The Dual Vision

Nandan Nilekani, in his recent article “The Future Is Now. Stop Building for Yesterday,” makes an interesting point about ‘Dual Vision.’ “Effective governance today requires dual vision; a commitment to address current needs and battle-test our policies for years ahead.” While the context of this article was public policies and building the nation for a future generation, no one can miss its relevance in any organisation building.

In the context of marketing services business, what does it mean to have a dual vision? Brand marketers and agency partners who offer solutions are facing challenges for multiple reasons: (a) rapidly changing consumer behaviour enabled by technology empowerment, abundance of choices, and short attention span, (b) competition not getting limited to their own categories but multiple categories fighting for the same share of wallet and the challenge of speed-to-market, (c) increasingly complex marketing landscape because of technology and social connectivity, and (d) challenges in managing a young but impatient workforce with their own dreams and aspirations.

For an agency partner that is trying to build its own brand, there are two fundamental building blocks. First, the need to better understand the client’s marketing problems and being able to provide solutions that address these problems. This is the intellectual capital. Second, building a strong cohesive and closely bonded team with a sense of purpose that is equipped to deliver these solutions. And this is the emotional capital.

In a knowledge economy, the need for building the intellectual capital is hygiene and does not need an explanation. Attracting the best talent, conducting training and workshops, investing in knowledge management systems and collaboration platforms, and the like are critical, and some of the leading agencies are already doing these.

Equally important, but perhaps more challenging, is building the emotional capital. At a time when multiple specialisations and matrix reporting structures are the norm, getting together a set of people with different skills and expertise can be a daunting task. People will have different motivations; their levels of involvement will not be at the same; can be territorial; and at times, can even be a wrong fitment. Yet, at the end of the day, everyone needs to collaborate. Knowing the people well, helping them understand themselves, recognising and acknowledging their needs and aspirations, and trying and matching these with organisational goals as much as possible are the only options.

Moving in this direction requires tremendous amounts of patience and humility from the leadership. And the guiding principles for this are the belief that large organisations should help their people to improve their quality of life, and that an institution is bigger than the individual while at the same time an institution is better equipped to absorb shocks and therefore protect the individual.

So what can be the dual vision, i.e., current needs and future needs for agencies?

Current needs in a nutshell are whatever that is needed in delivering client delight. All the enabling factors that can drive product and execution excellence-be it skill sets, tools and technologies, infrastructure, and a set of people who are glued by a common agenda.

What are future needs? Much is being said and written about the future of agencies. Whatever that is, here are a few pointers on future needs:

- Ability to create flexible structures and remain fluid and not bound by rigid structures. Assembling and dismantling project-specific teams. Structures that enable quick deployment of onsite teams.

- Ability to build capabilities and skill sets required to work closely, not just with the marketing team, but with client’s product development and customer service teams.

- Potential to attract talent from diverse fields and investments in ’tinkering’ time (akin to Google’s famous 20% time). Allowing teams to pursue projects that are relevant in consumer understanding and marketing.

- Investments in research and technology for better understanding and leveraging of the new digital touch points.

- Adoption of required technologies, leading to automation of the regular ‘chores.’

In the age of empowered consumers, marketing is becoming more challenging and interesting. So is the agency life.

Unny Radhakrishnan heads the digital practice at Maxus - a highly successful marketing & communications agency

This article first appeared in the weekly Firstpost-Storyboard digital paper. For a free download of the paper, click here