This evening, Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman of RK Swamy Hansa, a diversified marketing communications group, will be honoured with the Advertising Agencies Association of India’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

In his nearly four decades of association with the advertising business, Swamy has managed to strike a perfect balance between giving back to his own business, industry and society, at large. In an interview with cat.a.lyst , Swamy shares some of the secrets behind his achievements and gives a sneak preview about what is left to be achieved

What has been the proudest moment in your career and why?

There have been many happy moments in my work life, but I would be loath to call any of them proud! In my career spanning 36 years, I have seen many victorious moments in terms of winning client pitches, even winning the client back when they are about to re-assign the work to a competitor.

But if I have to pick one, I would pick the one when we pitched for and won Ricory instant coffee from Nestle (Food Specialities Ltd, then). I state this because it was my first major pitch and I was involved right through planning, conceptualisation and creation of the campaign and leading the pitch, when I was just two years old in the agency.

What are some things that are yet to be achieved?

I don’t think anyone can say ‘I have achieved everything in my life.’ On the other hand, I can say that I am satisfied with what I have accomplished so far. Having said that, my road map is already laid with things coming my way. ASCI Chairmanship in September 2016 hopefully. First IAA Global President from India in 2018, AFAA Chairmanship in 2019. Sometime in the future, Chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) perhaps. Who knows where our fate takes us!

What was a failure that you encountered and what were the learnings that emerged from that?

Naturally I have had to face many struggles in various aspects of my life. But I cannot classify any of them as failures. Each one of these challenges helped me hone my skills and sharpen my wits!

When you were successful as a child how were you rewarded?

Your question is like the famous loaded question, ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?!’ It assumes I was successful growing-up. As it happens, when I was a child, I was a slow learner. I struggled in my classes and I had tuitions for almost every subject. It was only in the late 1980s that I learnt that I was dyslexic during my school days.

I must have significantly overcome it in my teens, since I did well in my school finals and in my Engineering and MBA days. As for rewards, I was my grandmother’s pet grandson and she would always sneak in some money for me to have my favourite Kali Mark drink in my school days!

Given an opportunity, where would you like to sharpen your skills?

After my Engineering course, I had an opportunity to pursue my MBA in the US. But I also received admission at Jamnalal Bajaj, which then was a great deal (probably true today as well). After my MBA I got sucked into work and never found time for education in one of the Ivy League Schools in the US. It would be my desire to go there for a short-duration course so that I can learn as much from the co-participants as from the Course itself.

If you had to create a priority list to change the course of the advertising business, what would you change?

The business has undergone a huge change in many ways. But agencies still broadly have a staffing structure that is cost-ineffective. Some clients too seek multiple people to service them and the compensation is determined based on resources assigned.

I wish to see a new structure that has only Planning and Creative people in the team servicing clients and avoid having account representatives/executives whose contribution is generally superficial.

Also, compensation to agencies should not be based on ‘cost plus margin’ but on outcome of advertising developed. That would truly respect the IPR of the agency’s work.

In your personal life, if you had to drop something each day in order to assimilate new learnings, what would you drop?

Frankly, I don’t know if I have enough bad baggage to drop something everyday! But the new digital media fascinates me and how the world is moving towards interactive, one2one communication, along with the rise of marketing analytics, issues relating to programmatic buying and emerging significance in use of apps in every aspect of business life.

It is a new world out there and there is much more to learn!

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