Mumbai: In the first episode of Leo Burnett’s podcast series ‘Speakeasy with Dheeraj Sinha’; Dheeraj is in conversation with one of the top business leaders of Asia, Sapna Chadha, Senior Marketing Director, who spearheads Google’s efforts in India & South East Asia.
The session discusses how despite being a technology brand, Google is building inclusivity around its audiences in markets such as India; how Google is driving the idea of purpose through various on-ground initiatives – including internet saathi – a digital literacy programme for women in rural India, to ‘station wifi’ – which brought free wifi at railway stations and incubator programmes to help start-ups. The session concludes with Sapna’s journey as a leader and her advice on bridging the gender gap to help more women in leadership roles.
Sapna talks about how brands can go beyond chasing revenue and work towards making a meaningful difference by helping in bridging the gap of social inequalities, through their business offerings.
On driving business with purpose, she said, “Our mission at Google is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful. We strongly believe that through our efforts, we can help navigate people to the right mediums/ platforms to help them fulfill their aspirations. In times of crisis, people turn to google for solutions and we ensure that with the help of machine learning and AI we provide the users the necessary guidance in the time of need.”
Sapna also talks about gender inequalities and prejudices and how women leaders can thrive in today’s times, “Even today gender inequality is a huge hindrance; and this is reflected in access to technology, education, pay scales, and affects the women in the workforce across the board. We have a huge opportunity to level the inequalities across the world through technology. As women sometimes it is our own thoughts that hold us back. And that is why it is important as a leader we set the right example and provide the necessary support and encouragement to women to succeed in their careers.”
Dheeraj Sinha, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia – Leo Burnettconcludes the sessionwith key takeaways
- A brand such as Google doesn’t always chase revenue, sometimes it chases building an ecosystem, like empowering developers in southeast Asian markets or empowering women entrepreneurs.
- The brands idea/ purposeof organizing the worlds information and being useful acts as the guiding principle behind everything that it does, from search to payments to devices.
- What’s most interesting takeaway is that Google which is such a sharp brand does not target a set audience of 18 to 45 but talks to everyone everywhere. It reaches out to multiple audiences across multiple platforms.
- This podcast is a great opportunity for the listeners to learn about successfully sustaining a business with positive impact from one of the best in the industry.
The podcast is in tie-up with IVM podcasts network and will be available across platforms – Spotify | IVM | Google Podcast | Apple Podcast | Ganna | JioSavaan | Amazon Music
