This Women’s Day, MediaNews4U.Com is acknowledging women leaders of the Media, Marketing, Broadcast and Advertising fraternity who have given more than expected.
In this segment Women leaders from Dentsu India share their experiences of breaking the gender stereotypes and how they continue to inspire many other women who are true leaders in the making.
Pragati Rana- Senior Vice President, Strategy – isobar India
Journey
Full of shock and awe.
Who would have thought a bratty girl from Banaras who couldn’t construct meaningful English sentences in 5th grade would be on calls with the advertising industry’s best minds globally one day and a proud winner of a few Cannes Lions? Not me. Don’t get me wrong. I come from a privileged family of doctors but never in my life, I could’ve fathomed being in advertising, being in ‘shoots’, meeting celebrities, doing film promotions (woah…are you kidding me?!) And that’s because advertising was never my dream. I never thought I could be part of such a distant world.
Then MICA happened and on my first placement day, in my very first interview, I landed my job at Leo Burnett. I was both in shock and awe! ‘Not bad’, I thought to myself, ‘But was it a good interview or am I really a good hire?’ To find that out, I came to the glittery city of Mumbai and oh boy, I loved it! The city introduced me to some really inspiring people like Karl Bharucha, Divya Karnani, Ajeeta Bharadwaj who taught me the fundamentals of brand building. Ajeeta tolerated me the longest and since I was in my learning sponge mode and I left no stone unturned in absorbing everything that I needed to learn. My presentations are still very Ajeeta like. I got to work on global P&G brands like Rejoice as well as iconic brands like Complan and Tata Sampan.
From there, my dream of being at the centre of control landed me a job at GSK. I joined their marketing team and was once again in shock and awe. Everything felt so different as I got a closer glimpse into the client world. They did not look intimidating; they were reasonably demanding and a lot of fun to hang with. I met some really amazing people there who were full of passion, full of drive and full of ambition. Alok and Anurita gave me opportunities that I will forever be grateful for. I soon realised that the ‘Digital Keeda’ had bitten me.
The call of chaos and creativity beckoned me back to advertising and before I knew it, I found myself in Dentsu Webchutney. I was quite unsure of my decision. I had never done digital before, I had done business management a while back and my new role needed me to do both. That’s where I would like to thank my mentor, Nishi Kant, who had more faith in me than I did (of course, he didn’t know at that moment thanks to my carefully honed acting skills and confidence faking). He told me in the interview that it’s going to be hard and it’s going to be challenging. I was once again in shock and awe. I was shocked because it turned out to be harder than I had imagined and in awe, because I managed to do it well.
I’m in isobar right now; in rooms where NFT and metaverse are being discussed and I feel so glad that I have a seat at the table.The new digital world is a Darwinian world. Either you evolve or you die. It’s lot of hard work and I feel like a teacher and a student rolled into one, every day.
So, yes, my journey has the full of shock and awe.
Inspiration & Inspiring Women
My family inspires me.
My dad would tell me, I should see myself as a mythological God from Ramayana (Yes, Ramayana. I am from Banaras, I’m sure you saw this coming) who had to be reminded of his strength and once, he remembered who he was and what he was capable of, he would regain his powers. And I believed him. Thank God I did. My dad is the most ambitious yet the calmest man I’ve ever seen in my life. Another source of inspiration is my mom as she put off the pressure of marriage in 1970’s and managed to ace the medical entrance exam and became a doctor. My sister is my pillar of strength. She makes raising two children along with raising the professional ladder of being a doctor, look so simple. It’s not, but she does it effortlessly every day. So, like they say that behind every successful woman is someone who believed in her when no one else did, stands true for me. Encouragement and having role models around you are big drivers to propel you ahead.
Professionally, my inspiration comes from people who have come out of nowhere and are now everywhere. They are self-made and are leap frogging the industry forward with the brilliant work that they are creating every day. I’ve had the honour and opportunity of working with some of the finest creative minds of the industry for which I’m eternally grateful. Some names are, Nitesh Tiwari, Ashwini Iyer, Rajdeepak Das, Kapil Sawant, Brahmesh Tiwari, Spiky, Aman, Pravin, Yash, Anando, my very own Aalap Desai and many, many more who have changed my life in ways big and small.
I inspire my team by creating platforms for them where they can stand up and shine. I want to make my people self-driven, make them fall in love with this new world of brand experience and break away from how they have always looked at strategy. Today, strategy has gone beyond the PowerPoint. It is in a place where creativity, strategy and innovations are becoming intertwined and that’s where they need to be.
Empowering Women
It’s amazing to see powerful women in a board room. It’s like a triumph of willpower and grit. The higher you go, the lesser you will find them in the hierarchy but when you do, you know that she must have been extraordinary to have made it here. And then you witness her talk, and you know she is indeed…extraordinary.
I have seen that contrary to popular belief, women make great leaders, great managers and great bosses. I used to hear things like ‘I’m sorry but all women managers are so temperamental’, ‘I prefer to hire men because they can work late’ etc. but over the years, I feel these biases are being slowly and surely sanitized. With every generation, it’s getting better. The women are getting more assertive and more vocal, which is incredible. Every conversation, however repetitive it is, has added a drop to the infinite ocean of women empowerment.
Mitchelle Rozario Jansen – AVP Operations (West) – WATConsult
Journey
My journey first as a journalist & then as a Digital Marketer has been a fulfilling one. It has had its bright shining moments and then again a few reality checks too.
As a working woman in any field there are challenges we must overcome on a daily basis. Whether it is new age patriarchy in the meeting rooms, whether it is Mansplaining, whether it is our own Imposter syndrome that gets the better of us.
Through these challenging times what helps, is a reminder that we are capable, that there is a reason why we have made it this far. Having supportive colleagues and a good work place that trusts you, is also a plus.
Inspiration and Inspiring Women
At any workplace it is important to surround yourself with the right people. Choosing unwisely and going to work becomes agonizing. I have been lucky to have the right mentors right from my journalism days. My chief editor at TechTarget taught me good values of discipline that I carry to this day. My Mentor & Boss Lady Manika Juneja, has been vital in teaching a journalist all about advertising and helping me make a career of it.
My team over the years have been amazing to say the least; they’ve taught me so much. I’ve learnt how to listen, I’ve learnt how to lead with a heart, I’ve learnt the importance of raising each other up and working TOGETHER to make magic happen. The pandemic was a trying time for all, and yet My team and I could sail through because we had each other’s backs.
WATConsult & Heeru Dingra took a chance on me and gave me a place to start my advertising journey for which I shall be forever grateful. I had to learn everything from scratch. I had unlearn how to be a journalist and yet, some of those very qualities like attention to detail, Importance to content, have helped me grow.
You can only inspire a team through action. One cannot just talk the talk; you’ve got to practice what you preach. I always try to build an inclusive environment within my team; to create a space where they can learn & grow. I inspire them not only by talking about the successes I’ve had but by also sharing my failures and my own learning’s along the way.
Empowering Women
As I’m staring at my screen, I’m thinking hard and long fending for the right answer here. I truly believe that women are a force to be reckoned with. Given the right tools & guidance they can prove to be an asset to the society that we live in.
In my career, I have worked on several campaigns that have been able to make actual impact in the lives of people, especially Girls/Women. To name a few – “That’s my Girl” for WATConsult in 2017 where we pushed for girl child education, “Powerless Queen” a campaign very close to my heart as it highlighted the plight of women and underprivileged girls. I’ve also led the team on a breast cancer awareness campaign for SBI Life Insurance called ‘Thanks A Dot’ an innovative too kit that allows women to familiarize themselves with what a breast lump would feel like.
You see, empowerment of women could mean doing a campaign for girl child education or merely supporting your maids daughter. It could mean creating a new product that helps women self-examine themselves for lumps or just donating a small part of your salary for the upliftment of women. It could mean being the next Maya Angelou, Malala Yousafzai, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or just mentoring the young female talent that joins your team. All you have to do is support the women around you, guide them and then you can watch them soar!
