According to Shivam Ranjan, head of marketing, Motorola, Asia Pacific, the technology industry is fast-paced and seeing innovations on a daily basis. Since there is a culture of delivering everything on time, it creates pressure and stress.
“There will be 10 things that are important, but prioritise what is the most important and try to do that,” Ranjan advises.
Edited excerpts:
The creator economy has taken the world by storm. Which influencers and trends are you following?
It’s incredible that it has taken off in a big way. I think a lot of people are watching content, especially video content. For me personally, I also follow video content, both short-form and long-form.
In fact, short-form content is a trend that’s now exceeding long-form in multiple ways, with Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.
In terms of influencers, I focus on the industry that I’m in, which is technology.
The key influencers that I follow, at least at an international level, are the likes of ‘mrwhosetheboss’ (Arun Maini), ‘unboxtherapy’ (Lewis Hilsenteger), ‘MKBHD’ (Marques Keith Brownlee), and some of the other popular tech influencers globally.
From an Indian perspective, I follow tech influencers like Rajiv Makhni, Trakin Tech, etc. They give you information about what’s happening in the industry, in competition, and globally, allowing us to understand the consumer perspective and the consumer voice.
What marketing-related content do you consume in your free time?
In my free time that I get outside of work, I definitely keep looking at different blogs and different news platforms where I’m able to get the latest in terms of marketing. And this is outside of the industry as well.
As I mentioned earlier, the tech bloggers and the influencers from the smartphone technology industry are the ones whom I follow.
In the field of marketing, I look at blogs. I look at LinkedIn as a big avenue to read about various campaigns that are creating differentiation in marketing strategy and communications. A couple of people that I really like and follow are Karthik Srinivasan. It’s all about creativity in communication, the strategy of marketing, etc.
I also like Ankur Warikoo (an internet entrepreneur). He discusses not only marketing but also business. I feel that marketing should be deeply integrated with business.
There is a lot of talk about burnout, workplace toxicity, and hustle culture. What steps have you taken to avoid the adverse impact of the always-on culture on yourself and your colleagues? And what advice would you give to your peers, colleagues, and next-gen marketers on this?
In our organisation, we take well-being very seriously.
It’s a very important component, not just for ourselves but also for our teams and for the future. The smartphone industry is extremely fast-paced. One is coming across a lot of launches that are happening on a monthly basis. One might be seeing multiple launches on the same day.
There are too many brands that are competing for consumer mindshare. Technology is moving at a frantic pace. You see innovations every day. In fact, product life cycles have decreased.
There’s a culture of extended hours. There’s a culture of delivering everything on a timely basis, which creates pressure and stress. So, my advice to everyone is to prioritise their jobs. That’s what I do with my team, also.
There will be 10 things that are important, but prioritise what is the most important and try to do that. The second important thing for me is to do what you enjoy.
So, for example, within the team, there might be some people who are extremely good at certain facets of marketing or strategy but may not be good at others. I think it’s important to identify one’s likings and what one enjoys and spend time doing that. That also further reduces the stress that one takes on oneself.
The third thing is that it’s very important to ensure that we take breaks. And breaks could be in the form of leaves that one has accumulated. A lot of people sometimes don’t take leaves throughout the year. It’s very important to take these leaves and also have some lean periods between high-decibel projects to be able to recuperate from the high pace of campaign pressures that they’ve been dealing with.
And last but not least, I think it’s very important to delegate.
It’s not necessary for everyone to delegate to a team because everybody may not have a team downwards. But definitely, you’ll have teammates; you will have cross-functional teams.
So, it’s very important for you to distribute the work and share the load with your peers as well as your team to be able to manage the stress. If you do all four consistently and efficiently, I feel that stress will be significantly reduced. We also see that it has a positive impact on the entire team.
Is there any sport or fitness routine you practice during the week to steal a few minutes of me-time for yourself and keep the momentum going?
I’m not big into fitness, but I do practice a little bit of it. It is very difficult to play a sport because you need like-minded people around you to do that.
But I’ve managed to play table tennis (TT) in the office. I have colleagues with whom I can play maybe 10-15 minutes of TT during a workday in the office.
When it comes to my personal routine, I like to take a 30-minute walk, whether it is early in the morning or late at night. But I try to fit in that 30 minutes of walking, which is also a time not just for me to explore or give myself this physical fitness regime but also to introspect and think about what I plan to do.
And what does your weekend look like?
During weekends, I try to prioritise my family. Being a dad for the second time just a month ago, I like to spend time with my young ones, play with them, and spend time with them.
The second thing that I like to do in my me-time over the weekends is catch up on my reading. So, during the weekdays, it becomes difficult to catch up on reading books that are outside the domain of my work. And last but not least, I’m a foodie. So, I make it a point to either go out for a meal over the weekend or cook something at home. These are the three things that I focus on during the weekends.
Share one work hack and one life hack you swear by.
The work hack, I would say, is to identify your priorities and then prioritise them.
From a life hack perspective, I go with a simple philosophy: it’s very important for people to aspire. And unless they aspire, they won’t be able to achieve things. There’s a very famous quote by our ex-president, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, that says, ‘You have to dream before your dreams can come true’.
So, it is very important for everyone to have a dream or have multiple dreams. That’s how you will set a purpose for your life. And that’s how you’ll achieve them.
What are you watching or streaming this weekend?
I don’t spend a lot of time watching series.
But this is the time for cricket. This is the time for the World Cup. So, I’m catching up on the Cricket World Cup.
What are you reading? Any recommendations?
I catch up on my beyond-work reading mostly during the weekends. I typically read business books or books that give perspective or insights. I am reading two books right now.
I’m reading one book, which is a business book called The Tatas. That is by an author called Girish Kuber. It takes us through the entire history of the Tata family and how they built not just a business empire but also created instances of helping the country grow in many ways.
The other one that I’m reading is The Psychology of Money. And that’s by a famous author named Morgan Housel.
It talks about how different people perceive money and, hence, how you can make effective use of that subject, which is important for almost everyone in their lives. If I had to recommend something, I would recommend The Psychology of Money to almost everyone.
A piece of wisdom that you would like to share
I think it’s about having the dreams and aspirations to achieve audacious goals in life, right? One should strive to achieve things that are beyond their reach. So, dream. Then work towards them to make them come true.