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A Dedication to Creation:
India's Ad Man Ranjan
Kapur
HOW TO DEMOTIVATE
YOUR BEST EMPLOYEES
01 JUN 2016 WHAT DO YOU
THINK?
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WHEN BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE FALTERS,
IS CULTURE CHANGE THE
FIX?
31 MAY 2016 HBS CASE
by Sean Silverthorne
One day in 1966 while Ranjan Kapur was walking in midtown Manhattan, a
black limo pulled up alongside. A man he instantly recognized as
advertising icon David Ogilvy, founder of the agency where Kapur had
recently been hired, stepped out and greeted him by name. The two men
proceeded to have an hour-long discussion driving around the city.
WHAT IS MANAGEMENTS
ROLE IN INNOVATION?
Young Kapur had just joined the firm Ogilvy & Mather after a brief stint at
Citibank, where hed decided he needed a more creative career. His
conversation with Ogilvy confirmed that hed made the right decision.
The Indian culture was still very fascinated by the old British style of
operation. And advertising was seen as a glamorous thing
Kapur discusses his years as a developing ad man and eventual executive
chairman of O&M India in a new interview with Sunil Gupta, the Edward W.
Carter Professor of Business Administration and Chair of the General
Management Program at Harvard Business School.
In the discussion, conducted last August in Mumbai, Kapur reflects on
some 50 years in the advertising industry, starting in the Mad Men era of
the 1960s, experiencing the dawn of the digital revolution, and ending with
his retirement in 2003. He is now active mentoring young entrepreneurs,
investing in companies, and painting.
The interview is part of the Creating Emerging Markets
series sponsored by the HBS Business History
Initiative, in which business leaders in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America discuss their experiences growing
businesses amid the opportunities and uncertainties
of developing markets throughout recent decades.
SUNIL GUPTA
Sunil Gupta is Edward W.
Carter Professor of Business
Administration
Chair, General Management
Program at Harvard
Business School.
CONTACT
Send an email
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Also, the government at the time had a socialistic leaning. Advertising and
marketing were not considered good things. You had so many poor people
in the country who couldnt even put a meal on their table and here you
were trying to sell Coca-Cola or fancy products that were not necessities. So
there was a lot of debate in the country, certainly from the politicians,
about whether we really needed that. And even more recently, when Pepsi
came back, you heard many people saying, Silicon chips, yes; potato
chips, no.
Q: When did India become more of a business-friendly country, especially
for advertising?
A: That changed with the opening of the economy in the 1990s. Two things
happened. All these global companies came back, which helped the
advertising industry. And the economy grew, which meant the middle class
grew rapidly. The Indian middle class is huge; you are talking about 400
million people. As the middle class grew with large disposable income, and
these foreign brands returned, it pushed the local brands to improve their
quality and services. Competition rose and consumers benefitted.
Q: So at this very fortunate time, Ranjan Kapur comes back to head O&Ms
India operations. He had been serving in the very successful Singapore
office, but O&M India, headquartered in Mumbai, was not so successful,
ranked as the fourth largest firm in the country and heading toward number
five. In pretty short order, he built it into the top agency in the country.
What did he do?
A: He looked at three major things. One, there was a bit of a myth within
his company that we arent big, but we are very creative. Somehow, being
big and being creative were considered to be at the opposite ends of the
spectrum. He challenged that assumption. Why cant big companies also be
creative? That was the first mindset he changed. That takes more time than
one might imagine because of the entrenched culture in place.
The second thing was empowerment. Every single recruiting decision (in
the country) was being done by headquarters. That doesnt make sense
when you are growing at such a fast pace. He learned that in Singapore:
Empower the people to take action.
The third thing was this balance he created. He talked about the threelegged stool. Kapur was one leg, the finance director the second, the
creative director the third; each had equal power to act. You give enough
rein to the creative people so they can experiment. But there is also the
business side of the operation, which is making sure clients are getting
what they want. Its not great if the creative people are winning awards but
the clients arent getting the business results they want. So Kapur managed
the organizations structure by giving enough power to the three groups but
no one person was dominant over the others.
Q: As you said, changing an entrenched culture is difficult. One of the first
things he did was to lay people off, to make it a smaller organization. To
those who stayed, he gave more autonomy and more money. So clearly a
signal was given: Dont get complacent. You have to earn your keep. And if
you do, you will be rewarded.
A: Thats right. And people can accept more responsibility if you let them.
That was a smart move because the advertising industry doesnt pay very
well compared to consulting, investment banking, and many other jobs. So
the question was, how do you attract talented people and motivate them?
For Kapur, it was by the monetary incentive, by the nature of the work, and
by instilling the ambition and aspiration that we can be number one. It was
the combination of those things.
Q: On the subject of brand building, Kapur is very keen on the idea that
brands take a long time to build, there are no shortcuts. He says, One
[piece of] advice that I would give is to make absolutely sure that you are
not running away from your market to build the global brand. You first build
your brand in your home base because then you understand the character
of your brand, the virtues of your brand, and understand the core that
drives your brand. And if you respect that core can drive any human being
wherever they reside, then that brand has the opportunity to become a
global brand.
A: The first question HBS faculty get when we do a custom Executive
Education program in China and other areas is, How do I build a brand?
Because thats where a lot of value gets created. In many emerging
markets, whether its China, India, or Turkey, when a local company gets
big and has reasonable cash flow, they decide they need to become global.
And the way they think about becoming global is to buy a global brand,
hoping that the magic will rub off on the local brands. That usually doesnt
happen.
Godiva was bought by lker in Turkey. But while the Godiva brand is up at
the top in image, lker is a significantly lower image brand; the consumer
doesnt see a connection. Its as if Levi decided to make a fancy Italian
suit. Im not going to believe in the brand even if they make a nice suit,
because my image of Levi is of it being very casual. What we see is that the
image change happens gradually. You build a Honda Scooter, then a Honda
Civic, then a Honda Accord, and then an Acura. There is a lot of theory and
research on how consumer behavior and perception changes over time. And
that change in image takes 10 to15 years.
Many companies have a difficult time understanding this. They are eager to
go to a global market by buying a global brand because they have the cash
sitting on their balance sheet. So it was interesting to hear that Ranjan
Kapur was on the same wavelength about brand building.
Q: Digital is transforming advertising and some fear that the romance of the
industry, the creative passion, is being subsumed by data, analytics, and
ROI. Kapur is bullish on digital but sees a big shakeout coming. I suspect
you share that vision.
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COMMENTS
Rammohan Potturi
7daysago
mangal
8daysago
In sixties and seventies, though advertising business was dominated by Suits and Convent
educated Sahibs, back end was captured by vernacular creative minds. It is only now they
are given the credit due.
Like Reply
Vks
8daysago
Suresh
8daysago
Suresh Rao
Advertising in India now is Indianised.....which means not anglicised and yet not localised
as India is a very heterogenous market.
Like Reply
Brian
8daysago
I enjoyed reading the article a very good way of explaining the evolution of brand building
and creativity
Like Reply
Rajendra
219daysago
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