 have the pitch CMO summit getting into the very special panel discussion. And I can't wait to introduce a panelist followed by the moderator who will take charge and bring to you all those thoughts which might be in a form of question in your mind, but a moderator will bring all that to the table and make sure that answers are here without you thinking of any question. So let's get ready and call first our panelists. Well, our subject today of talking and discussion is going to be creating a purpose driven and resilient brand. Now, there's so much around this entire topic. And let's get straight and welcome first our panelists. Please welcome managing director, NEPA, India Private Limited, Isha Nagar, joining her is going to be co-founder, chief product and operating officer of our very, very amazing partner as well as Zozo De Manoj Agarwal. Joining the two is going to be director, consumer products division, Laurel India, Pankaj Sharma. Also joining three is country marketing director, Dell Technologies India, Ritu Gupta, and head of marketing India under Ahmad Siddharth Paan. All of them are joining us right now. And all this has been shared by our moderator. Please welcome the very, very happy soul, always smiling, CEO of StarCom India, Rati Gangapa with the Begur Arnaud Laskis. Thanks so much, Mithin. Even though if I was not really happy smiling, I'm now happy smiling. So thank you for that. Good afternoon, everybody. Really, really excited to be here to host this and moderate this panel discussion. As mentioned earlier on in the session, today marks one year since India went into lockdown and what a year it has been. For us who are in the business of brands, it has been a year where we had to re-look at how, as marketers, we communicate with our consumers. Also it is time to go back to the basics to what a brand stands for, what is the brand's core, its purpose, mission, and vision. Consumers today are increasingly looking at investing in brands that reflect their values. And it is here that defining and staying true to the brand purpose can help a brand tide a crisis. That's because a company that leads with a purpose and is relevant to consumers' need can achieve loyalty thereby translating into increased brand sales and growth. Joining me today to discuss this is an eclectic set of panelists who will share with us their insights on some of the excellent work that they have done in creating purpose-driven and resilient brands. So a warm welcome to all of you panelists here. Amitabh Pandey, Marketing Head, Ikea India, Isha Nagar, Managing Director, NEPA. Manoj Agarwal, Co-Founder, Chief Product and Operating Officer, Zozo De. Pankaj Sharma, Director, Consumer Products Division, L'Oreal. Ritu Gupta, Country Marketing Director, Dell Technologies, India. And of course, Siddharth Paal, Head of Marketing, Underama, India. Extending a warm welcome once again to all of you and thanking you for joining us here today. So without much further ado, I thought I'll set up this session and hand over the floor to Isha who can give us a lot of insights based on the research that she has done through NEPA. The question to you, Isha, is how are consumers living and thinking and buying differently today? What are the unexpected routine shifts, newer challenges that brands are facing today, and how are these brands adapting to consumers who are now increasingly becoming socially conscious? Thanks, Rappi, for setting the context. Just doing a quick audio check on what I'm going to do. So just going ahead and taking that question up, I think the whole context setting of this topic would have been so different if we were discussing this March, 2020. So we really just cannot ignore how the last year has been and how everything has really changed from a consumer perspective. And wildly, 1.4 billion of the India that we see has been starting their adjustment journey, so to say, how they have been living, buying and thinking very differently. So at the end of the day, we have seen both the shift in the consumer narrative and thus also in the brand narrative. We've seen some magazines really changing to the consumer by the virtue of what has been important to them and how the deep prioritization of something which was as basic in 2019 and earlier years has been completely taken up by things which we could have not really think about if we were to take out over it from the context altogether. So some of the trends that we have been observing on the consumer side has been that there had been a massive message shift on content making people condemn, so to say. That was sort of becoming basic necessity in terms of the consumer's life in the last one year or so. We also saw, I personally had been really passionate about this piece which was the rise of a superme which was the rise of an individual who was balancing, who was reimagining offices, who was reimagining the homes and upskilling on the way, right? We had been seeing a lot of people doing five to six tasks or activities in a day to keep them busy. So it was a rise of superme which made things very interesting. And the last but definitely not the least was we saw a lot of breaking the norms in India which is things which just completely were foreign in terms of both our culture, in terms of both, I mean there was a lot of things that people were doing for the first time, cooking first time, exercising first time and thus the whole construct of what formed the priority in terms of being critical changed and we were breaking norms on the way. However for the brands because you said that it's about how socially conscious consumers have become and another sort of belief has been very challenging because it has been overly complicated and there was communication landscape and the challenges have been to understand the new purchase pattern, the new purchase cycle and sort of to break in the new consumer sentiment in terms of how they're thinking all together because it's no more about just the brand funnel or just the parameters on serials but also about the conversions and the impact on turning out creative communication versus what is really leading to the purchase. So already I think it wasn't complex, now we're dealing with completely different socio-cultural and economic landscape changing this whole way. So that's that, both the market is changing but I'll get open up with the brands because it's just directly leading to the question of the funnel and the sales sentiments. Yeah, thank you so much Isha, I think that sets up a good context for getting the brand folks on board. So I think it's also a nice segue to asking Amitabh the next question since Isha spoke so much about the changes that are happening in the home front, right? So Amitabh, doing good business is so ingrained in everything that IKEA does, right? It is representative of the way you use your resources to help address economic, social and environmental changes. So can you speak a little bit more about how you're anchoring this in every part of everyday life for India with the launches that you've done in the last couple of years? Sure, are you happy to do that? Are you able to hear me all right? Yeah, we can. Super good, I think apologies to the pitch team that I didn't do the background that everybody else has. I think one of it was, I think it just kind of slipped the radar is the honesty but I think if I were to put the brand angle as a brand, you're all about life at home. So I have to show my life at home if I'm being true to my brand. Jyotsapad, I think to answer the question, Rathi, I think for IKEA, I think we are quite blessed. I think I'm quite blessed to kind of be heading marketing for a brand like IKEA, which kind of has purpose at the heart of the brand right from the word go. So I know there's a conversation around brand purpose has kind of become really top of mind for a lot of brands in the last year post COVID but for us, for the last 75 years around the world that we've existed that's always been business as usual. It comes, I think the origins as many of you know, if you're a Swedish origin company and kind of bring those Swedish values to most of the countries and purpose is one of those things. So how we kind of do it, in fact, the whole point of entering a country like India comes from realizing our vision or purpose as we call it the line that we have that we use very actively like almost on a daily conversation basis is to create a better everyday life for the many people. And which country has the many, many people in this world, right? And India becomes the obvious answer. So actually entering India a couple of years ago is part of kind of satisfying this global mission that we have. If I were to take that forward, I mean, if you just kind of break down the many people everything, that's how we kind of, you know live our purpose on a day-to-day basis. One is I think going, if you look at the many people from a customer's point of view, they're really, our purpose is built into the very commercial idea. So purpose is commercial for us. So when we say better everyday life for the many people it's about life at home. What their needs are in giving high quality great design products at really affordable prices so that this great design and functionality is not for the few, it's for everybody. So that's kind of almost at the heart of our customer proposition. If you take it from a coworker perspective and employees, things like equality, we are 50-50 men and women equal across all functions, across all levels. That's by design. Even in functions like logistics where it's, which are male-dominated areas, we go out of our way to make sure that we are kind of, we have a 50-50 balance in gender. Representing the demographic of the city that we operated, ethnic-wise, income-wise is kind of inclusivity and diversity and inclusion is a big part of it. So you talk about co-workers. We take it at the back end from a supplier's point of view. I think the same kind of logic applies there where we partner with them on a long-term basis to kind of build sustainable, environmental-friendly and values that we share with our suppliers. And then finally, I think coming to sustainability, it's almost business as usual. It's right from the design of our products to the sourcing of how it sourced at the back end, again, through these partnerships, including the products and to the products, encouraging people to live sustainable lives at home. So water-saving taps, LED lights, curtains that cool down and protect heat in a natural way, making products out of the rice straws from Punjab that are getting things like that. So that's almost built into what we do. So I think if you look at that, it's almost a way of being for us at IKEA and I'm really blessed to be here so that it's not something that is, it's like, is there any other way to do marketing which is not purpose marketing? It's almost, I think, we're at that space and quite blessed to be in that position. Yeah, so I like that term that you use or the phrase that you use, right? Commerciality is anchored in our purpose, right? Everything that we do is centered around that purpose. You just, every corner of wherever IKEA touches, that's where it's ingrained and it's rooted in that particular purpose. Thank you so much for that, Amitabh. Welcome back, but we've been talking about COVID, post-COVID, pre-COVID and stuff of that, but there are two brands over here, Dell and L'Oreal, which have been doing and embracing or working on a brand purpose for a very, very long time. So the next question that I like to post to is Ritu, if you can talk a little bit more about how at Dell, you've been changing people's attitudes and behaviors and more importantly, even sales growth, I mean, let's even touch upon that, right? How have you been doing that at Dell with purpose or with embracing brand purpose? Hey, thanks, Rathi. Audible? Yes, you're welcome. Okay, perfect. Hey, thanks for, that's a great question. So Dell Technologies, as we know, it's a relatively younger brand. We're all of under 40, we not yet hit 40. We're a 37-year-old brand born out of Michael Dell's university dorm room in the University of Texas. And it was really back then, it was the whole thing was founded on the belief and passion that everyone everywhere should have access, easy access to technology, you know, and that is really what forms the basis and purpose of how we define our purpose. It's about creating technology that drives human progress, right? So even when we look at our culture code, everything it's about the way we do things, it's about who we are and not just about the way we do things. So the way the vision of the company is also defined is in terms of delivering a better tomorrow because we believe that we are driven by the world we want to live in, right? So everything that we do right from the word go, whether it's about, and we also believe that technology actually has the ability to actually address a lot of other societal, complex societal and issues, whether it is education, whether it is healthcare, whether it is, you know, sustainability or even digital economy. So in the last one year, I think that importance and how technology can seep into the minutest areas and influence the minutest areas of our lives has become very, very, very, very evident from that overall perspective. So when, and I'm fortunate, you know, I completely understand what Ramitabh's coming from because when you work for a brand where everything that you do and everything who you are and what defines you is so seeped into the purpose that the brand delivers and derives and you live it as part of your DNA, it's a very different experience. And that's the, as a market here, as the brand custodian, that's the filter. And that's the cap that you wear at every point of time when you're looking and evaluating your marketing action as to how does this go back and tie back to my brand's purpose, to my brand's vision. You know, whether it is in the area of sustainability, whether it's in the area of inclusion, whether it's in the area of driving more skill-based employability because we believe that when you look at a country like India, you know, which has demographics as its core dividend, you know, we are a very, very young nation and education is a key driver for drive, you know, key driver for economic growth in any country. How can technology play a very strong role in that place because that forms the basis of the skilled workforce that you are creating for the future, you know, in a world and an economy which is moving towards being more and more digitized. So we cannot just keep, you know, keep your eyes closed from that. And hence a whole lot of activities that we do, be it marketing or be it outside of marketing. And I'm not gonna use the word CSR because they're probably not necessarily in the CSR space. Right, those are the activities because they do have a commercial, they do have a commercial aspect. Now, it's not something as blatantly commercial as, you know, I'm giving my pieces away at a 50% discount because you're not eroding into brand value. But what you're actually doing is you're demonstrating the value that the product and particularly in the space of technologies that it can bring, whether it's about making sure that, you know, there's a mobile school which is running in Africa or you make sure that they are, you know, technology education which is imparted to even the teachers in our schools. And I wanna bring an example here of a program that we've been running almost, I would say in very different, in different different of tires for the last almost 10 years now, but I would like, let's say, I talk about the last four years. So when we're really looking at, like I said, education is core to any country's progress, right? And we know that, you know, particularly in a country like India where you have the demographic dividend and you have education, but how do you make sure that this population which is gonna be the future workforce for a country where you don't want it, you don't necessarily want it to be a country of consumers, you want it to be a country of creators because that is what propels overall growth in the economy. How do you make sure that you're doing that? And we said, okay, so, you know, how do you really demonstrate the use and benefit of technology, particularly in the space of education? That's where that really, really started from and it's evolved over the course of the last four and a half, five years. And when we looked back at that scenario, we realized that the core to this education process for our child in their developmental years is the teacher. But hey, guess what? Neither the teacher nor the mother is as comfortable with technology as we would want them to be because they themselves have not experienced technology, have not worked on technology for them to be able to experience what technology can do, whether it's in listen planning, whether it's in making sure that the, you know, the entire learning becomes more intuitive and more interactive as against rote mechanism that probably we've all been brought up on. And that was the genesis and also, you know, if I may, this was a, basically the inspiration behind this was a very young boy, a 10 year old boy called Shubham, who lives in a village and the outside of Nasik in Maharashtra. And it was really when we were doing a program that he really inspired us, his story as to how that child, you know, despite his circumstances, he was the son of a farmer family and despite his circumstances, that boy is so bright, absolutely so bright that his parents invested into buying a PC for him. And the guy actually was able to, you know, he was explaining to us how a windmill works. When I was 10 years old, I probably did not even know what a windmill was, right? But here was this little kid in a school, in, you know, somewhere in, in back of beyond Maharashtra in a village outside of Nasik city, where he's talking about it. And his parents are so happy. They're not educated, but they're super proud of what he's doing because he's like, we kind of show that he'll be able to make something of himself, right? So whether it's interaction with doctors or whatever, they're sitting there and, and this little boy converses with the doctors in English and you have this pride that you can see in his parents' eyes because he's very, you know, they're very happy that he's actually able to move in step with the times. So that little experience for us created this program called ARAM, which is Hindi for as we all know is Hindi for the beginning. And ARAM was a program whereby which we started training teachers in schools about the use of technology in lesson planning and in education and how classes and learning can be made more fun. So, and I think over the course of the last four and a half years, we've actually trained over a hundred thousand teachers, over 130,000 mothers across 80 towns and we've touched about 4,000 schools, all in all to make sure that, you know, as they grow, now these are people who may not buy a PC tomorrow or they may not buy a Dell tomorrow, you know, equally importantly for me, but it's about bringing that mindset shift that yes, it is about, you know, you cannot be ignoring technology as you go along. And last year when, you know, like you said today is probably the anniversary for the lockdown that we had in the country. And when that lockdown happened, this entire four and a half, five year old program came to a standstill because it was a school contact program. We pivoted the whole thing to become online and digital. But the kind of response that we got from parents and from teachers from far and wide across the country because this was a need gap. This was a gap that they were all looking forward to. How do I make my classes interesting? How do I even plan for imparting education online? As a parent, how do I prepare my child to study online? What kind of shifts or changes I need to do in my home, in my attitude, what do I do? How do I provide the right set of, you know, security features and everything? So that's just one example that I'm saying. And there are lots more that I can talk about. But yes, to be able to make sure, because we believe in combining technology with human spirit and that is where the whole combination comes through is probably one of the most positive forces in the world. And that's what we would want to go into. Thank you, Rathu. So would you say that, you know, COVID to a certain extent helped, you know, change things around, or gave you the impetus in terms of sales growth? Was there a C difference from what it was before to now? Or is it the same momentum that you see that keeps going? I think COVID definitely, to answer your question, has COVID definitely given this whole category and an impetus for sure cannot take that fact away. That said, even before COVID, when we did an impact assessment study amongst those 4,000 schools and the teachers that we had trained, we could measure a pre and post attitudinal shift. And the fact that they had begun to use technology, even if it was piecemeal, the fact that whenever they brought technology into the classroom, the students were far more attentive. They were far more focused. The classes were a lot more interactive as against struggling to keep a child's attention in place. So the teachers and the principals, they could start using the technology and we could sense that shift. I think the behavioral shift got pushed by COVID because of all the learn from home and the work from home things that came in the place. But I think when we started this journey, almost four and a half, five years back, it was really about demonstrating and building in that technology into our education system to make sure that we're preparing a workforce which is ready for the digital economy of the future. Thank you. I think it's a great advantage with the launch of Green Beauty. I mean, I've seen your brands have grown with using your brands, both L'Oreal and Gania. But I've seen a sea change from what it was earlier to what it is now in terms of what you're talking out there to the consumers or the work that you're doing in the brand purpose space. And more recently with the launch of Green Beauty, Gania has taken on the challenge of becoming the most sustainable, natural, the beauty brand in the mass market. And of course, L'Oreal earlier on in the last couple of years I've seen a couple of communication pieces on where it's standing up to sexual harassment on streets. So when we talk about purpose, I mean, which is closer to the brand, how do you select what is the right fit? How do you make that choice? And more importantly, how do you believe that these initiatives that you take help build the brand equity? Whether it's Gania Beauty, Green Beauty or even the L'Oreal stance on sexual harassment or whatever else that you are doing right now in the space. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you and very happy to be here. Before I talk about the Green Beauty Initiative and the L'Oreal Paris Initiative, just to again go back to the point you were making, that today we feel at L'Oreal that the strength of the brand will be very much based on the purpose than it was in the past. It's not that purpose was not important before, but I think the kind of crisis we all have gone through in the last one year has accentuated the need to have a very sharp purpose. And today, the world we live in, right? I think consumers are demanding much more from their brands. Before, you could have sold a brand on its performance, on its power, on its saliency, but I think in today's world, that is no longer enough, okay? Consumer, we ask, everybody loves progress, right? We want our governments to change our society. We have a lot of expectations from the government. I think similarly, consumers are having expectations from the organization, okay? What is the progress? It's not only selling the product, but what is the larger impact an organization is having? On this planet. And today, like we vote for the governments, I think consumers vote for the brands or vote for the organization by buying their products. So there is this trend and I think one is COVID, which has made this trend more prominent today. But the second thing I think is the most digital, because today it was a very top-down dialogue, but today it's a two-way street. It's a dialogue before it was a slogan from the advertising from the top-down. So once it's a two-way street, I think consumers can have a very meaningful dialogue with the brands. And that is also pushing the boundary. And today, I don't think any brand can hide, right? Every brand is in open. What do they do? What are the ramifications of their action? Everything is out there in the open. So that has changed for me. That is the biggest shift which has happened. COVID has accelerated that, but I think the shift was happening before that because of digital and the social communication we all are engaged in. Now, coming to... So once you see these brands, obviously L'Oreal has been committed as an organization and it's not about turning around a purpose in one year or two years. As I think other people spoke about it, it has to be ingrained, it has to be the part of the DNA. And 50 years back, when we said on a brand called L'Oreal Paris that you are worth it, everyone is worth it, we already insinuated that the values of inclusivity, the values of respect and values of harmony. What we have done recently, and again to the question that, how do we take on the purpose? And we know it very well for the brands. There's obviously also a big task on building brands to the right court of the consumers. So you take a purpose which fits with the... Which works well with the brand and equity, the core brand equity which brand wants to develop. An example, what you spoke about Garnier. So Garnier is a big natural beauty brand, the mass beauty brand in the world. And the task which they have taken is the green beauty, which in the next two, three years, there are strong commitment mates on the usage of plastic, on the sourcing of the raw materials. And these commitments are made very open, right? And they're very bold commitments and obviously the work of these commitment started a long time back. And an example, we have been recently recognized by as a cruelty free, by an international leaping bunny program by the cruelty free international organization. So that's another piece on Garnier, which we have rolled out. So it's a big purpose on Garnier green beauty which has been rolled out in India. And it fits with the brand equity and that means it assures us, even a marketer or even the brand manager that okay, as long as they build the Garnier green beauty, they're also building the brand. If both things are disconnected, I think then the journey is not very long. And similarly on L'Oréal Paris, we have taken a very strong cause on street harassment and educating people by a standard, how could they prevent street harassment? What action could be taken? And again, it ties up with the goal of the brand which is again, women empowerment. So again, in the women empowerment, this is the initiative which have been rolled out. And I think important, again, important pieces on the purpose when these things are announced is how transparent it is. So we have taken extreme step, okay, while we announced this purpose for the Garnier green beauty, we have transparency is important. So we have something called a system progress report which will be available on the Garnier.com Anybody, you and I, anybody can log into Garnier.com and see the progress report, all the commitments where we stand today. Similarly, our goal on the street harassment part is not to create awareness. The idea is to change, right? And the change would happen if the focus is much more on the training part. You know, what we are calling a 5D training which anyone of us can take, which clarifies or recommends the kind of steps which we can take to prevent sexual harassment. And hence, I would say just purpose is important. It's more important than yesterday in today's time. And but it's also important to tie the purpose with the DNA of the brand and with the positioning of the brand. And at the same time, make that purpose more meaningful and make it more transparent so more and more consumers can involve and participate in it. And would you also say that embracing a particular purpose which is core to the DNA of the brand helps you in every single consumer, part of the single consumer journey? It's not just about awareness, it's about the full funnel that it plays a role in every funnel, part of the funnel when it comes to the consumer journey. No, no, it definitely, it does help. Obviously, the big goal is not to, not to make it a complete a marketing mandate. You know, I think it goes beyond the marketing mandate. It's reflects on the organizational values, it reflects on the brand values, the brand, what it wants to be famous for. And the intervention of this purpose could be installed in every, you know, every consumer journey. And an example on again on Garnier Green Beauty. You know, today we are working on a label which will declare in the, I think we'll launch it by the end of 2022, the impact label. So like you on the product, you see the price, you see the manufacturing date, you see when it is going to get expired, you'll also see impact, social impact label, where, you know, which will range from score A to E, A being for the best on the sustainability score. So it will be that transparent to the consumer, helping consumers to make more sustainable choices. So, you know, which is the last mile of the consumer journey when they're buying the product. So, and that's what we have worked backwards, covering all consumer touch points. And also, I think Amitabh spoke about it with the vendors, with the back end. Because once you say something or purpose or a mission, then it goes across the organization end to end. Thank you, Pankaj. So that this is over to you. I mean, Underama is one of the most exciting brands that I'm privileged and my team is privileged to be working on. I'm just really excited that you launched finally in India. Fairly young brand compared to all the others on this panel. So can you just spend some time, you know, talking about your journey so far? And what is, what are your plans to bring your brand purpose to life? Cool. Are you able to hear me? Yes. Am I audible? Yeah. So, in fact, we are a 24 year old brand. Versus other sports brands who are more than 50 years old. We are the brand of the 90s. So, you know, we are fairly young. And in India, we launched in 2019. So we are younger than most of the brands here. And, you know, 2019 on the 25th of March, we opened our first store. And, you know, I, everybody here, I mean, Pankaj, Ritu, Amitabh talked about brand purpose and sustainability. I mean, what COVID has made us realize that you need a bigger purpose, even if, you know, you're a brand or, you know, professionally as a less personally as well, you know. So there is purpose defined to everything that we do now and more so, you know, after COVID. And, you know, sports is something that, you know, it's inbuilt in sports to, you know, to help you be better, you know, team sports make you learn a lot, many things. Sports as a, you know, category, you know, when you play sports, you learn a lot of things. And for a brand, it's more exciting to be in that space, right? I mean, all the other brands who are in the competition, you know, be it our competition Nike or Adidas or even Underama, right? And Underama's core purpose as a, you know, mission is to make you better. I mean, because you can actually wear, you know, our products on the field when you're training or when you're playing sports. So I think that fulfills, you know, our purpose in terms of, you know, delivering better products and helping athletes, you know, become better or whatever they do. And, you know, what we realized that, you know, in 2019 when we launched, we thought that, you know, we launched it with one of our core ambassadors and, you know, who've been with us for nearly, you know, more than 10 years now. And, you know, he's the all-time Olympian in terms of, you know, what he's achieved, Michael Feds. And, you know, I'll just share an example of, you know, when he was in India and what he saw and, you know, he was chatting with me. And, you know, the first thing is he asked me, you know, there is this level of passion that India has. And he interacted with kids. He interacted with, you know, trainers. He interacted with the cricket players. He, you know, he had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people, you know, from ages from six, seven to, you know, 40s and across categories, sports categories. And he was asking, you know, you guys are young, right? We are 50% of the population is blue 30. And then, you know, what is that one thing, you know, that is missing when it comes to, you know, being in Olympics. And I mean, there are a lot of things. And, you know, he spoke so passionately about sports. I mean, and he had the chance to play cricket with one of the IPL teams. And, you know, what I garnered from him is that there is this part of discipline that comes when you are a professional athlete and when you are working with a brand. And that discipline is, you know, making a routine of yourself, doing what you're passionate about, you know, serving a life's purpose. All of us in Andhraama have a purpose to help our athletes perform better. And with his, you know, his passion, he was speaking about it. He, for 18 years of his life, he hadn't had a sip of alcohol or not a Coke, not a Pepsi. Nothing of that. So for 18 years after he retired in 32, that's the first sip he took of an alcohol. And he said, you know, that's what athletes go through. And he was just passionate. He's speaking about how Andhraama was with him, you know, throughout his journey. I mean, he's suffered some losses in the way. He talked about mental depression during his time in the Olympics and he spoke freely about it, you know, onto the media. So I think it's, and that's what, you know, we speak about when we've been with that athlete, you know, who's reached at his pinnacle and, you know, served him with the best of products. I mean, that's something that, you know, we at Andhraama, and I'm particularly proud of, considering that we've been in India for three years, right now I think that what has happened in COVID, people have realized that one of the key things to survive this century is to make sure you're healthy, right? I mean, our general perception about health workout, being responsible for what you eat, being responsible for what you do, has, you know, taken a major step forward in terms of other, you know, wants that people have. And, you know, we've seen that come through through our, you know, ambassadors that we have in India, you know, who are not at a level of, you know, what a cricketer is, but, you know, we've managed to get deep dive into understanding authentic people who bring out authentic change. And not, you know, maybe that's a strategy that we built into, but, you know, some of the examples that we have, we have a trainer who's in the name of Zoe Module. I mean, she's done have a massive following on Instagram, but, you know, she's, she tells me that she does this class every week where 100 women take part in it. And she has changed the lives of women who've been going through a lot of, you know, post pregnancy, you know, fat and stuff like that. And he has, she has this module that runs through and it's that passion that, you know, really drives her to do that stuff. And her passion really drives us to help her in whatever way you can. And, you know, that's, I think that's where our purpose comes through. I mean, we don't want to go out in the open and announce that, you know, we rather serve the purpose with an athlete and through that athlete, you know, help others who are motivated to, you know, get into a healthy routine. So, and, you know, you will see a lot of people coming in the brand space, joining us in this movement of, you know, training and be at running, be at contact sports, be at Olympics. And soon I think, and India is moving in that kind of direction, right? I mean, there is a lot of push across brands, across industries to help India become a superpower in terms of, you know, being a, one of the biggest contenders in the Olympics. I think that's where the goal is and that's where the game is. So our idea is to just help each and every athlete and an athlete can be anybody, right? Who it can be you, Rathi, it can be Ritu, it can be Pankaj who goes to the gym for three days a week, who are passionate about their health, you know, they eat, right? They want to make sure that the kids work out and go outdoors and, you know, and that's what our audience is, you know, it's the focused performer. That's how we say, you know, who's focused in its own discipline of sports or training that he or she does and we're just ready to support them. So I think that's our purpose and I think that's my purpose, you know, and I've been in the industry for more than a decade now. So I think that's my purpose to bring out the best of sports in each city that, you know, India has and bring out the athlete in every person that I meet. So yeah, that's the purpose. But also a conscious effort to stay away from mainstream sports and, you know, I know you have an association with the Indian women hockey team. That's wonderful. But is there a conscious effort to actually stay away from mainstream sports like cricket? Because of what you've done, I think we've made sure that we stay away from cricket. I mean, the signings that we've done and the things that we're doing. I think there are other brands who are taking that responsibility of making sure that they sponsor the big cricketers and help cricket grow in India. I think it's our responsibility to make sure that we serve the underdogs. And that's one of the big example is the women's hockey team. We signed them. We did a campaign with them. We supported them in whatever journey they've been through. And, you know, there aren't many ice skating rinks in India. They are hardly any, actually. So, you know, the team has to go to countries like Kuwait or other countries to, you know, practice. It's difficult to practice here in India because of the conditions. So I guess we have our own purpose to serve the underdogs and there are other brands who are, you know, serving the purpose of helping cricket grow. So yeah, I'm fine with that. Yeah, I know that's a good thing. Even we are fine with that, Sid. Very good. Thanks so much, Sid. Manoj, I kind of purposely left you for the last, you know, I hope you don't mind on that, but I thought you'll have a different perspective as a startup, as an entrepreneur. How has your journey been so far? I mean, is it any different in terms of, you know, building a purpose as to what the others spoke about over here? Is it more or less the same? Can you talk a little bit about what you went through and what your purpose is with ZozoD? Yeah, thanks, Rati. I hope I'm audible. You are, Manoj. Yeah, so I guess I'm the youngest brand here. I mean, we are the youngest company in this panel. And today I'm wearing a dual hat here, so being an entrepreneur and also being part of a marketing panel. So I'll try to balance my answers, keeping in mind both those hats. See, many times you are not purpose-first companies. I mean, purpose is kind of acquired over a period of time because when you talk about early stage companies and I'm sure that each of the panel members, if they ask their founders that, okay, how was Dell, when Michael Dell started it and how was L'Oreal in the early days of L'Oreal? It's like, how can I save the world when I'm barely saving myself? So that is how entrepreneurs go through that journey, that okay, it's like the popular saying in your flight that okay, help others only after you help yourself while putting the mask and so on. So that is all about early stage startups and all these companies go through that kind of mindset. So first establish yourself and then try to kind of help others. Otherwise, whatever purpose you build for others, it won't be sustainable. I mean, you might be doing bits and pieces of this and that, but can it be long-term? Maybe no. So yes, I mean, in the initial four to five years, we were just navigating through our own journey that okay, what are we doing as a company? What is our product market for it? What is the customer liking us for and so on? And for the last two, three years, yes, we have established that what we are doing and then now we have that bandwidth and we have that clarity that okay, yes. Now, this is the purpose of the brand and this is what we can do and this is how we can make some impact in the lives of others. Now, so just like millions of other businesses in the world, we are not purpose first company. I mean, I would say Anaksha Patra is a purpose first company because Aksha Patra has started with that motive or I would say some kind of an NGO who might be doing it right from day one as a purpose first company. We are all purpose acquired companies. We try to kind of give it back to the society when we have enough of it. So I think that is how most of the brands are doing their purpose-driven kind of marketing. Now, in terms of our business, we are in the business of human motivation and through our technology products, we help companies to motivate and add some kind of smile in the lives of whether it's their employees or their channel partners or their sales guys or maybe their consumers that how can you really drive some performance, some productivity by adding some ingredients of motivation and motivation is simple but I mean, simplest things are hardest to build. So now the COVID period, especially also highlighted that there is a huge scarcity of motivation in human beings. I mean, COVID actually exposed the entire need of human motivation and it exposed the need of human gratitude that I mean, a simple thank you or a simple gratitude can change your life and can change your day and we all went through that. So as a business, that is what we do and that is how we help our clients to kind of achieve that kind of a purpose. That I mean, it doesn't take a lot to say thank you to your delivery boy, say thank you to maybe your employee, say thank you to your customer care guy who might, who has just forgotten his Huli and Diwali and is just working day in, day out and facing the wrath of the customers on the one side and facing the wrath of the employees on the other side. So how do you balance that? So I mean, we have found the purpose on our way by taking this motto of gratitude, thankfulness and the entire science of appreciation that yes, I mean, appreciation really matters in everybody's life, whether it is personal or professional. So how can you really add appreciation in the lives of whomever you are working with and then make their days better and create, I mean, add a Zouzou into the day. So it's like, just like you have a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you can also add a Zouzou day, more hugs and kisses, more appreciation, more gratitude. So yeah, I mean, this is how we have figured out our purpose, I mean, we never plan to do the purpose right from day one, I'll be very frank. We acquired purpose on our journey. Yeah. So Manoj, I mean, if I were to bring in one of the comments that Byron Sharp had done, he says that purpose is what I call a distraction. Is that what you're talking about? I mean, do you think it's just the talk that the companies are doing or companies are actually walking the talk today? Yes, a lot of companies have actually walked the talk. I mean, if I talk about say purpose first or purpose acquired, there are a lot of names and even if we talk about say a person, an individual is also a brand. So I mean, I might sound theoretical, but let's say we talk about people like say Mother Teresa or maybe Oprah Winfrey and so on. I mean, these are brands by themselves and they have walked the talk. I mean, they have not just talked the talk. And I will recall that book from Simon, where I mean, most of us are generally busy in the what and how, I mean, and then why is tough? I mean, answering the why and then really committed to that why takes time. And then it requires a lot of perseverance. It requires a lot of sacrifice. So, I mean, not many brands have been purpose first brands, but yes, I mean, there have been a lot of success across the world, whether purpose and profit can coexist, yes, very much. Purpose and profit can coexist. I mean, we have a panel here where and then they've shown both of them together and I can name some Indian brands who have done fantastically. I mean, most of the brands here, we are talking about our international, but let's talk about brands like, say, Hamdard or maybe brands like Vico or maybe Borolain or maybe brands like Aksha Patra or Jindal Naturopathy, all these brands and then even the brands like, say, if you know Super 30, the IIT coaching guy in Bihar or maybe a legit popper, so all these brands started with a purpose first and then they've been doing it for like, say, decades and decades. And at the same time, there are a lot of brands who acquired it with time and they have been doing fantastic as well. So as long as it is adding value to different stakeholders, I think it is perfectly fine and people are actually doing it very well. Yeah. Thanks Manoj. I mean, actually that leads me to the next question. I mean, allow this to either, you know, or, you know, even Ritu to take this on, just taking off from where Manoj was speaking, right? What are the challenges today of articulating a brand purpose? I mean, how do you actually ensure that you maintain consistency, you know, or from an IKEA perspective as well? How do you ensure that every piece of a connect that you come across, whether it's the consumer, your stakeholders, what goes into it? I mean, when I was working towards this, you know, setting up this panel discussion, one of the questions that a lot of people came and asked me is that, what are the challenges? Can you help articulate it for me? Pankaj, do you want to take this on? Yeah. So as I said before, and the when you make a commitment or when you declare your purpose, it's not an easy journey. You know, it's required a lot of clarity the way the organization thinks, the way that, you know, the values of the organization are embedded across all functions, you know, and when we took this journey of green beauty, you know, it's so easy to say that we reduce plastic, you know, but now when you have to do, walk the talk, you know, the kind of work it needs, you know, from, we have to make sure that the raw material which we are sourcing, they are renewable, but at the same time, people who are giving us are vendors who are giving us these raw materials, they are also following the sustainable roadmap. And then how we produce them in our factories, our factories are carbon neutral, how quickly they can become carbon neutral, obviously in India we are becoming carbon neutral by the end of the year. And our supply chain in that process is there again a leakage or is again a, you know, how can we make it even more sustainable? Our packaging which we use, how it should not use virgin plastic and how can we have a recyclable plastic in every packaging? Once it gets consumed by the consumer and it comes back to the environment, whether it is again safe for the environment. So you have to look at the whole value chain and work and commit yourself that you walk the purpose which you have declared. So, and that's what it entails. And then everything you do is sustainability if the purpose of L'Oreal is beauty for all, then how it should transmit across all the brands, all functions, all organization and it should not become one part, one good part for the consumers, but actually it becomes your DNA. So, when you take a bigger purpose and ingrain and install it in your organizational values, then it's a very different take. And yes, purpose, first brand, required purpose, I think in any ways it's a good to have a purpose because it works as a lighthouse. It also makes sure that the things which you are doing is aligned with the overall purpose you want to do. So, it creates a good check mechanism across the organization for the people and it creates value. It does create value and hence it, I would believe it does. There is no compromise on the profit because when you're talking about purpose. Yeah. Amitabh, I mean, it looks like for ICAD so easy, right? I mean, do you think there are any challenges from your front when it comes to embracing brand purpose? No, I think it's, maybe I make it sound easier than it is, but I think where I think we come from is to keep it simple. I think the minute we start putting jargons like purpose or even sustainability, all of, I think that's where we kind of complicate our lives and then it becomes like this thing that we have to do separate from everyday business. It's like, if you take sustainability, right? I mean, it's a concept that comes in a post-consumption world. But if you look at the Indian culture, we've been recycling and reusing forever, right? I mean, we've been living sustainably forever. So if you go break it down into the basics, then I think it gets easier. And I think that's kind of our endeavor to kind of not get caught up in these words of, okay, purpose-driven marketing and, because then it kind of, then it's some, it's a fake concept that we're trying to chase. I mean, similarly, if you look at purpose, and fundamentally, it's that simple. We all seek purpose, right? It's something, it's very natural. As a human being, we are driven by purpose. I mean, at the end of the day, that's why we're living. The purpose could be raising our children or our families. Whatever it is, but our entire life, purpose is very natural. It's a very normal human emotion that has come to us over years of evolution. So in that sense, it doesn't, it can be as simple as that. It's just kind of being able to kind of remind us that, hey, that's all it is. Fundamentally, people want to do good. If the new school of thought is saying, people are not bad. It's people fundamentally want to do good, right? Human kind, the book from humankind and all those kind of thinking. Fundamentally, because it's just been making sure that we're kind of going back to that basic human fundament rather than kind of over complicated and say, okay, let's write a book about purpose. I know, a little bit on technology. I mean, I don't think we can, you know, not bring in technology at this day and age, right? So, I mean, you're transforming businesses and driving human progress by harnessing technology, right? Similarly, Siddharth, you know, when you spoke about, when I spoke to you, you spoke about how you're using technology in this whole brand purpose speeds. So can either both of you touch upon a little bit about this in the last few minutes that we have before the panel closes? Rithu, over to you. Sure, sure. So, you know, I'm going to pick up the thread from where I'm left because yes, it's important that we don't over complicate things, right? And also to the fact of what Manoj said, it really has to be, and what Pankaj said, it really has to be top stump. So if it is something which is seeped into your DNA, then it's easy to execute it and really live it by the day as part of what you do day to day, right from, to every single employee in the organization and to every single thing that you do, right? So whether it is sustainability, whether it is DNI, whether it is for us, whether it is education, whether it is skill development and employability, every single aspect of this, there are different manifestations of it, either as part of day to day or even as part of separate effort that you would want to do. So just to give an example, right? If I'm talking about sustainability, there is an India-based startup called Chakra. So what these guys do is they actually convert diesel suit. They have that ink, that black suit that gets collected at the, with the diesel operation. So they actually collect a lot of that and they convert that into ink powder. And Dell has actually worked very, very closely with them and we use that ink to create that ink, which then is used on the boxes that we package our box, our computers in before we ship them out. Now what this required is the complete process, at the back end had to be changed to make sure that there is a, the earlier ink is being kept aside and this new process needs to be woven into the entire manufacturing process to make sure that you are using and leveraging that as much to that possible. And then you're also saying, okay, if I'm doing this, what's the kind of impact that I'm able to create? So a rough calculation that we arrived at it, if you look at the amount of PCs that we ship out of India, you know, out of India with that ink printed on it, we're probably taking care of the air that about 110,000 people breathe in and out on an annual basis. But is that enough? No, it's not. So the idea is to see how can we increase it more. The second example is in terms of inclusion, right? I mean, I've said about 50% diversity ratio. So I think as a technology company, we're definitely not at a 50% right now, but at an overall employee base, we're probably at a 35, but as part of our 2030 moonshot goals that we've unveiled some months back, we are focused on making sure that our overall employee ratio is at a 50% gender diversity. But at the leadership level, and which is where we see a bigger challenge, because we know that a lot of women opt out as they progress in life for various personal professional balancing reasons, we've actually given ourselves a goal of having a diversity ratio of 40% at that level. So to make sure that you are encouraging women to be in that space and providing the right ecosystem in the right environment for them to build on and work in that space. So there will always be challenges and some things may seem like we said, these are moonshot goals. We need to make sure that we are working towards employability. We've taken ourselves upon ourselves a goal on one is to one. For every PC that we will sell, we will recycle another one. So it's literally is a one is to one ratio that we wanna maintain to make sure that we are giving back as much as we are taking in from the environment. So things will have to be as long as they are really top down driven and they form the ethos of everything that we do as part of the culture code as we define as to how do we do things, not just who we are, but how do we do things at a combination of this? I think it will be able to, it's gonna be not as difficult as it sounds. Okay. What about you said, I mean, you know, innovation and performance, enhancing technology, right? Has been the genesis at Anderama. So how are you leveraging new technology across your products and, you know, your new offerings? So the thing is, you know, people, I mean, generally we are expected to work till our mid sixties, but for life of an athlete, you know, usually used to end at, you know, early thirties, you know, in the nineties and the eighties. And very few people used to stretch it to, you know, early thirties, but what we've seen in the last decade, if you've seen the kinds of, not Tom Brady, who's our ambassador, he's now, you know, he won an NFL championship again, and he's been winning since a decade now, and he's 43, he's a quarterback, he's playing one of the toughest sports in the world. There are other athletes like him, LeBron James, who's the basketball player, he's 36 now, Dhoni for a matter, you know, who's still playing the IPL. I mean, there is this big shift of, you know, athletes who are now, you know, pushing their limit. And part of this reason is obviously what, you know, you eat, but recovery is a major component to all of this. I mean, you know, generally we don't account for recovery as much as we do training. We are more happy and, you know, excited to get those 20 burpees and 30 burpees and not play football for an hour or run five kilometers, but recovery is more important than actually in our age group, you know, when you are over 30. So people don't tend to get that, right? I mean, that's why you've seen a lot of injuries that happen at a pro or amateur level as well. One of the recent technologies that we've developed is called, you know, it's called under the recovery products, which is in partnership with, you know, Tom Brady, I mean, he's helped us. What it does is, you know, you can wear it after training. You can, you have sleep there as well. So it helps your body recover faster than normally what it takes, you know, and you can get, there's a sleep collection, you can sleep with it, you know, you can wear it after training and it helps the blood flow and, you know, you can recover faster. You know, things like this, you know, you need when, you know, you know, when you are playing sports and day in, day out. The other thing is, you know, from a technological standpoint, variable technology is one of the biggest things in our, you know, smart watches have become big, apps have become really big during this pandemic as well. And, you know, what we did, you know, before, you know, brands really thought about it, you know, we already have a Bluetooth chip in all our running shoes, you know, most of our running shoes, which is Hover Shoes. It's just technology and you just, they just sync it with the app. So you don't really need to wear a smart watch. You just need to sync it with the shoe and they identify the shoe color, what kind of shoe you're wearing. So I mean, there are spaces of, you know, performance of technology that exists within the sports ecosystem is how brands are leveraging it in a way that, you know, helps us as well, you know, focus performers or who are amateur athletes, as well as the level of the top ladies of the world. So I guess there is a lot of progression that we're gonna see through in the next decade of technology, but this is something that, you know, we've already worked on in the past three, four years. Thanks, Sid. Mithin, I don't know, do we have any audience questions or could I end the session, the panel discussion with one, some sound bites from Isha? Do we have some time or do you have any audience questions that you would want to ask the panelists? So I have all of it. I have so many questions and more. And I would love to hear Isha talk as well. But unfortunately we have time constraint and our next speaker is already joined in at the back of the entire summit. So I think you should take charge and call it and end to this entire session. All right. Thank you so much everybody. Really enjoyed speaking to all of you and if there are any questions, please, Mithin, send it across to, you know, the individual panelists and we can see if we can answer them and over to you, Mithin. Thank you so, so much. Thank you to Doug. Thank you, Ritu. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Isha. And of course, Mr. Pandey, thank you so much again. My apologies, completely missed out that you were joining us as well, but yes, thank you again, Mr. Amita Pandey, for joining us. And of course, not to forget our moderator, Rathi, thank you so much for joining us again. And I wish you great luck. I personally have so many questions because it's my subject that I really talk and read about, but unfortunately, sometimes, so not now. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye.