Rana Barua on the importance of trust & transparency in pandemic times

Emerging from the severe disruptions in 2020, brought on by the global pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, the year 2021 has seen the industry fight back to regain growth. And leading this growth saga have been the captions of the industry, who have been leading from the front.

The most definitive compilation of the most influential leaders of India Inc. across sectors, the 4th edition of Powerful Influencers 2021 was launched at a virtual event on December 22, 2021. In keeping with the current times, the Powerful Influencers 2021 has the overarching theme of Resilience | Rebuilding | Resurgence.

In his keynote address, Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India, spoke about how the pandemic has changed relationships in a corporate set-up and the leadership.

While stating that it has been an extremely tough journey for the last two years, Rana Barua remarked, “In these times of resilience and keeping a very strong focus, it’s good to share some learnings, some bits of the journey. The Havas Group, which is a large French multinational group, has several divisions across the world, with over 25,000 people working across many group companies. As in the case of other organisations, the pandemic changed everything for us. It changed our professional lives and personal lives. We had to kind of reinvent ourselves totally when we started last year around March.”

Barua candidly admitted, “We didn’t have any work experience or exposures or even leadership lessons as to how to manage such a pandemic situation. It was something which was unprecedented and we just didn't know how to manage it.”

Commenting on the meaningful relationships, corporate leadership and finding the roots of surviving the pandemic, Barua said, “Words like resilient, determination, commitment, being tough, being focused – have new meanings for all of us, because these were the words that started building into a new form completely, where we started figuring out that this is absolutely necessary the need of the hour.”

These are edited excerpts. For the complete keynote address, watch below:

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment