Working mothers often feel the lump of guilt in their heart from the constant tug of war between a consistent focus on their careers and spending enough time with their children. In conversation with Anisha Motwani, I realized that one must never put an expiry date to their career upon reaching a milestone in his/her personal life. Anisha is an epitome of strength and courage. Her story takes us on a revaluation tour to think about our passion and dreams and how the journey will always look easier than it was when you look back and smile.
Born in a small town in Rajasthan, Anisha has lived in some of the most beautiful cities like Ajmer, Jaipur and Udaipur. Her father had a transferable job, due to which she was culturally accustomed to living in these cities. She comes from a background where Education was of utmost priority and her parents laid down a strong foundation of support to her perseverance and hard work. It was due to this support system that Anisha and her siblings managed to reach the peak of their careers.
Post Graduation from Sophiya College, Ajmer & an MBA in Marketing from Rajasthan University, Anisha got married right after college and moved to Delhi. She started her career at “Shrishti Advertising”, the in-house Advertising agency for “LML- Scooters”, a company where her husband worked. She took a break from her career after the birth of her first child but was fully determined to join work and came back into advertising, but this time to the largest agency in the city, “Clarion Advertising (Now Bates India)”. She had a fast track career in advertising moving from being a ‘trainee’ to ‘head of a full-service branch’ in a span of 15 years working with some of the leading brands in India like Leo Burnett, Mudra Communications, McCann Erickson and Euro RSCG. Her interactions with Industry experts such as Rahul Kansal, Santosh Desai, Freddy Birdie and Naved Akhtar contributed to her learning and led her to become the successful professional, that she is today.
The second break in her career was after the birth of her Son in 1997. She took an 18 month sabbatical at Mudra Communications to spend time with her two children. Anisha got ample support from her husband who encouraged her to pursue her career and follow a path that would lead to her professional growth. Even though she had the support from her joint family, she felt guilty for not spending enough time with her children as most working mothers do. She planned her meetings and official trips in a manner that would not compel her to spend a night without her children. For client shoots, she insisted on taking the early morning flights and return home the same day. As she looks back in time, she feels that the ‘guilt’ was absolutely unnecessary. Children love and respect you regardless of your physical presence in their lives and eventually look up to you and seek inspiration from your professional success. Hence “Guilt is all in the mind!”
Anisha’s professional mentor was her father (he passed away 10 years back) and her two brothers. She valued his advice immensely and the fact that he encouraged her to understand different perspectives and never forced any decision. “He was like a shepherd who’s behind his flock, protecting and shielding but never taking over the reins’ says Anisha.
“Marketing will be redundant as a function if it does not evolve with time.” Anisha recommends 4 clear shifts in the Marketing domain:
Marketing Department to Marketing Labs
Successful organizations realize that the only way to predict the future is by consistently aiming to create and re-create it. This has to be a continuous and self perpetuating cycle within the organization DNA. Social scientists study lifestyles, emerging trends and product teams “cook” insights in to create breakthrough products and innovations.
Customer Mania in the organization
Today every employee and every part of business has the potential to touch the customer at some point along the purchase cycle. From a tweet to a blog to a call center experience, the customer’s expectation of service is just a click away. In such a scenario, the responsibility of owning the customer agenda cannot be with just one function or a handful of employees.
Advertising to Content
If you are a brand that believes in show and tell you are stuck in the 90’s!
Customers will tend to remember how you made them feel, or how you treated them or the drama that your brand story created in their life. This is where the next dimension of content curation comes in as a golden opportunity to reach across and co-create branded content with customers.
Social Engagement to Social Business
Digital engagement, just collecting some likes on social platforms, is past. Social networks are today as real as the physical buy bactrim from canada world and marketing department has to view every interaction on social networking as an opportunity for social monetization.
Anisha’s advice to young women…
Anisha’s advice to younger women is that they should stop chasing success. Success is relative in nature where you see the goal post keeps shifting with every milestone, putting one in a perpetual chase mode.
‘This is a very tiring way of living. Instead focus on what you like doing, your interests and passions. If you are not fortunate to be in a job of your interest, create a life outside work and find your joys there. Do not trudge along your life constantly feeling trapped’ opines Anisha.
Why is it that women feel that their career comes with an “Expiry date”? Why is it that women cannot manage the work life scales by prioritizing basis the need of the moment. If you feel that taking a break from your career is the right thing to do then go ahead and take that decision, however do not consider it an end. Anisha took two sabbaticals during her career but came back, even if it meant a couple of notches lower in the hierarchy.
Anisha’s take on biases against women in corporate world is that such statements cannot be generalized.
What drives Anisha
What drives Anisha about her work is that she can make something tangible out of a concept or idea with measurable outcomes. She is known for her exceptional ability to turn deep insight into theory and theories into action. She is credited with transforming some somber categories into vibrant ones.
A regular contributor to leading business publications, Anisha is also a respected and inspirational speaker at various industry and corporate events, both in India and overseas. Her speeches are juxtaposed with interesting insights of human behaviour that showcase a keen understanding of customer preferences with a particular reference to the future of the digital domain. She is well versed and enthralls her audiences on a vast array of subjects close to her heart like customer insights, gender diversity, women empowerment and the future trends in digital marketing.
Being an avid blogger, she publishes her point of view on gender diversity, business, consumer and digital trends in MarketBuzzar.com – a portal of insights she founded, in addition to several leading publications and also on Huffington Post along with many other leading national dailies.
Currently a Consultant with the Max India Group of Companies, Anisha represents a plethora of industry associations with multiple industry credits. She is also a member of CII’s Executive Marketing Committee, Executive Committee of Indian Society of Advertisers & All India Management Association. Anisha has been deservedly awarded with multiple recognitions for marketing & corporate excellence.
Voted as one of the ’50 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business’ by Business Today for three consecutive years since 2009, Anisha has also been recognized amongst the 50 most successful women in Media, Marketing and Advertising by Impact and Colors for three years since 2010. She has been conferred ‘Women at Work Leadership Award 2011’ by Asian Confederation of Business and ‘Udyog Ratan’ by the Institute of Economic Studies amongst many others.
Anisha is also passionate about giving back to the community and shares her gift as a mentor at Sheores, providing guidance to women professionals. Known for her deep rooted desire towards promoting human excellence, her repertoire touches many lives and showcases the visionary in her which is always looking to improve people, processes and brands.
Anisha is a volunteer at the Isha foundation and is inspired by the teachings or Sadhguru Vasudev Jaggi
Her interests include reading, writing, travelling and watching movies. Her favorite book is “The New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle .Her biggest achievements include a successful career and well settled children, her daughter is an established Graphic Designer and her son is pursuing his studies at Delhi University.
Do spare a few minutes of your time to participate in the survey that Anisha has rolled out..
Marketing Buzzar in partnership with National HRD Network has rolled out a survey to understand the attitudes, motivations and behavior of men vis-à-vis working wives & that of women vis-a-vis their career and work-life balance. The findings of the study will help corporates devise the right strategies and policies for creating a gender balanced workplace and for strengthening their diversity initiatives. The questionnaire design focusses on married people with children.Getting more Indian women into the workforce and enabling their rise up the ladder of seniority is a priority for Corporate India. Following are the links to the surveys for Men and Women:
- THE GENDER SURVEY WOMEN:https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8G7F5TW
- THE GENDER SURVEY MEN:https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MGWKXXD
We admire her for her contribution to Diversity in India has been a catalyst towards changing the mindset of both men and women. Her encouragement for women to push the limits and societal barriers will help in a guilt free focus towards their career. We wish her a successful and healthy year ahead.
