 Hello and welcome to another episode of our special series meeting all odds in these times of crisis which has locked all of us in our houses. We are speaking to leaders who are putting in their best foot forward to keep their businesses going on speak today. We are speaking to Jyoti Bansal CEO PhD India on how she is managing her business and clients and employees in these times of crisis. Jyoti welcome to the show. Hi, nice to be seeing you, Nazia. I think we're all sort of missing that seeing our colleagues at work and missing the human touch and interaction that happens. So really good to be here and seen people in person. Hello also to all our audiences. I hope you're all staying home and staying safe because that's probably the best that we can do to help ourselves and each other in these really strange times that we're finding ourselves in. Thank you, Jyoti. So Jyoti in these, you're CEO of a company, you know, how are you keeping morale of your employees high? What kind of initiatives you've taken for them? So it is a very different, you know, we're working that we're all sort of exploring and grappling with and I think now after almost four weeks of doing it, coming to terms with also in many ways. Of course, as a leader, it is a challenge to, you know, keep people motivated. Everybody's working remotely, you know, we've all done that in bits and pieces, you know, a few people working from home sometimes because of, you know, whatever constraints they may have had. But at this scale, I don't think anybody's ever done it and neither have we. It helped because, you know, we sort of put ourselves on a two to three day trial much before the government announced the lockdown, which really helped us to sort of iron out some of the concerns which our employees had about how it would work. That said, yeah, it's, you know, there are strange challenges that crop up, you know, once in a while. What we've done is that, you know, one of the things which I really believe is that in different times, you really need to think differently and get creative with how we sort of do our business as usual in times which are really so unusual in every way that, you know, they could be. So what we've tried to do is to put a little bit of discipline into how we operate, how we connect with each other. So, you know, like I connect with my teams first thing in the morning. So we've sort of put like a cadence to that and I think consistency and a rhythm really helps everybody because, you know, when you're working at home sometimes the boundaries between what is home and what is work tend to blur and, you know, the first week we were all sort of working from like first thing in the morning till like really late at night and then we said, no, we need to sort of, you know, put some sort of methods to this madness. So we connect first thing in the morning, you know, I sort of do a catch up with all our business leads. We take stock of any developments that have happened on the client front, anything which we want to discuss in terms of, you know, any new opportunity or challenge which we think we want to share with each other. And we end the day also with, you know, we sort of put, we are working on a very big project. So we've put like a sort of everyday catch up on that, you know, at the end of the day. So it just sort of helps you to schedule your day a little better. We also then, you know, put a few rules which everybody thought I was being too rule bound, but they've all realized that it's helping them is that, you know, we will not do any calls between one to two, because that's sort of lunchtime and everybody does need to take a break. We try not to schedule any calls on public holidays and weekends. We've had a couple of them and while, you know, everybody says everything seems like a holiday. It's not really holiday because most of us are ending up working, I think longer hours than we do usually. So the scheduling and the cadence has helped. Then of course, you know, at a group level, we've started a half hour sort of de-stress our de-stress time that we call it, where we just sort of, it's like a virtual hangout where we just sort of schedule a program, which is somebody in our own office who will, you know, be bringing their non-work talent to the fall. And that's sort of gone down very well. We've also done things like virtual hangouts where we just sort of chill, don't talk, work and so on. So we're trying to do a mix of work related discipline as well as a little time to still chill with each other because I think some way we're all also wanting a little bit of a break. Too much of staying at home is also not like the best thing to do, right? Especially when you're used to being away from it for long hours every single day. Now, employees are still easier to manage. Clients are more demanding. They're more difficult people. How are you handling them? So I must say that, you know, our teams have really risen up to the challenge of staying connected with their clients in these times quite well. And they are, you know, ensuring that we converse with them every day. We are discussing their challenges with them. We are discussing how are, you know, they preparing for a post-lockdown phase because now that we've been in lockdown for more than three weeks, eyes are on what will happen, you know, once the lockdown is over. So we are definitely trying to do that at a senior level. We are connecting with our clients to understand the, you know, how are they looking at their businesses right now and also, you know, over the next three to six months. And then of course, the sort of midterm horizon because all of us need to be prepared for that. So from that perspective, you know, our teams have been doing a good job at that. The one thing that I think is very important is that, you know, Ph.D. has always been considered a true partner, a very future-facing partner for their, via all our clients. And we are trying to keep an eye on that. And we're working very closely with not only our global teams, but also with some of our, you know, research partners who can sort of mount online consumer sentiment and, you know, what's happening for how our consumers sort of thinking about the future kind of researchers and hot leadership pieces for us. So that, you know, as we get out of it, we can be well prepared to really take this forward in a sensible manner which sort of ties in with what our business requirements are likely to be. So partnership, empathy, you know, understanding that we are all in this together and it's just a phase and we will get over it as we sort of, you know, go by. This is, you know, we have all seen ups and downs in business. This is one which none of us have ever seen before and I hope that we don't have to ever see it again also. But it is a phase and I think as all tough phases, the key is to really hold our nerve and work together. We are also working closely with our, you know, publisher partners, our television channel and other partners to ensure that we can manage the situation now and then start working in a practical manner with them as we go out of it. I don't know if it's the right word to say but you're lucky to have a client like ByteDance at this hour which has seen spikes in its consumption during this lockdown. How are you managing them? I mean, what kind of plans are you making for them? Are they appetizing? What is your strategy for a client like this? Whose consumption has actually gone up during these times? So yeah, you know, their consumption has gone up. They are seeing a huge surge in demand and download at this point of time and obviously people have more time to their spending, more time with the app. We are definitely, you know, working very closely with them to see how can we work with them through this phase which is sort of like a built phase for them and what will happen once we get out of it. We are not, you know, I think we have to sort of balance out what the consumer is doing right now and what they need to do therefore with what will happen once the lockdown is over. So we are, you know, having those kind of conversations with them to ensure that we can give them the right recommendations. In general, as an expert, you know, somebody who's been in the agency business for so long what would you advise marketers at this time? I think this is a good time for us to really take a little bit, a very small step back and relook at our businesses from a lens which, you know, sometimes the day-to-day running does not allow us to do. It is also a time for us to really look at what is it that we would like to be as a business, you know, in the next two to three years because once we come out of the lockdown, suddenly, you know, everything was clamped down literally overnight. But when we get out of it, one, it will not happen overnight. And two, it is not like consumers will go back to their old ways of, you know, thinking, spending, behaving like they were doing, you know, four weeks back. Neither will businesses go back to being exactly what they were a few weeks back. So we all need to do a little bit of, you know, future gazing and rethinking about what new business models are likely to emerge, what are the new consumer behaviors that are likely to happen after we get out of this phase. And it is a great time to be really preparing for that. And that is exactly what we are trying to do with all our clients and make sure that, you know, we are not sort of caught going back to the old way of working because that is definitely not going to happen. We all of us are going to have to unlearn a few things, refocus our priorities on a few different things. And of course, some things will continue the way they were, because end of the day, you know, women beings are also creatures of habit and we will go back to some of our old ways of working. But a lot of it will be very different, very new ways of thinking, behaving and conducting our businesses. I think it's a great time for us to be really having those conversations with our clients, amongst ourselves as an agency team. And, you know, that's also what we are really doing. We are really looking at what is it that we, what is it that we can, you know, prepare ourselves for going forward, what are the kinds of offerings that will be more useful to our clients in the, you know, not so easy times that we will all go through over the next 6, to 8, 9, 10 months, maybe depending on how the economy sort of rebounds. These are unique times, as you said. Nobody has seen this kind of a lockdown ever before. How has this evolved you as a person or as a professional, both? Yeah, so I think both have been for me also a phase of unlearning and relearning a few things. So I'll talk about the professional first and the personal later. I think at these times, our people really look to us as leaders, even more than they do in the normal times. And, you know, they want their leaders to be courageous, to be, you know, feeling like they are in charge of a situation, even when sometimes they are not, because you know, a lot of things even we don't really control. But I think leadership and sensible practical leadership at this point of time is something which I think my people expect from me. And one of the things that I'm really trying to focus on is to be as honest, as candid, as empathetic as I can be with all our people, with all our clients, with all the different kinds of never really dealt with before situations that we are really getting thrown into. I think what I would, you know, I had heard a very prominent Harvard professor talk about leadership a while back and one of the things which really stuck in my head was face the facts, acknowledge the fears, but also build credible hope. And that is what our people really expect from us. I'm trying to do as much of that as I can. We understand the challenges many of our colleagues are facing with, you know, working from home, having to deal with doing a lot more of the housework than we usually do, kids who need to be taken care of. I mean, I think you just saw one little hand. That's my daughter who's just sort of, you know, wondering what is mom doing in front of a computer. So, you know, a lot of our colleagues have young children, some have aged parents, some of our younger team members are, you know, stuck away from their families, you know, because of the lockdown, they couldn't really travel back to be at home and therefore are staying alone. So, we are trying to, you know, really stay connected. And I'm trying to give them a mix of the fact that we can get through this while acknowledging that there is fear and anxiety and, you know, or maybe uncertain future right now ahead of us for many months. That's on the professional front and on the personal front, I think it's been a lesson in learning how these school teachers manage these energetic bundles of energy for like long hours. And, you know, we are really struggling with our own in terms of how to keep them occupied, how to, you know, make the most of this time that, you know, I'm getting at, I don't think I've ever spent so much time with my children as I'm doing now in the same house. Of course, a lot of it goes into work, but we are sort of trying to do that. I'm also realizing that, you know, it sort of makes you relook at your own priorities in life and your own styles of dealing with situations, dealing with people. Some of the things I'm learning are tough, but I think it's good to learn them while we have the time and the energy and the manpower to do it. Jyothi, thank you so much for talking to us. This interview is inspiring on a lot of fronts, not just professional, even personal. I really like all those things that you said about, you know, how it has involved you as a person. And it is pretty much the same for me. So thank you very much. I feel very connected with you right now and I need you. We wish that you stay at home and you stay safe and we wish good health to you and your family. Thank you so much for talking to Exchange for Media. Thanks Nazia and wish every minute Exchange for Media also good health and hopefully we will all be out of this soon and connecting in person rather than just on Zoom calls. So thank you so much for your time also.