Spirit W | Growth of the industry in not linear anymore: Mindshare's Kotwani

With over 18 years of experience as a media professional, Anita Kotwani has spent the last 9 years focusing on enhancing client relationships.  As Leader, Client leadership, she is responsible for setting the vision and working plan for the agency and develops and cultivates relationships at the highest level within the client organization on major key accounts like HSBC, Kellogg, ABG, ICICI, Castrol, Godrej Appliances, Star and others. Her core areas of focus are strategic engagement with the client on their businesses and steering the client’s marketing investment into delivering business results.

An out-of-the-box thinker with proven track record of ownership, ameliorating business revenues, streamlining workflow and creating a team work environment to enhance profitability innovatively for the organization and clients, Anita is a strong organizer, motivator, team player and a decisive leader with successful track record in directing projects from original concept through implementation to handle diverse market dynamics.

Anita Kotwani, Leader, Client Leadership for Mindshare West, spoke to Adgully about her fulfilling and rewarding career in the media and advertising industry.
To what would Kotwani attribute her foray into the media space? Answering this she says, “Would say "Destiny" as I never expected to get into this line of work given my educational background of being a lawyer, so I got into this line accidentally and loved it so much that today I cannot think of a better place to be in from a career / passion point of view. I just love this ever evolving landscape.”

Of the 18 years in the industry, about 50% of her professional life has been involved in enhancing client relationships. Elaborating on that front, she said, “To drive businesses you need to have been exposed to all the functions that an agency usually operates in and I have had the luxury of being in each space over the last 18 years. From pure play planning, to buying, to formulating media strategies, to bringing in new businesses within the agency fold gave me a perspective of agency functioning and  the experience of leading businesses. Taking on from there, getting an exposure on how the Publication side works gave me exposure to the other side of the business where I learnt how to launch editions and build media brands. The dynamics were different, the learning immense but restricted to a certain domain only. The craving to have an overall perspective of this evolving changing landscape where the exposure was shifting to new and emerging media platforms drew me back to the agency.”

Exposure in each of these areas helped her hone her skills and guided her to the area that fascinated her most, which was building client relationships. “The joy comes from understanding their business challenges and providing solutions that are not only innovative and well thought through but are adaptive and real time. It's a challenge to raise the bar on diverse set of businesses and categories that one gets an opportunity to work on.  At Mindshare am privileged to have a set of clients that I truly love working on be it the Star Network, Castrol, Godrej, the Kellogg business, Financial brands like HSBC, ICICI, the ABG group and many more such clients. Also as a client leader one really is the orchestrator between various disciplines be it the strategy team, the business planning team or the exchange team of Mindshare to the larger diversified teams of GroupM. I thoroughly enjoy this role as I am in a continuous learning mode,” she added.

Citing three of her best attempts to gain or retain clients that reflected positively in the client list at the agency, Kotwani said, “Had the privilege to initiate the work on the ABG business before handing over to Ajit Gurnani, which recently has come back to my fold and am proud that today we as an agency have been handling their entire group business.  Winning the bookmyshow.com  business was another one that we as a team were proud to have in our roster of clients, as again it gives us an exposure and learning into companies in the digital domain. Joined the Mindshare family in 2004 and have been associated with the HSBC brand since it came into Mindshare.  I’m proud of handling this business which is in the 10th year in the running, with us being their lead business partner over the years. Am extremely proud of the work that we do on Star business as well as the thinking that needs to be put together for the broadcasting category is very different compared to other brands.”

Being in a leadership position, some of her qualities have worked in her favor and reflected in her team's performances too. She attributes this to a few principles she has lived by which has helped them deliver as a team. They are: ‘We’ and not ‘I’, Execution – The Discipline of Getting things done, Collaboration is key, We are in it together, Stand by your team always, Lead by example and Respect is earned.

“Have always been very ambitious and to me my work is my lifeline. Am a bit of a workaholic but I just love this field and each day for me is a day filled with passion and fun. My team is my strength, they are my pillars that make life easy for me. They are the best team a leader could ever ask for. Am privileged to be working with the best minds in this field and I do hope that they continue to be with us in the years ahead,” she stated in terms of balancing her personal and professional life.

With respect to evaluating the growth and evolution of the industry that she is in, Kotwani said, “It is not linear anymore it's leapfrogging and we need to take on the challenge of keeping pace with this evolving landscape.”

Explaining her stint with Mindshare, Kotwani said, “Challenging, Invigorating, Exhilarating, Fulfilling and Enriching. It is the one of the best agencies in India, with the best minds of the industry at its helm, the most amazing talent pool, world class products and tools, a training ground for all levels and we at Mindshare are proud to be called the "Purple People".

‘Give it your best and the reward will follow’ is the mantra she follows. Kotwani said, “I see the commitment with which the work is done, winning and losing is part of the game. Make the game challenging is all I ask.”

Last but not the least sharing her pearls of wisdom or mantras to new entrants in the industry, Kotwani concluded to say, “Give each organization that you work with a few years of your time for them to be satisfied that you did justice to your stint with them. Imbibe the Teach Learn Teach Learn culture.”

Possessing high integrity and being an energetic leader, she is known for ability to envision and create successful outcomes in complex multicultural environment. A firm believer in the power of execution herself, her eye for detail and discipline for delivery helps her partner her clients in achieving their business goals.
 

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