Thomas Xavier, Chairman & NCD, Orchard Advertising
In the last 15 years, I think the senior people have failed this industry, barring two or three people. When stalwarts of Indian advertising like Alyque Padamsee or Subhash Ghoshal moved out, the new leaders began working on new pressures. Agency heads began working on protecting their businesses rather than growing them. The charismatic leaders went missing, who otherwise attract people from outside the profession.
Thomas Xavier, Chairman and National Creative Director of Orchard Advertising, got into the business fighting all odds purely because he was passionate about being creative and was looking for a structured environment to bring out this creativity. Today, being at the helm of affairs at Orchard, Xavier still retains the passion for the business. An engineer and an IIM graduate, he has come a long way when in the beginning of his career Ulka (now DraftFCB Ulka) didn’t even interview him, and despite his protests, seeing his academic background, he was forced into servicing.
Xavier has been instrumental in making some path breaking advertising, including for Air Deccan, which threw open a new category that no one had thought of earlier.
In conversation with exchange4media’s Tuhina Anand, Xavier talks about his passion, creating a ‘Human Kind’ in agencies and more. Q. Is it because Orchard is a smaller set-up that you have the independence to take such decisions?
I think size is something you must use to your advantage. Big agencies have the advantage as they have more money available and a bigger pool of talent. But with smaller agencies like Orchard, you have to play with the cards you are dealt with. I would have done the same thing even if I were heading a big agency. It’s easy to get cynical in small numbers, and if two people are not contributing then it might dishearten as they contribute to a big number in a small set-up. Size, to me, is not the reason why we do it. As far as Orchard is concerned, we have a parent company – Leo Burnett – which, I think, is among the few agencies that put human being before others. One of our new philosophies about brand planning is called the ‘Human Purpose of brands’ or the ‘Human Kind’. We believe that the brands that we work for also have a human purpose, and as brand consultants, our role is to uncover that and continuously refresh it in the minds of consumers.
Peter England People is a brand that we handle, so what is the human purpose of the brand? We believe, it is to make international fashion accessible. Many people look for imitation or discount sales to afford international fashion. But here is a brand that makes international fashion affordable to those who desire it. The moment you define this, then it has implications in everything you do – be it in the dealer outlets, including visual merchandising and merchandising, or communication. Similarly, there has to be a human purpose for Orchard. It is to change people for the better while we work in advertising. Same philosophy that we use to manage our brands can be used for our people. Just to use an analogy, just because your hamlet is small, it doesn’t mean that preaching is easier.
Q. Have you come across something in the recent past that made you feel good about being in the advertising profession?
Times of India’s ‘Lead India’ campaign, which made me feel validated about what I do. Though it is JWT’s work, the fact that it is something that happened around us and we saw it all over the place, and it being applauded at Cannes makes one feel proud.
Another good moment was when the movie ‘Cheeni Kum’ was released last year. Balki was my first boss and a person for whom I have a lot of respect. He put in me some habits that have stood me in good stead. He used to say ‘Fear only fear’, and fear is the one thing that stands between you and what you want to be. There are so many moments when one is stuck and then you finally move ahead thinking that’s how good you could be. Balki was not a filmmaker, but a Creative Director of an agency, and when he succeeded, I felt good. All of us nurse secret achievements outside advertising, and in some ways he made it easy for us. I have Balki’s success to assure me when I seek something outside advertising.
Q. What is the solution then?
to believe that advertising cannot be administered like a typical 9-5 job. A lot of agencies have started treating its creative people as well as the rest as blue-collared workers. This includes regimented ways of working, clocking in time sheets, and even marking people late and then giving them pay cuts. We have gone into an era where we are on a retainer basis, and to meet deadlines some might think it’s necessary. We may have become responsible in the eyes of our clients, but the fallout is that we are not attracting the talent that used to bring a sense of adventure, unpredictability or the mavericks. The balance has now shifted towards regimentation so much so that freedom seekers don’t find much in the profession.
Advertising is a responsible job as you are entrusted with the custodianship of someone else’s brand, but the primary responsibility of the management is to front it without changing the process by which work is done. It takes a higher calibre of managerial front to have chaos back in the office, yet handle the clients’ business needs. I think the present calibre of leaders have taken their jobs too seriously. The solution is simple – you need new management of talent, which will keep this positive chaos going, yet deliver what the client wants.
Q. It’s been four months since this initiative began, what kind of changes have you seen?
Employees can now relate to the company through a medium other than just the boss. All agencies talk about the digital medium, but how many agencies have a decent website? How many have a website that is updated everyday? How many have a blog that provides a forum for its people to write about their views – be it from the agency or the outside environment? I think agency people live a fantastic life outside the agency, unfortunately the advertising industry has not been able to tap into that. Orchard is an agency that I can talk of that has a website which is updated almost everyday. So, anybody joining in can actually take off from our website as it talks about all our work, etc. We have a blog called ‘Orchard Fresh’, which is a forum for people to contribute in ways that they as people are stimulated by the environment.
We have just finished our appraisals, and my message to our people this time is that I will not give them business objectives because I don’t want to ask what they can do for Orchard. I don’t need to tell that, as most of our people have been in the agency for long and they know this already. Instead, I said I want 2008-09 to be the year of personal growth. I want people to look back and see that these years have changed them as a person for the better and to that extent, the organisation will give whatever stimuli is required. We plan to get a Graphologist soon and the staff can have their writing analysed as he would be a counsellor too. I think the company never creates a forum for someone, say in the despatch department, so that he can reflect on who he is. Probably he does it outside the office, which is a shame as we say people are our assets, but we are not able to do anything for them.
Q. You got into advertising as you were passionate about the profession. Do you think that such passion is missing among youngsters who enter advertising today?
In the last 15 years, I think the senior people have failed this industry, barring two or three people. When stalwarts of Indian advertising like Alyque Padamsee or Subhash Ghoshal moved out, the new leaders began working on new pressures. Agency heads began working on protecting their businesses rather than growing them. The charismatic leaders went missing, who otherwise attract people from outside the profession.
Secondly, lot of other exciting career options have come up. Advertising has lost a lot of its ‘cool’ factor, which is why youngsters don’t come to it.
When I began my career, my urge was to give an outlet to my creativity in a reasonably structured environment. I would define myself as a creative person who wanted a secure environment. In medieval terms, I wanted to be a court artist as I couldn’t be a vagabond artist. Today, times have changed. If I got the same urge today, probably I wouldn’t have come to advertising as there are other similar avenues open. There are more outlets for passion, hence less people. The best people who come into advertising still have a lot of passion. I think passion levels are much higher today than in the 90s.
When I said I wanted to get into advertising, I sounded absurd to my peer group. I passed out of IIM in 1992 and I was the only one in my batch who insisted on getting into creatives. But I got thrown out from all interviews, including agencies like Rediff, JWT, Ulka, who didn’t even interview me. Finally, Rediff gave me a job in servicing, whereas I had been asking for creative. I joined Lintas for a few days, where, again I got job in servicing. Finally, R Sridhar met me at an alumni meeting and asked me to meet Balki. I could be a rarity, but today I find that people want to do a lot more things.
Q. So, what is Orchard’s way?
Q. Do you think because you are a creative person your approach is different towards people, even though you are at the helm of affairs?
Q. So, what is your secret ambition that you want to do outside advertising?
Q. Could you elaborate further on the function of the brand manager?
Q. What else is being planned to increase interactivity among people in the agency?
Q. What new developments have taken place in the agency after you took over as Chairman?
