 So, very good afternoon everybody. Hello and welcome to the exchange for media, EconClave 2020. E4M EconClave aims to bring the most enthusiastic minds together from different segments of the industry. Once again, a very warm welcome to all of you. My name is Khyati Kawa and I'm going to be your E-host for this E4M EconClave. Today, when COVID-19 has taken over most of our decision-making power, but still, practitioners don't stop to evolve or innovate. During these sessions, experts won't only share how they are managing their operations, but also share their thoughts on the revival and how they have streamlined the functionalities in the past one month. Also, we are available and live on E4M Portal, Facebook, Twitter, at E4M Tweets, Instagram and YouTube along with Zoom. Official hashtag for this EconClave is the E4M webinar. Hashtag E-Numerical 4M webinar. So, please do follow us and stay connected for our latest updates. Now, before we begin, we have a small audio visual on the journey of Exchange for Media Group. Can we have the AV, please? Exchange for Media. A name synonymous with the latest news about the advertising industry in India. Exchange for Media Group, set up in 2000, has the most credible media platforms covering the entire advertising, media and marketing domain with its highly acclaimed print and on-ground assets. The Group's flagship news portal, ExchangeForMedia.com, reaches over 6 lakh subscribers, who are the first to receive breaking news in the industry. The buzzing website not only covers the news, but goes beyond the obvious to bring in a fresh point of view. Impact, the weekly news magazine from the Group, is the most widely rated business magazine in the advertising trade, with in-depth analysis and news-based features, providing perspective to key happenings in the industry. The monthly pitch magazine provides a ringside view of events unfolding in the marketing landscape, along with media advertising. Another monthly magazine, VRT Plus, is a market leader in the real estate industry. Today, Exchange for Media is not only a leading publisher in the domain, but owns the IP of more than 50 events spread across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, making it powerful for information and sharing. Exchange for Media has curated and launched some of the most successful IPs for marketing, digital, TV, print, radio, mobile, OOH and PR. The impact person of the year, Exchange for Media conclave, Indian Digital Marketing Awards, Tech Munch, Pitch CMO Summit, India Marketing Awards, Primetime Awards, Indian Content Marketing Awards, Golden Mikes and Baah are some of the Group's top-notch events, in addition to niche bespoke events and roundtables curated especially for discerning clients. Exchange for Media events attracts tall Watson speakers, along with the loyal audience, comprising of leaders, trendsetters and opinion makers. They are the perfect networking platform for the entire media and advertising industry. No wonder, Exchange for Media group publications and events have high credibility and reach, another destination of choice for agency and media professionals across the industry. Exchange for Media. Thank you. Now quickly moving on to our very first session for the Econ Clave. The pandemic has created uncertainty amongst all of us, whether individuals, organizations or brands. So our first session is going to talk about or rather try to answer, has this pandemic made brands more agile and created a new playbook for marketeers. And in conversation we have with us, Mr. Rahul Agarwal, managing director and chief executive officer of Lenovo India. Rahul has over 24 years of professional experience and has held multiple leadership positions across Lenovo and IBM. Prior to his current role, he headed the commercial segment for Lenovo India, the largest business for Lenovo India. Before that, he headed marketing communications for Lenovo globally and is credited with setting up Lenovo worldwide marketing hub in Bangalore, supporting 60 plus countries. Rahul will be in conversation with Dr. Anurag Bhattra, chairman and editor-in-chief BW Business World and Exchange for Media Group, who is an enthusiastic entrepreneur and an industry expert. Over to you, Dr. Bhattra. Thank you, Chathi, for that kind introduction. Welcome Mr. Rahul Agarwal to this Exchange for Media webinar, Exchange for Media conclave in a virtual format. As we discussed just before the webinar, we all are doing the best we can in the current circumstances. So how are you doing Mr. Rahul Agarwal? Rahul, how are you dealing with this unprecedented pandemic both on a personal level and a professional level? I think we are all dealing with it every day as it comes. But a few things that I've been telling people around me and my office colleagues, number one is to keep your mind calm because this is a time when a lot of uncertain information is being floated, which tends to stir the mind in the wrong way. So I'm telling people and myself to stay away from a lot of these unconfirmed information. Number two is not to overanalyze the impact of what this might have in the future. Logically speaking, when you don't know what this is really all about, what is the intensity, what is the longevity, what is the reason, what is the cure, then I think it's a little too premature to say that the world will change in a way that we won't be able to identify. And a lot of people are kind of panicking, imagining things. And I tell people that human beings have this amazing tendency to come back to their routine once things tend to roll back to normalcy. So in a few ways things will change like work from home, less travel, more of the meetings, people here who travel a lot know how painful it is. If I had to come to Mumbai, it's a six hour painful process from my house to the door that I want to reach. But in many ways I think things may not change. The other internally what we're doing is a lot of communication. You know, every day I'm doing at least one meeting with the external stakeholder and at least one round table with my employees and at almost a daily meeting with the leadership team. A lot of employee engagement is happening today. And of course as any business would do an URAG, we're doing a lot of plan A, plan B, plan C and cutting down expenses. So it's a lot of future planning. So fundamentally it's the way I'm spending my time that has changed a lot. It's not to review the current business but to review our preparedness for different outcomes of the future. Thank you Rahul for laying out how you're dealing with so beautifully and in a very authentic way, real way. I was in a conversation like this for Business World with Devarthi Singh. She is now the senior VP at 3 a.m. in the headquarters at Minnesota and she was earlier India MD and CEO for 3 a.m. a fellow Ben Gloria like you and someone in the audience asked her a question and I want to give you the question. Everybody is referring to this pandemic as a you know a black swan event and he said it's a gray rhino event. So gray rhinos appear from time to time. They appear more often than a black swan. So if this is a gray rhino event and some experts believe that corona may resurface in the winter and it may be there for the next 18-20 months in some form till the vaccine is discovered at the fear of corona can go away. So tell us your ABC plan. I'm not asking for very specific but if this is true and you yourself said ABC, tell us some scenarios. So see I don't want to talk about the disease because the world has a lot of experts. There are 1500 medical papers which are coming out every week by the experts. 1500 every week and that's that's going up and every organization whether it's McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, ENY they are rolling out their analysis of what's going to happen. So I think in that context under my view is quite unimportant and I would not I would not take my own view seriously right. So I'm trying to take one step at a time. You know don't analyze too much keep your mind calm do the right things but doing the right things I mean cut the expense control the expense and be nice to human beings. So for example we're going out of a way to make sure that we don't have to let people go out of the way I'm saying hey cut everything else but let's not touch let's not go there. Three we are trying to do things you know from a CSR point of view donations we are helping some hospitals procure equipment and you know so and so which I think a lot of good companies are doing but as in my role my professional role I think all that I need to do is look at hey if the category that we deal in it has three scenarios because computer is a very interesting category many people think that it'll grow I'm not sure in the short term I'm not sure so the the thing that we're dealing with is if the market goes down by 20 percent is scenario let's say so A is market remains flat you know that's scenario A. B is if market goes down by 20 percent C is if we are pleasantly surprising the market goes up by 5 or 10 percent which is less likely and how do we run our PNL how do we run our our entire business processes how do we manage our people what our expenses to cut what to do about marketing what messages to give to our customers what messages to give to our employees to our stakeholders so I think it's a lot of that which every week things change because people's opinion about the future changes very fast because there is nobody who can prove you wrong today about what you are saying about tomorrow sure so you know you've been one again again very real saying that you're not sure whether the computer market will grow and you know you're factoring all scenarios and you're still optimistic and you're focusing on the human side of things and doing the best you can in these circumstances well while we talk of business we will talk to you a little bit about marketing you are the now you're in a leadership you know gel management mdco road but you're also the brand owner in some way right being a global CMO setting up the up tell us as a brand owner what are the brand activities continue to do and what are the brand activities you put a stop to so see my a lot of people ask me hey what's how is the brand changing and I tell them a very simple answer that brand cannot change because my definition of a brand is if it has to have a character and character means that it has to have some values and the test of values is that when times are tough then still vouched by the same values so as far as I'm concerned I think the value of the novel brand is not changing and what we are saying however two people might undergo a little bit of evolution so for example I know very well that a lot of parents are keen to get the second PC at home now they have two children education they want to make sure that they have two PCs many people who did not have PCs earlier they're saying okay at least let me have one I can't just depend on my office laptop for the weekend so our messaging that is going to go out is hey how can we give you a full bundle you know how which PC is the best for your family and what are the accessories that you need number two in India there's always an affordability issue so the affordability issue is that hey I don't have the money up front especially now when salaries are getting caught people are losing jobs but in India education gets dropped priority so we are coming out with two year EMI that is that people can pay which is a big deal in a so you're observing the changing consumer behavior right and you're responding to it not only in terms of the product offering but in terms of pricing in terms of financing in terms of making sure that you really become a true partner in the consumer's journey true so we also for example in Raal we did something very novel we said till the time that till the time this goes on our service centers who which are fully operational unlike many other companies my problem but my easy manufacturer for two months is off but we are on um we think that we will support any brand free of cost fantastic that that is kind of thing they're doing we've also launched a campaign called smarter ed which is a portal we've made wherein teacher people who want to teach can register students who want to learn can register smarter ed smarter ed so you can just do a google maybe smarter ed smarter ed so it's a platform we have created we've just launched it uh last week with thousands of people like you and me have registered think that in now I have some time and I want to teach something students all over the country are registering they're saying that he might I may have teachers but the teachers are not really good which is a big problem there's a one million shortage of teachers so we are doing these kind of things which I would say that was always in our agenda and therefore I would say it's not new to the brand but I think the situation demands that that part comes out a little more than the commercial part fantastic I think you know that's where innovation comes in that's where a larger purpose come you know we support any brand any big and you know going back to your purpose of enabling people to what they want to do using a technology brand so I after the webinar I'll check smarter ed.com and if we are somewhere towards the end to show the homepage Brianka we must now let me ask you a direct question because we're talking to a group of CMOs who are logged in or brand managers or marketing professionals advertising professionals media professionals will the marketing budgets come down in the immediate near term tell us what will happen to marketing marketing budgets in the short term needed term long term but for most categories they will unfortunately and by what percentage I think that will vary so FMCG I'm told you know I have a lot of friends who were in that part of the FMCG which is selling sanitizers one organization which sells sanitizers you know what is the explosion in the sanitizer business 500x of the normal FMCG actually may go up because people are going to be more cooking at home and you know spending more time at home but most categories I think the drop could be anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent thank you Raul for being so specific so Raul if the drop is 50 percent let's say let's take the worst case scenario and 50 percent is left how will your marketing mix change how will your media mix change what are the thoughts in your head that you can share that can help the professionals who are watching you so I think some some of the the headlights are quite quite leading it will definitely be a move to more digital more performance-based marketing also I would say more marketing which is not related to immediate business so I think there's a bit of a dichotomy here and I am seeing it in Lenovo for example we're cutting down on normal tv and print right they're doing more a lot more digital just starting to do digital right more performance-based measurable marketing on the other hand we are also open to spending more money on giving the larger message because the brands don't mean much to an average consumer brands mean a lot to the brand managers unless you're talking about iconic brands which have been there for decades and maybe centuries otherwise you know if you go do a survey brands perception will never match with what the brand manager or the cu thinks right so this is also an opportunity to come up with what we truly believe in like smarter head we're spending money right so I think there are two kind of pathways that I see flowing at least for Lenovo but the traditional marketing budget will definitely go down uh digital uh tv and print print definitely I think should be very worried I'm sorry because right now people are not people are not even getting the newspaper right no we are I read all of this I get it I get it too I get it too so I'm not overreacting just like you but I think human behavior is very panic uh kind of uh pro you know what I love about the conversation is you're very real you're being very specific you're not giving efficient answers you're you're telling us as it is and I think that's the mark of a great leader uh you know that you know yes you got to stay human centric you got to be compassionate but you also got to say what you want to say and do what you want to do so I see that you know so I must compliment you because sometimes conversations are very goody goody and they aren't real okay so I must uh compliment you on for being so specific and giving a specific inputs now uh you know let me make it a little philosophical and I sent you those questions of leadership when the uh lockdown started in the last week of March I was losing those I was lost I had feelings of guilt wish I had much more money right so that I could take care of my employees you know um I was worried about the future but I gathered myself in the first one week but I can say in the last 40 days I have given it my best I worked longer harder I have clarity on the future tell us what went through Raul that was my leader very large organization a very big brand so as a leader as an individual how did you prepare yourself to be able to lead in this hookah world so uh I think a lot is to do with the tenure uh you know I'm almost finishing five years in this role I think first of all if I were in my first or second year I would have panicked a lot but how about I experienced was that uh I think there was I just told myself that I got to accept this because there is nothing I can do number two is I realized everyone in the company is looking at me my tone my body language what I say about the situation and you know I I mean I don't I don't believe in being artificial right I got I I like to call a spade a spade but I still felt positive that people might overplay the in fact and therefore I started communicating a lot I started talking a lot and I told people that yeah you know possibility is endless but you got to look at the probability and therefore keep looking at the facts keep looking at what is within your fear of control um and really not not too much as I said I didn't over analyze you just did the right things we didn't get into a panic mode of cutting things but we said sensible cutting down of expenses great scenarios great situation because human mind the the human mind sees the worst of it when it goes through uncertainty now when you make if you can make your business heads look at scenario see which is the worst I think it calms you down subliminally because then you know that okay things can't go worse than this and and you know I'm prepared to an extent that I can be so there's no playbook I don't think I have done it very handsomely I'm listening a lot to people we have we have created more than 100 ideas in a hundred ideas that I'm tracking personally I think that is new people are feeling very energized by ability to contribute to ideas and they are and we are implementing some of I think these are some of the things that you do between employee activities and you know and then I tell everyone guys if you're working in a company like Lenovo firstly you are privileged number two you're not kids therefore you got to find your own way to motivate yourself good so you know we're getting very interesting questions and I'll start I'll start with the question you know whole idea there is Shalini Shankar asking in the current scenario of reduced demand and customer being selected in the purchase it should branch off for reaching consumers through campaigns and be on top of their mind or should brands look in pricing and become more attractive so is pricing going to play a bigger role that's one question from Shalini Shankar and the other question is from Amit Setia I would like to hear your thoughts on future proofing for the brand future proofing of the business from supply chain and consumption perspectives you also had an add-on question in what all aspects the brand will go for normalization both in the short term and long term yeah a lot there so firstly I don't think I'll have answers for everything on the first one I straight forward we are reaching out to for example the student community through schools now which we never did earlier they're going to be doing specific campaigns to reach out to to students and give them messages as to what is the right thing to buy for them to have continuity in education thriving I don't see thriving as a big lever in the current situation and I think a brand which has a character and values will not try to take advantage of the situation if there's an opportunity and we've seen good brands actually make statements on that but if the demand goes down will there be pressure on pricing I think you have to study your industry and see what is the price elasticity I don't think on computers if I reduce the price by five percent people more people are going to buy but if I can if we can give them financing offers then many people may come provided they have the need second one was about the future proofing I I don't really am a big fan of future proofing you can't do future proofing uh to even fly and I'm into the CMO for I'm gonna sit here as the CMO for brand uh so yeah so see um I always talk about the price of perfection right the price of perfection is too high and therefore if you want to be prepared for a black swan even like this the amount of investment you'll have to make maybe too high it may not be worth it so I think if it's a regular event and people think that it can happen again then yes you should be prepared and you know I think every business will have its own uh playbook on what to do one thing is just to be sensible a lot of messages for startups who who had unlimited money coming in and I'm one of the few people who are vocal about it that every business in the medium term needs to be sensible so I think it's a good reminder that your business model needs to be a sustainable right you can't just keep sustaining on infinite money being infused because it's a game of investors trying to outdo each other which is what happens so part of it is hygiene and the other part I think every organization will have to find its own answer I can't generalize I can just give some general principles which I think for this esteemed group may not be of any value okay Raul I want to ask you will brands collaborate more so for example you talk to an educational segment and hence I'm asking this question yeah you could take it for other segments will say let's go partner with an edu tech brand will it partner with an education website will it you know so will brands collaborate more than they ever did so a very good question I would say brands should collaborate whether they will or not is to be seen it's very difficult to collaborate I've tried this personally brands have egos and you know processes and companies so large two large brands very difficult to collaborate one large brand and one small brand easier to partner very easy to partner with startups because the founders can take decisions like this there's a beauty about the way the start of this but absolutely I think this is a time for a lot of brand partnerships to happen thank you Raul there are more questions coming I'll take them say somebody called Swami Deep Ghosh as an outdoor media agency employee I'm really tensed about the future prospects of out of home if big brands are cutting down marketing budgets how will out of media home media survive there is Ravi Kumar with increase in online education what is the plan for urban and rural markets both in branding and pricing so out of home I mean I look I don't I don't have an answer but I think as I said they'll be my my feeling is that people will start coming out Bangalore by the way I'm not set out because I'm usually in calls but many of my friends are going out they think it's it's like normal other than the IT corridor everyone is out so I feel that human beings will end up being human beings and they will do what they've been doing for centuries they will not suddenly hold up in their houses so overage and my opinion will come back now every organization including marketing media will have to brace for a tough next six months without a doubt and I think the test of an organization is can you survive the six months and if you can't I think there was an inherent problem in your as Anurag said business model what is the second question Anurag can you tell me again you know in terms of education urban markets pricing yeah see as I said pricing I don't think we are looking at pricing at all you know anyway run a tight ship on margins so I don't think I we can reduce the prices and we definitely will not increase the prices so I think it's more about messaging and reaching out to customers in a effective and a endearing way if you appear opportunistic then I think you will do long-term damage to your brand so it's a very careful job of for marketing as right now for companies like Lenovo because there is an opportunity for us for sure we don't know how big but we we have to come across as people who are generally trying to our help so Rohail Abin who's a senior editorial colleague what is your advice to brand managers and brands in these times specific advice I'm a little very to be honest I'm a little very about giving general advice I think it's not just to brand managers but to everyone as I said that I think the this whole situation has given us a lot more thinking time therefore first you should calm your mind down and this is a great time to do two things first is really push yourself to come up with some ideas and implement them and second is to think long term and for brand managers I would say that you watch your companies you will know whether your brand has a character or not now everyone will want to claim but the way you are reacting organizations as well as the brand it will come out whether the value system is authentic or not and it's a good test and write down what is my value what is the behavior my brand should be demonstrating and then honestly ask yourself am I demonstrating that behavior will e-commerce become preferred mode of sales for most brands e-commerce will with physical retail become lesser and lesser important and will e-retailing become bigger and bigger no I would I would not take it to that extent but today for example if I look at our consumer laptop market one out of three laptops are sold online by either Flipkart or Amazon so that 33% may go up to 40 I don't think it's going to change in the next two months I think it may be even more 50% but as I keep saying everyone people will want to come back to their whole habit of wanting to see a laptop compare five laptops and six hours doing comparisons so I think the balance right now will take so this whole whole thing will favor these brands but it's not going to kill the offline retail totally another question from Ravi Kumar going forward how do you see brand approach impact properties like sports or kbc's or movies I think the person is from television so yeah see as I said I think you have to break every all these questions into two parts how is it going to impact impact in the next six months and then how is it going to impact long term and there could be W's there could be we could have more lockdowns and because nobody knows the trajectory that this disease will take in the short term I think everything will get affected I'm personally sometimes I feel that once a brand is established you don't need to spend money on just flashing the logo so Lenovo was the first company by the way to sponsor kbc when I was handling marketing 15 years ago and we spent a lot of money because Lenovo was unknown today we will never do it so I think it's all about your context if you're a new brand you will continue to do that you are a established brand I think some of those film placement may actually get deep prioritized because people will say I want to spend money on what will give me immediate measurable business fantastic thank you for being so real and first we give you know in terms of being just the content and being real it's one of the best conversations I've had so thank you Raul and you know because sometimes as I said it's leader is shy to say I wouldn't say that there's honest but there's just one they want to keep the optimistic message going and you know so I like I to ask last two questions and then maybe bring one or two audience questions one is what is Raul Agrawal's personal leadership mantra sorry personal leadership mantra you know what is your leadership style oh so see I keep three pillars for me which one is strategic pillar second is execution pillar third is people pillar and I think a good leader is somebody who has to keep an eye on all three a leader who's excellent in all three is maybe one in a billion million but as a leader if you can be strong on two then you are a good leader but if you're weak on even one pillar then you will not survive you will not survive you can't say that I'm such a brilliant guy and I execute so well but I'm going to ignore the people anyway so first is I think this tripod balance is very important I think second is leaders and I have learned it over the years on rock that we the tendency to add value is too much so the lesser you speak the more value you add actually it has been a very tough learning for me beautiful the lesser you see the more value you add so you let basically Raul is saying if I give you delegate more you let people take chances make mistakes learn become leaders themselves give them an opportunity to fail and learn and hopefully become better leaders yeah that's right and the third thing that I am I've learned lately I'm still doing it is that I think ideas will not drop like an apple you have to push your system and your processes to come up with new ideas and allow people to actually take the risk and fail I think that only a leader can do that that doesn't happen unless you're a google kind of an organization with the DNA itself is innovation so I can go on and on but these are some of the things that I maybe subconsciously or consciously you know is there a book you want to recommend to people on a blog or a movie that could help them get through these times yeah I think a couple of books that the art of thinking clearly is always a good book but it's a doubly yeah yeah and he's also written a book of the art of living happy or something like that so that I think maybe is more important in in these times and Raul if you had to say make one prediction for the future what would that be future means six to twelve months I'm not thinking beyond that you you know you're putting in an uncomfortable zone because it is so easy to predict the future and yet so dangerous so my feeling is that 90 percent of the world will come back to normalcy in the next six to twelve months that's that's a very optimistic note and you know looking at your answers which were very real I hope and pray what you say is real and I'll take the last audience question and will brands look for innovative localized media given these difficult circumstances Rajesh Radhakrishnan from Burrithi media localized innovative media do you mean the content or what he has not specified but I think that's a fair point to assume so content I think I may see that debate is always on right always open global content or local content and a mnc like Lenovo always deals with it so I'm a I'm a fan of a good hybrid model I think your global brand ethos need to be preserved but you will connect more to the audience if you have a local message which is rooted in our local insight that is always desirable COVID or no COVID although I said last question what are the positives for you as an individual of this COVID you know every cloud is a silver lining for example positive for me that I've lost two cages wait I'm not traveling I'm eating at home I'm mostly sleeping well you know so I've done no socializing so no drinking so you know my health is improved my focus is improved what are your personal gains see I firstly I thought I was at all the MBTI tests have always told me in Iraq that I'm an extreme extoward right it almost suggested that I will go mad if I have to sit alone I usually sit alone for most of the day I've been absolutely fine it's a self-discovery then I'm I'm actually happier calmer when I'm alone number two I realized I'm speaking 30% less everyone is happy about it my team is happy I'm doing less calls so I think there is no end to you being more efficient I'm sleeping more I'm sleeping now at least seven hours seven to seven and a half I'm working out more at least 15 more minutes I've got added I'm just we're all eating healthy so I think personally yeah I've also lost two kilos I never came but I've lost because life is healthy so I think these are some of the benefits I would say thank you again for thank you for being real loud I really enjoyed our conversation and hopefully in the next 30 60 days we can or even earlier we can get on to another conversation when some of the things you said have actually become a reality we wish you luck we wish Lenovo luck we wish our industry luck and we look forward to engaging with you on another issue in happier better times over to Chati. Thank you Anurag I just want to tell you that I think your questions were very real so that helped me answer them really they were not hypothetical questions so thank you for keeping me honest there and it was a pleasure coming here and I wish exchange for media all the best I think the way you guys are dealing with this situation is quite admirable and I think I wish you all the success for this heat on clay. Thank you Rahul you've been a big support to us and part of our big initiatives over the last seven eight years ten years and we hope to continue to engage with you on this thank you thank you thank you so much Rahul thank you so thank you Mr. Agarwal and Dr. Batra for such an insightful session and we thank of course Mr. Agarwal for giving us his valuable time