It Is Essential To 'Show And Tell’ To Progress: Anita Kotwani, Dentsu Media

It was rather serendipitous for Anita Kotwani, CEO Media, South Asia, dentsu, to take a stab at media planning and buying from her profession as a lawyer. Since then, she has been deeply in love with this industry and never looked back. 

Kotwani expresses her gratitude to Stratagem Media's Sandeep Nagpal for mentoring her in her early days, along with Girish from the Dainik Bhasker group, who trusted her with executing a few of their marque editions and enriching her learning of publishing.

Leading By Example

One defining experience for Kotwani has been her stint at Mindshare. "Mindshare has been a place that seeped into my blood, and I bled purple for so many years. It gave me the recognition and accolades that made me stay with them for a long time.”

She feels that her role as the CEO of Carat India in 2022, amidst the peak of the pandemic, has been the most pivotal. "It was a challenging role that enabled me to prove myself. I took it on with full gusto, as that was my chance to showcase my capability of reshaping a brand that had lost its sheen but was always a diamond.” Here, her most significant achievement was when, as a country, Carat won the ‘Global Carat Diamond Awards’.

Subsequently, she embarked on the journey to reshape Dentsu Bharat. "This has been one of the most gratifying ones and I am thoroughly enjoying it with complete support from my leader, Harsha Razdan, and a supremely wonderful team of leaders who rally with me day in and day out, driving client delight," she adds.

From Inspiration To Innovation 

Kotwani has been an ardent believer in fostering a nurturing environment to support her teams. She is a leader who encourages people to have open communication, allowing them to look at diverse perspectives and creating a culture where they feel comfortable sharing ideas without fear of judgement. "I encourage autonomy, as I like to empower my teams to take ownership of their work and provide them the space to explore new ideas and approaches. I also ensure to inculcate in them a mindset where failure is viewed as an opportunity for growth and learning rather than a reason for being reprimanded," she adds.

Adding to this, she shares drawing her inspiration from 'The 4 Disciplines of Execution' book and follows the ‘Strategy without execution is hallucination’ mantra. Kotwani takes great pride in instilling these disciplines in her leaders, which encourages them to radically collaborate at the very core of how they deliver at work. 

Women: Unabashed And Unapologetic

Reflecting on her career and speaking on the challenges she faced as a woman in leadership, Kotwani believes in being vocal in her approach and standing strong to get the recognition she truly deserves. "It was very soon in my career that I realised that it is essential to 'show and tell’, especially when you have this urge to progress as a professional. When things did not go my way, I had the resilience to take it in my stride to work harder, making it difficult for my leader to not reward meritocracy," she asserts.

One pressing issue, for Kotwani, that women face in the Indian corporate world today, is taking time to 'raise their hand' for positions that they should have raised their hands for ages ago. "My advice to them would be to not wait to be 95 per cent ready, your 60 per cent is far better than your male counterpart. Go, grab that seat. It's yours for the taking," she marks.

An All-out Effort To Empower

Dentsu has specific programmes for its female leaders that inspire them to take on leadership roles. One specific one is 'Path of Tabei', which has taken inspiration from Tabei, a woman who made her mark in the male-dominated world of mountaineering. Commenting on the agency supporting gender equality and the empowerment of women, she shares, "Our leadership team is committed to ensuring that we have 50 per cent of women in leadership positions by 2025, and together we are working towards ensuring that we meet our target."

Kotwani has also been instrumental in promoting diversity in hiring practices, where she ensures equal opportunities for both male and female candidates to interview for any given role. She also prioritises ensuring that the teams have members with diverse skill sets to inculcate a culture of learning from each other.