From VUCA, we have now entered a RUPT world.
Umesh Shrikhande, CEO, Taproot Dentsu
Strengthening the culture: At Taproot Dentsu, our culture is precious for us and its manifestations are many. Openness and transparency. Respect for people. Fluid structures. Relentless pursuit when it comes to product quality and growth. Doing business only when we have complete information, and a few more. A lot of this gets done when you WFO. An extended WFH era will mean that we need to revisit and redefine the ways in which we will protect and chisel this distinctive culture and its important pillars.
Deepening the talent pool: The biggest driver of our culture, creative product and growth is our talent pool. Hiring with care, alignment with the vision, seamless induction, building capabilities, empowerment and strong collaboration grows people. Through 2020, our people have displayed enormous resilience and purposefulness. Through 2021, depending on how WFH pans out, we will need to explore newer ways of growing people, keeping them meaningfully engaged and putting wind under their wings.
Understanding the new context: From VUCA, we have now entered a RUPT world. Rapidly changing, uncertain, paradoxical and tangled. For our clients – their business environment, their models, their focus areas have all undergone a significant transformation. Equally the consumer besides being digitally centred and habituated is now emotionally charged too with all the anxiety, paranoia and insecurity. Not surprisingly, consumer preferences, behaviours and routines have changed in multiple ways. Learning, observing and aligning ourselves to this sharply changed context will need to become our biggest preoccupation and focus because we will be rightfully expected to seek new answers and new ideas to deal with this new emerging normal.
Raising the bar on storytelling: Having been through a rough 2020, the consumer preference and desire for authenticity in everything they seek is at an all-time high. It will, therefore, be our priority to work closely with our clients to redefine brand purpose and find new dimensions of their product truths as we help them build their business. Notwithstanding the astronomical growth of digital media, the role of deeply persuasive storytelling cannot be overemphasized. Finding new insights and new ways of persuading the consumer while strengthening brand equity will remain our passionate endeavour.
Result orientation: 2021 will see a re-energised business focus not merely to make up for the losses of 2020 but also to grapple with and win in a changed world. The desire to understand, solve and deliver will be at its strongest. Additionally, the pandemic has habituated new consumers to get comfortable with online shopping thus creating new opportunities for result-oriented messaging. Given this our big focus will have to be on finding solutions that solve problems. Since the expertise to do so can never reside under one roof, learning to collaborate with a wide range of specialists and doing business with a ‘one P&L’ objective will also need to be a critical focus area.
