Spirit W | Doing much more than basic media planning: Mindshare's Meghna Rakshit

In Spirit W, we bring to you focused women who will stop at nothing but sheer hard work and determination to reach the top. This week, I'd like to introduce you to Meghna Rakshit, Director, Business Planning, one such media enthusiastic who was always sure of her goals and aims.

Attaining her undergraduate from USA, Rakshit started her career in media sales with a niche magazine called Interview Magazine in NYC. Although media was her area of interest, Rakshit was sure that she needed to do something in media that required more psychology and analytics, as they were her core strengths. So she immediately switched when Mindshare NYC offered her a job. After five years of working in NYC, Rakshit decided to move back to India, to be closer to her family. "I did my MBA at the ISB, Hyderabad and then worked with the strategy group at Anand Bazaar Patrika for a year, followed by a media start-up firm called 9.9 Media, and am currently with Mindshare Mumbai in the Business Planning division. I was lucky to have got a varied set of experiences with all my jobs right from the beginning, but I think a lot of that happened because I was fairly clear on what I liked to do," she explained.

Rakshit proud of all her work, she states, "I am proud of every project that I am able to get off the ground ' I like that I am able to put science and logic into media strategy."

When asked if women have an edge over men, she said, "No not an edge, but I certainly think women have equal opportunity in the media space. Media is an industry that requires a good combination of cognitive skills, analytics, psychology, communication and detailing ' qualities and skills that are strength areas for most women."

Drawing inspiration from Aung Sang Suu Kyi, Rakshit tries to mirror her courage in daily life and finds her fight against the odds, exhilarating.

Rakshit is of the opinion that the media agency service has changed dramatically. "We now do a lot more than basic media planning and have entered into the realm of marketing planning and consulting ' more like partnering with our clients. We attract very smart talent who can look at the larger picture rather than work in isolation. But somehow it is still hard to get clients to embrace that. We probably need to do something organizationally that will get us on equal footing with clients," she further said.

Being a strong willed woman in a field as competitive as media is a challenge that women like Rakshit enjoy facing up to. Kudos to her and all the other women like her who stands for change in the world of media. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]