“Products exist in your head; brands exist in your heart. It is very difficult to tear away an iPhone or a Mac and replace it with a regular laptop. But, to create that kind of product, there is no infrastructure. When Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Monalisa, he would have looked for inspiration, then he would have sat down and he would have painted and painted; it would have been a whole process. If someone says they want it in 70 hours, it can be done, but it cannot be a masterpiece,” says Prathap Suthan, chief creative officer, Bang In The Middle.
Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy recently said that youngsters should work for 70 hours a week, stirring a debate on work-life balance and other related issues.
Times have changed; so has the definition of media. With so many platforms and 24-hour media, and even 24-hour consumers, who work/shop during nights, a brand needs to be managed across all consumer touch points. While technology takes care of most of these things, there is always human error or events or market dynamics or a brand engineered reflex that plays up and throws everything and everyone off gear.
Suthan asks some pertinent questions. “When such things happen, where is work-life balance? When will clients tell us to work 8-hour days? Clients want us 24/7 anyway. Where does 70 hours make sense?”
Work-life balance
Llyod Mathias, senior marketer and consultant considers Narayana Murthy’s comment a blessing in disguise as the topic of work-life balance issue is taking centre stage. “Indians in general spend long hours at work, and it’s a general point of concern,” he says.
However, he feels that there is not going to be any significant change in the advertising industry which is infamous for not maintaining a work-life balance. Creative output cannot be measured in time and it is an unacknowledged fact in ad agencies that much of the work starts late in the day and there are long hours.
Utsav Khare, executive creative director, McCann Worldgroup, highlights a unique crossroads. “On one hand, Covid has taught us the value of life, happiness and normalcy. So there’s this definite urge to not take undue stress. On the other hand, there’s a resurgence in the economy, with every industry trying to finally focus on growth and P&L.”
Khare feels clarity of thought from people who never lose sight of the bigger picture at the helm helps. He thinks what one does right at the workplace is to remember it isn’t the number of hours but the quality of hours that you put in at work.
“A happier employee will deliver more in less time. And so our management’s focus is always on giving people time and security to prove themselves, shielding them when need be, and lauding them at the first chance they get. If they want to spend more hours at work, it should be out of choice, and not compulsion. It should be because they love where they work,” Khare reflects.
Bansi Raja, chief happiness officer, Gozoop Group, echoes Khare’s point about the pandemic. She believes the pandemic has put things into perspective to a great extent, especially with hybrid working facilities.
“People have largely learnt how to achieve work-life harmony and are walking that path quite well. I definitely see positive changes since 2022 and it’s only going to get better,” she says, adding that in an industry which thrives on creative juices, it doesn’t make sense to measure productivity based on work hours. “An idea can click in just 2 minutes or even 20 hours. Processes and a creatively tuned environment are more crucial to drive productivity,” she says.
Fostering creativity
Abbas Mirza, senior creative director, Ogilvy, says, “Interestingly, it’s the young ad professionals who are increasingly getting vocal about the work-life balance. I feel they are working harder than ever but they don’t want to miss out on other experiences as well. And they are not shying away from raising the issue on social media as well as with their seniors. It’s time to reiterate the fact that we are in the business of communication, and if we don’t leave our desks to observe the world around us, we might not come up with the best ideas, which is eventually not good for the business as well.”
Suthan says that creativity requires magic and unlike math, magic doesn’t have a formula. “You can’t say that you sit in an office and do magic for 70 hours per week. There is no fixed place where creativity happens. I have been witness to many campaigns which have happened while we were sitting in a bar and drinking, and then maybe a fight happened and then we are sorting out this fight, and we had an idea!”