Enough has been said about 2020. Campaign India is closing out the year by asking industry leaders about what this different year taught them and what do they want from the year that comes up.
Here's what Babita Baruah, managing partner, WPP GTB India, had to say:
One learning from the magical year 2020?
Like many others, I had started off 2020 with some resolutions. Personal and professional. Aimed at a better, improved me. March of 2020 brought us all to a screeching halt. Without realising, it is December. When I look back, it has come with many learnings. Resilience in the face of acute uncertainty. The ability to work under major shifts with no playbook or warning signs.The fact that online meetings and video calls were nowhere close to the office camaraderie, huddles, conversations but it’s here to stay and could well be the centre of new ways of working. I have felt the connect with my family and realised that I could have managed the scales of balance better even without the pandemic. I have also learnt how important it is for us as a communications industry to partner our clients on growth, on business. Collective and inclusive growth is perhaps the only way most of us can thrive. There were learnings on maximising this phase on up-skilling, training- technology made it accessible at scale.
But the one learning from 2020 for me is to live life every day. Let out the magic in every moment.
Just being alive has been the greatest and most humbling gift.
One thing you want from 2021?
As we get set to step into 2021, I am thinking about partnerships, relationships, business growth, economic progress. How do we get all of this going?
Because there is still a powerful wave of fear and uncertainty that stands in the way of being bold, taking decisions, taking those risks and leaps that defined us as a powerful industry. There is an overwhelming trust deficit. From an instant suspicion when the doorbell buzzes, to not knowing who or what to belief in or take at face value? What is fake? What is real?
A shaky, unsure mind can never move mountains.
What are the institutions of trust that we can lean back on- professionally and personally? What can we do as professionals, as leaders, as team mates, as business partners to get back that confidence, that positive sentiment that doesn’t make us hold back- resources, expressions, beliefs.
The one thing I want from 2021 is the ability to trust.
Only when we trust our partners, our relationships and ourselves, can we work together.
Trust comes with the confidence to debate.
To be brutally honest about expressing and accepting polarised opinions.
To change gears with speed.
That, in my view, is the best way to live and grow together.
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