Highlighting the need to keep up with the fast-changing technological pace,
Tamara Ingram, CEO of JWT Worldwide, speaks about the challenges facing the advertising sector, the need for diversity at workplace and more in this exclusive interview with BW Businessworld’s Ruhail Amin.
Excerpts:
What are your priorities for the coming year?My priority is to continue to grow the company. We are going to focus on three things: creativity, diversity in talent and diversification of our capability. If we do all that, we can grow our business and make it relevant in the coming future.
What are the big challenges that global advertising businesses are facing currently and how do you plan to tackle them?I think the biggest challenge we all face, especially in advertising, is to be constantly changing, to be relevant to the new technological revolution and at the same time hang on to things that make us brilliant. I am going to tackle that through training our talent, having new talent, and of course, acquisitions too are part of that strategy.
What kind of changes have you planned for JWT?I want to make sure that our clients’ brands are ahead of the curve, and that we are thinking about how to institutionalise this process and make it more systematic. We are very proud of the work that we have done; in one year, we have gone from 18 Cannes awards to 82 now. So, we are very excited about the emphasis on creativity and a divergent talent base.
Which sectors would you say are most promising from a business point of view?I think there are many sectors where extraordinary work is being done. There is the consumer goods sector, and then there is the tech revolution and the services and banking sectors. I think we are witnessing a revolution across many sectors; we see huge opportunity in all of them.
You said that your priority is diversity and inclusion, what has been your approach to make it happen?When we look at our business across South Asia, we have almost 50 per cent of women leaders. We are doing a number of things; we are making sure that on every open brief, we have a diverse candidate list. We are also looking at creating different partnerships and different relationships to broaden our appeal.
How would you define your management style?I would say it’s about being committed, accountable and energetic, and I always like to leave people feeling a little bit better.
Click here to read interview with Tarun Rai, CEO, JWT South Asia
