occasion of <keyword id="6696937" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Womens-Day">International Women's Day</keyword>, we thought of discussing how we can ensure we have more women leaders in the years to come.</li><li>Our panel - <keyword id="3932871" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="rubeena-singh">Rubeena Singh</keyword>, CEO, iProspect India, <keyword id="3123098" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neena-Dasgupta">Neena Dasgupta</keyword>, CEO and Director, Zirca Digital Solutions, <keyword id="2738740" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Priti-Murthy">Priti Murthy</keyword>, CEO, OMD India and <keyword id="5500567" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Roopa-Badrinath">Roopa Badrinath</keyword>, Chief Talent Officer, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia</li><li>Catch our discussion live at 4pm. </li></ul>Advertising is perhaps one of the rare industries that is said to be much more inclusive world. There are enough women who enter the workforce and become an intrinsic part of this world. However, a look at the number of <keyword id="584229" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women-in-Leadership">women in leadership</keyword> roles shows that there is still some distance left for the industry to traverse. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we thought of talking to a few leaders from the industry, who also happen to be women, on what the real picture in the industry is? Are we really as inclusive as it has been made to be? Are we doing enough to retain women in the workforce? If not, how can the industry, on the whole, change to the numbers and to ensure we have more women leaders in the years to come? In our carefully curated panel today, we will get Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India, Neena Dasgupta, CEO and Director, Zirca Digital Solutions, Priti Murthy, CEO, OMD India and Roopa Badrinath, Chief Talent Officer, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia to answer a few of these questions. Owing to how inspiring all these leaders are, we hope to inspire more women. Join in for this chat on our Facebook and Twitter handles today at 4 pm.

Women in Leadership: Past, Present & Future

<ul><li>While the ad industry has a lot of womentoday, many drop out by the time they reach mid-management levels, primarily due to the lack of flexible hours, or the flexibility to work from home.</li><li>The women leaders we spoke to believe organizations need to prioritize training more women, to prepare them for leadership roles, and this should be a part of the company’s culture.</li><li>There is also a need to relook at the way employee’s performances are evaluated, coming up with newer ways of assessing talent in a time where the way of doing business has seen a complete overhaul.</li></ul> In late 2019, a report by Credit Suisse stated that women’s representation in boardrooms in India increased only by 4.3% between 2014 and 2019. The report further stated that the current female representation on boards is only 15.2% which invariably led to dialogues around the conspicuous lack of women leaders in the upper rungs of the corporate world. Having said that, the world of advertising, marketing and media is one industry that has seen a lot of women in roles of leadership. While we are still far from an equal man-woman ratio in the industry, it is heartening to see more and more women take the top spots. Conversations with most women leaders from the industry led us to believe that this is an industry that welcomes women to be a part of the workforce. However, it is during their mid-career levels that a lot of women drop out of the workforce, leading to a dip in women who take up higher positions. We reached out to some of the most influential women in the industry currently, to gauge what are the reasons for these drop-outs, and what needs to be done, as an industry as well at individual organizational levels, to ensure that women are retained, and even if they drop-out, are encouraged to rejoin the workforce. We received an overwhelming response to our queries from across the sector from women who made some really compelling points. These women who feel passionately about the subject laid their hearts bare, telling us ways they think the industry can evolve, to become more inclusive. Here are some of the most prominent voices. Building a culture of inclusivity It is often noticed that while a lot of women are joining the workforce, many of them take the decision of quitting once they decide to get married or decide to have children. Many find it difficult to come back, due to the lack of flexible working hours at their workplaces, or even due to a certain amount of judgment where people look at them a little differently after they come back from a long break. Most of the women leaders we spoke to believe that the work culture needs to evolve a little, to make way for such women, giving them the flexibility that many of them need, once they start a family. <keyword id="4356726" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="srija-chatterjee">Srija Chatterjee</keyword>, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide, India shared that while a few corporates have started giving some assistance to women, the ad industry hasn’t yet started doing that actively. “As an industry, we have woken up to women leaders and we are trying to make things happen for women, to make sure that they don't jump off from the workforce. However, there's still a long way to go. The biggest reason women stop working is when they get into that life stage of having children. A lot of corporates are today providing strong support, through office crèches or flexi-timing options. That has not yet happened in our industry. From a business perspective, the size of our agencies might not be that big, which makes implementing this a bit of a challenge. But the more and more we get into a group structure, and offices become more centralized, it will enable organizations to look at shared resources to help women pursue their passion. This is something that could be done, but has not been done yet.” A lot of times, there is also a lot of judgement involved when women come back to work after a long break. Delving deeper into the need for a change in attitude, Pallavi Chakravarti, Executive Creative Director, Taproot Dentsu said, “You’ve been out of the scene way too long - you can’t expect the salary that you do after the kind of leave you’ve taken - but won’t your attention be divided now?” These are just some of the things women hear when they are seeking to make their way back into the workforce, post a long gap. Of course, this is not a blanket statement - times are changing, mindsets are changing, as are corporate policies. But if companies truly want to be gender-neutral then statements and questions like the ones I’ve cited above would never be heard again. Additionally, flexible working hours, working from home, working on time-bound projects are all steps that more and more organisations can adopt to ensure equal opportunities. And when I say equal, I mean that these options should be made available to both men and women. Shedding some light on how OLX is working on retaining some of its women, Sapna Arora, Chief Marketing Officer, OLX India said, “Setting the right example of favourable work culture much suited to women, not just in terms of facilities and infrastructure, but also in terms of broadening our thinking within an organization across various levels, is the key to inspire women working population to join the workforce and perform better. OLX, as an organization, is working on taking baby steps in creating empowering workplace for women. A couple of years ago, we at OLX embarked on a journey to evaluate the gender diversity ratio and actively worked to encourage more women in roles such as data scientists, engineers, front line sales and more. This is a conscious choice we have made under our global diversity and inclusion programme which seeks to improve the gender ratio across STEM and leadership roles.” Talking about the need to prioritize diversity in leadership, Emrana Sheikh, Enterprise HR Head for India and South Asia – Johnson &amp; Johnson said, “Today, companies are increasingly equating their C-suite diversity to competitive advantage for their businesses – and rightly so, it leads to robust dialogue, richer decisions and the empathy to design good, and human-centered solutions. For organizations looking for a paradigm shift in their work cultures, C-suite diversity sets an example for the rest of the team. At the basic level, it can be a source of inspiration that resonates down to the front-line staff. This is only possible when diversity in the leadership is prioritized and its long-term implementation is ensured at all levels through intentionality and focused talent management. Internal platforms such as Diversity &amp; Inclusion Council and Employee Resource Groups further drive culture strategies from a variety of lenses, championing inclusivity as a collective goal across levels. An inclusive culture transcends barriers, bias and bureaucracy, and makes the employees truly feel that they belong. All around, women are a critical mass of consumers, influencers, stakeholders and communities. Hence, reflection of the same in organizations is a business imperative.” Sharing a similar sentiment, Neena Dasgupta, CEO and Director, Zirca Digital Solutions added, “Organizations need to ensure that women in the workplace are respected and recognized.For women to thrive in the workplace, organizations need to ensure an environment that is rooted in equal opportunity and a culture that is geared to assist women achieve their goals.” Sharing some tips on a few things that can be done at the organization level to help women continue to be a part of an organization, Ayesha Ghosh, General Manager, Taproot Dentsu added, “Younger women need to see older women in positions of influence. Flexible working hours and working from home might be a challenge in an industry that’s made a virtue of unreasonable working hours but we ought to be non-negotiable about starting early, cutting idle chatter, short lunch breaks and everything else that helps finish work early so that parents (and everyone else, really!) get to spend some time with their families. Ingraining fundamental values will go a much longer way than making token gestures. Enforcing paternity leave, for instance, so that the onus of child-rearing is not on the mother alone. When a parent, regardless of gender is expected to manage time such that they are responsible for their work as well as for their families, everyone will automatically spend less time on idle chatter and work a lot more efficiently.” An organization's culture also needs to have empathy at its foundation, shared Oindrila Roy, Head of Strategy, India, Essence, to make a difference. "As with any type of workforce integration, empathy should be the edifice on which workplaces are designed to integrate and retain both women and men more seamlessly. For women, it starts with stepping into her shoes, evaluating challenges from her point of view and arriving at solutions which are conducive. For example, an online survey conducted by JobsForHer found that 38% of women do not return to the workforce after giving birth, due to the lack of good day care for children. If that is the challenge, companies need to think of solving this problem innovatively - can the organisation collaborate with a nanny service provider to avail reliable childcare options to its employees? Reassured and empowered parents are likely to stay in the workforce longer." Modifying existing performance benchmarks Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India believes that there is a need to relook at the performance benchmarks on which employees are evaluated. “In the middle years, I often see that we are trying to evaluate people on certain benchmarks. The criteria for these performance indicators have been put in place years ago when it was a largely male-dominated workforce. Things like 8 hours of work, or work in office, or if you want a senior position, you should have worked in different geographies etc. But sometimes, for women, it becomes very difficult to be mobile and move to different parts of the country, especially once they get married. As an industry, we really need to re-evaluate the criteria. We should look for quality now, if people are curious, if they are team-players, how innovative and out-of-the-box can they think. If these changes are brought about, a lot of women will find it easier to catch up from where they left, even if they are coming back after a long break.” Treating both men and women as equals at the workplace A lot of women leaders feel that there is an immediate need to start looking at both men and women as equals in the workspace and not differentiate on the basis of gender. Lara Balsara Wajifdar, Executive Director at Madison World said, “We need to look at women leaders as leaders first and not as women leaders. Don’t differentiate us on the basis of our gender, but differentiate us on the basis of our work! Our industry is always hungry for good talent and if the talent is good, the agency will always accommodate personal requests as long as the work is not affected.” Many also feel the starting point is to start a conversation, where both the genders are treated as equal participants. “<keyword id="6372584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gender-equality">Gender equality</keyword> is not just a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue – that extends to all realms, including the workplace. To encourage equality across all lines of command in the workplace and have more women leaders, we need more men to be equal participants in the conversation around gender equality. Having the male workforce as partners can bring empowerment and equal respect among all genders. Global change-making initiatives like the UN’s ‘He for She’ Movement, of which I am a strong advocate, have been setting strong examples for people of all genders to take bold steps in solidarity and are working towards a gender-equal world,” said <keyword id="235731" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nadia-Chauhan">Nadia Chauhan</keyword>, JMD &amp; CMO, Parle Agro. Pointing out to some things that need to be done at an organizational level, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO Eros Digital at Eros International said, “There needs to be a cultural shift and change at workplaces to eradicate gender inequality and retain women employees. It is about time that companies consider deserving women for higher level positions and evaluate their performance sans bias. If there are more women leaders out there at the top positions, it gives a sense of confidence to the global sisterhood with strong role models. It is essential that companies organize mentorship programs to break the stereotype of what a man and a woman can or should do. There are several ways to retain a woman employee at work, but we also need to encourage more women to join the workforce. Equal pay, ensuring all voices are heard and feeling valued, creating safe work environment, etc. are all the least we can do.” Pooja Jauhari, CEO, The Glitch put it rather succinctly in her three-point recommendation on how to retain women. She said, “Firstly, treat your entire talent base with gender blindness. Best person for the job. Without over-thinking their family, marital, ‘emotional’ status. Just get the right person for the job. Secondly, allow your talent to align personal and professional goals and build a support system for them to come back to the same position at work after a break (marriage| child birth) and lastly, stop saying a certain gender matters more, prove by example by showing gender balance across functions.” Training young employees to think of themselves as leaders There is also a need for seniors to build an environment of motivating young women while also making them aware of their potential as future managers, shared Sujata Dwibedy, Group Trading Director, Ampilifi India. She said, “This question is asked to mostly senior women but ideally, both senior men, women and the entire team should be equally responsible to motivate the young, efficient women. The entire organisation gains if they can train and then retain competent women leading up to a management role. It is critical to show them advancement opportunities and their growth path. Policies might have to be tweaked but if it benefits all, it should not matter. Building an inclusive workplace, an organisational environment that values diversity not just for the sake of appearances but for the competitive edge that comes with access to multiple perspectives would make a difference.” There are a lot of internal barriers that women have to cross and training them to believe in themselves could help in ensuring they make it to the top. <keyword id="346168" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lulu-Raghavan">Lulu Raghavan</keyword>, Managing Director, Landor Associates said, “Even before thinking of getting more women leaders, we have to think of how we can create a better working place holistically. Secondly, you have to ensure that women at the top, doing good work get the visibility. It starts with the leadership, company philosophy and culture. You’ve got to find them and put them on the top because deserving women do exist. You can’t give us an excuse that there aren’t any women relevant for the top positions. A lot of training has to be done with women themselves; there are a few external barriers such as company policies, work environment, how other people behave towards you, and there are internal factors, which we women have set up through the years. It is the lack of self-confidence, self-doubt and imposter syndrome. We women have to be trained to be leaders. It should be different from the overall management chain because it is decades of social conditioning that companies have to break when women join them. “ Anita Kotwani, Senior Vice President, New Business, Mindshare added, “The industry needs to first acknowledge that Woman leaders can deliver as well as their male counterparts for senior-level roles. The grooming required should be done for the role and not the gender. If that happens you will see the necessary shift with more woman leaders leading the mantle.” Sharing her optimism about the future where she envisions more and more women to be on the top, Kranti Gada, COO Shemaroo Entertainment said, “A few years ago, I participated in a program called ‘Tanmatra’ organized by IIM Bangalore, to help develop and groom fellow women counterparts for about 9 months and the stories I heard about the differences in opportunities shocked me a little. I was happy to be at Shemaroo, where we have seen women in key roles leading from the front and managing the core business with ease and expertise. While the ratio of women is a little skewed in the industry, the gender gap is narrowing, and we will see more women taking charge in future in every field.”

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