Rahul Karthikeyan, chief marketing officer, Scaler, thinks that to keep toxic work cultures at bay, one needs to start from the top, and personal connections with individuals are a must.
In a conversation with Storyboard18, he said, “If I don’t believe it, I don’t think I’ll be able to pass it on to my own team. The next most important thing within this framework is to personally connect with all the individuals. That allows people to build a culture that is ‘freedom of expression’.”
Edited excerpts of the interview:
The creator economy has taken the world by storm. So which influences and trends are you following currently?
What I mostly follow is political news, followed by the global versus the Indian economy.
And then comes a bit of passion, which is travel. And I also follow railways.
In politics, some of the biggest influencers for me are S Jaishankar (Minister of External Affairs) and Nitin Gadkari (Minister of Road Transport and Highways).
Last but not least is Shashi Tharoor (a member of the Lok Sabha). Then there is Palki Sharma (journalist with Firstpost) and Shekhar Gupta (journalist and author), a veteran in this space for many years.
What marketing-related content do you consume in your free time?
While I am the CMO of a company, I am not a big brand follower. I do watch some web series to understand brand integrations.
We primarily focus on content-related marketing and then just advertising. From a marketing point of view, there is the Founders Podcast (hosted by David Senra), which I follow.
There is a lot of talk happening about burnout, workplace toxicity, and hustle culture. What do you think about that? 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 your peers, colleagues, and next-gen marketers on this?
The way I see it, there are certain principles and frameworks that we follow from an organisation’s point of view and even within the marketing team. First and most important for us is the individual’s well-being.
The second is in terms of what the organisation’s vision statement is. If the vision statement is people-oriented, then most of those organisations have always been successful.
Amazon and Google are examples. They’ve always been successful because of this sort of culture. And it influences people to come there. Great talents get attracted when there are great work cultures.
The next is structured career opportunities. If an employee is within the system, the person can visualise and see the growth path in the next couple of years; it’s a great environment for the employees.
Last, but most importantly, is empathy. The number of players in the same category itself has significantly grown. One has to stay relevant. The amount of stress and pressure levels have also gone up.
I believe that to avoid the fostering of a toxic culture, it has to start from the top. If I don’t believe it, I don’t think I’ll be able to pass it on to my own team. We need to be very careful about how we build that. The next most important thing in this framework is to personally connect with all the individuals. That allows people to build a culture of ‘freedom of expression’.
Is there any sport or fitness routine you practice?
I work out five days a week and do full-length cardio-functional training. I do have a certain number of short-term goals and work towards achieving them. I think that’s been my fitness routine for almost a couple of years now.
What does your weekend look like?
In the last couple of months, I have been on a diet and am doing a lot of workouts. Every second week, I trek.
Most Sundays, I’m up in the mountains trekking myself. If I’m not trekking, I’ll be doing some food hunting.
Apart from that, there is quality time with my wife and my dog that I don’t want to let go of.
The rest is a bit of socialising and watching some content. But I am more of an outgoing person. That’s how my weekends are.
What are you streaming or watching this weekend?
My wife has said that there is a web series called Kaala Paani that has come out. I might watch it.
Any work or life hack that you swear by?
In the case of life hack, I like to be empathetic. It kind of opens a lot of doors. Always keep it simple. Let’s not complicate our lives. If you are not able to achieve certain things, it’s okay.
Not everybody has to be right on top. Just be honest and hardworking. That’s something I’ve learned over my many years of travel.
What are you reading? Any recommendations?
I don’t have those goals of reading 50 books in a year, and I’m more of a fiction reader. I read a lot of suspense novels, and most of them are Japanese books. They are The Honjin Murders, Suspect X, The Inugami Murder Case, etc.
A piece of wisdom that you would like to share…
We are always chasing. There is always some competition that we want to face. I would suggest, and I would tell the people as well, ‘Don’t get into any sort of competition.’
Competition means having to prove something to someone in society. Don’t do it. It just complicates our goals. We tend to get distracted from the actual goal that we want to achieve.
There can be many people who might push one into a negative zone. Stay positive and keep it simple. Don’t hear too many opinions. I think that’s one of the biggest challenges that I see in many people. We go for many opinions outside, and that’s where things get complicated. So, my life goal is to keep it very simple.