In Conversation with Pankaj Seith
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What sparked your entry into market research, and what has sustained your passion through industry transformation?
Like all good Bollywood movies, my entry into MR had two stages – the original and the sequel. The original entry was as a user of research, as a Marketer in my first company, i.e. HUL. It started organically as MR was imbibed in the working culture there. We used various research for sharper decision making – product tests, household panel, advertising research, pricing tests, brand tracks etc. The sequel to this was my second entry as a full time CMI professional at HT Media, where I first joined as a Business Head and then laterally moved into this role.
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Which key moments in your career most shaped your approach to leadership and growth?
I had some key phases, and not key moments, that shaped my approach to leadership and growth. The FIRST was winning in the marketplace in the liberalizing ’90s via good innovation at HUL on all facets of the marketing mix – product, packaging, distribution, pricing and advertising. The SECOND was becoming a founding member of the leadership team of HDFC Life and contributing via different roles and closely seeing leadership of our CEO, Deepak Satwalekar. The THIRD inflection point was building winning partnerships in my HT Media role as CMI head. These partnerships were with my colleagues in Editorial, Marketing, Ad-sales and with various agency partners. I was fortunate, in all these cases, to have excellent colleagues and team members.
Interestingly, I also found it very useful to keep reading the ‘CEO interviews/Gyan’ that appears in publications like they appear nowadays Business Today (on last page) and Mint e-paper (on last page each Monday). These always had nuggets which help one recalibrate one’s own leadership approach.
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Who have been the key influences in your journey, whether family, mentors, or colleagues, and how did they shape your path?
Newton’s famous quote holds true. ‘It is true that I have seen so far, because I stood on the shoulder of giants.’ In the early years, it was mainly internal seniors and CMI colleagues who helped via support on knowledge and execution respectively. In my later year, internal partners helped in securing organizational alignment, sharp focus on key problems-to-solve and on giving budgets.
External agency partners have supported in two critical ways – as knowledge experts and as execution experts. On super critical issues, I always consulted multiple stakeholders and that helped greatly. Many times, a tough internal customer / senior also shaped my path as we had to adapt and upgrade our game to meet the expectations!
There are many names here including my seniors - Neeraj Chandra, Shiv Shivakumar, Deepak Satwalekar, Rajiv Verma, Sanjoy Narayan, Shashi Shekhar, Praveen Someshwar and my MR seniors and colleagues including Nary, Ashok Das, Chhavi Bhargava, Jasmeet Singh, Sowmya Mohanty, Amit Adarkar, Hemant Mehta, Dixit Chanana and Praveen Nijhara. My colleagues Shantanu Bhanja, Rajan Bhalla, Vandana Krishnia, Sanjay Tripathy, Girish Ganaraj, Aditi Mittal, Saurabh Sharma, Diptakirti Chaudhury, Subhash Chand, Abhijoy Haldar were great partners. I am sure I have missed many names but there are many others to whom I look back with fondness and gratitude.
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In your view, how is the Indian MR landscape redefining itself in the context of digital acceleration, AI, and global integration?
At the onset, I must confess that I am not involved on a day-to-day basis any longer with the MR industry. Keeping that in mind, I have tried to answer this question in the best manner.
Digital acceleration started many years back and continues to happen. I feel that the MR landscape has been adapting reasonably, though in a bit linearly. Innovating proactively and collaboratively could lead to better enrichment of human capital, IPRs and profit margins of the sector. A bit of outside-in thinking and innovation mindset can help there.
AI is a tectonic shift which is impacting knowledge work a lot and I feel MR ecosystem in India is just about doing OK. Many entities are active in this space including legacy MR firms, startups MR firms and non-MR firms – both legacy and new. I think MR landscape could get disrupted or could be the disrupter. For example, in an adjacent area of Marketing Communication, one leading FMCG firm has done away with agencies totally. What if the same thing happened to their MR function! On the other hand, there are many adjacencies into which MR can profitably move in the space of security predictions, meta-insights, innovation productization etc.
Global integration will vary a lot by type of company, sector and agency involved. Since my last few years were more in Indian companies, I would not be able to comment more on this except what I have captured in above para.
Overall, I feel that MR landscape has good talent and opportunities, but perhaps the focus is more on managing operations. Maybe keeping focus high on strengthening human capital and on discovering adjacent growth areas could feed into its long-term success.
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What message would you leave for emerging professionals who will shape the next chapter of our industry?
It is very important to remember the Pareto principle, i.e., 80% of your success will come from 20% of your actions. Similarly, remember the reverse pareto, i.e., 80% of your misery / challenges will come from 20% of your inactions / wrong actions. 😊
Keeping this in mind, I have FOUR MESSAGES for emerging professionals to consider.
- Always play for impact, i.e. success of the project and of the brand/business. It is important to stay focussed on measurable impact – both in terms of efficient inputs and in terms of effective outputs.
- Enjoy the journey and not burn out. Use my 4-T framework to manage workload and to achieve higher and higher productivity. This 4-T includes - Templates, Technology, Team & Trimming.
- Manage your holistic wellness very well. This would include financial wellness, health, mental health, relationships and your reputation.
- Keep learning and supporting others in their learning journey. At times, this also involves unlearning. In all cases, learn from the right source, i.e., which are reliable, bring expertise and simplify the learning process.
After his education at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, Pankaj Seith has worked for over 3 decades in senior roles in Insights, Marketing, Product and Sales. He worked across India with leading companies Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Group, and HT Media, gaining expertise in Insights, sales-enablement, personal finance and business strategy.
A passionate believer in the power of Insights in benefitting individuals and organisations, he is now a corporate trainer in his 2nd innings and has completed over 50 training sessions. His training focuses on ‘Financial Wellness’ of employees and ‘Usage of AI tools’ for greater productivity and have been very well received.