"Culture isn't just about conversations; it's about a steadfast commitment to prioritize people over business."
A Marketing Practitioner, a Thought Leader & a Top Voice on LinkedIn, trained in the leadership essential of Emotional Intelligence, an advocate of social impact, driven by kaizen, Ankoor is a thought leader, trained from Dale Carnegie in Mentoring to Develop Talent.
Ankoor is also a PCC Coach with niche in executive leadership and business coaching.
Ankoor has been selected by International Board of the global Luxury, Lifestyle and Business magazine Passion Vista, for their collector’s edition award “CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE 2024.
A recipient of the coveted award in Thought Leadership in Media and PR at Global Business Leadership Forum by Unified Brainz, Ankoor has also been selected and felicitated with the National level award “MAN OF EXCELLENCE, 2024” by the prestigious “INDIAN ACHIEVERS’ AWARD”. Ankoor has been felicitated as “SCHOLARS OF ADVERTISING AND MEDIA| DIGITAL KAIZEN LEADER by DigiAdCon 2024. Ankoor is also felicitated with “LEADER 2.0 AWARD” by adgully, in the domain of marketing.
Ankoor reads and writes extensively with multiple columns globally and. Ankoor is on the Advisory Board of Global Mathematics and Mathematics Olympiad Graded Assessment Test with Competition (GM & MO) and is also on Advisory Board of the Marketing Department at ISBR Business School.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Ankoor Dasguupta: I am happy to have this privilege. With a 24 year exciting, ongoing career journey, I am a PCC Coach and have been doing intense practice.Grateful to be on multiple Advisory Boards of repute globally and also wear the hat of a CMO.
I deeply believe in compassion and empathy which are core to Emotional Intelligence. My inspiration has been my amazing wife & daughter, and my faith in the power of the universe.
I am grateful to have got the opportunities to work with various teams and cultures nationally and internationally. I am also an Experienced Marketing Professional with online and offline experience, growth driver who has led cross functional roles with expertise in Digital, General Management and Thought Leadership.
An avid reader, writer with more than 100 published articles & interviews, part of various esteemed digital forums as Jury member and speaker. Rare combination with MNCs, experience in print media (both newspaper and magazine), digital media and marketing, mobile and programmatic advertising, product & growth, event programming & production.
I am a firm believer that people are more than their resumes. Qualities such as behavior, the ability to work with different individuals, agility, and accountability go beyond a given skillset
Can you share a time when your business faced a significant challenge? How did you navigate through it?
Ankoor Dasguupta: I see business challenges are more of people challenges and somehow my perspective has solved with Root Cause Analysis. In a nutshell the consistency in business is a factor of who is driving it and with what kind of a team.
It may seem like just another regular example, but it happens a lot and hence once I thought about bringing this more to the forefront of conversations at work. At one of my previous workplaces, there emerged a business challenge in terms of dissatisfaction that a client leading to the chance of that business going away.
My group heads were facing difficulty in managing how team members used to take unscheduled leaves.
Also, while working, efficiency was somehow on a downward curve as unscheduled leaves impact a bigger objective with defined timelines.
What I did was to invest time in having conversation with all my group heads. I split that into two parts. First meeting in office and the next meeting was scheduled over lunch outside office.
My thought behind doing this was to allow team to come up with the initial thoughts in office meeting and since these topics need to be give some time to reflect deeper, the lunch meeting next day was extremely helpful.
This is because they themselves thought about the root cause of team taking unscheduled leaves and themselves came up with solutions as they got time to sleep over our first discussion. The root cause was lack of motivation which had creeped in gradually. So, we identified the root reasons and he team came up with a solution conducive to making certain interesting and exciting practices at work.
Technically, I did nothing. I brought the group heads together, listened and gave them time to reflect and yes, I told them that this is priority one for us to solve and that it will be great to solve this together, considering the sensitive nature of this situation.
Seeing it from outside-in perspective, empathy is the glue. This all I had to enable within 2 days post which we did a detailed call with our client which I led with my team members as well.
Here is what I did- I owned up as a leader but also reassured that what lead to the client’s poor VoC for us, is solved and how I feel how the client feels. The good part, the call stretched 15 mins more than our scheduled time as it was a happy call by the end of it.
What we all learnt deeper that day is that paying attention to the problem and not judging any person, helps pace up the solution. Number two- genuine empathy and commitment to resolve.
These values, I am always in pursuit to imbibe in my direct reports and also ensure they imbibe these further to their teams as this is a process and not a one day job.
Another instance is, during one of my stints with an international client, my group heads were not seeing eye to eye with each other which was impacting our larger success goal for our client as our teams were working in silos.
What I did was an experiment, and it was a success. I realized that my bosses did not disclose this internal issue to our client (maybe which was a right thing to do), however, I know that these kinds of situations get into open very soon and then it becomes an even bigger predicament.
Here is what I did, in a nutshell-
-Communicated to the client about this internal issue, which they appreciated as somehow this made them feel more belonged to us
-Told the client to allow me 3 months to solve it (I had a plan to do this which I did not disclose as I was not sure how will it pan out
-I solved this in 75 days which turned around the Voice Of Customer (VoC) higher than what it was in past 2 years!
What I essentially did is not a secret but more to do with ‘how’ I coached both the group heads with a specific schedule.
How has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success?
Ankoor Dasguupta: Love this question.
Actually I am grateful to have he opportunity to face so many challenges. My learning is every challenge is an opportunity.
Allow me to share two interesting ones from my early career days-
Instance one –While working with print advertising way back around 2004, there was a query about the cover page story in the upcoming magazine edition that I needed clarity on.
As I was in Ad operations, I went and asked my boss how I got to know this. Those days there was a specific hierarchy to follow, which means a junior ideally can’t call a super senior just like that without approaching my counterpart (in this case it was the editorial).
My boss asked me to call up our editorial team who used to sit in a different building. Guess what I did? I called up the editor-in-chief’s office on his hotline and asked him fearlessly – hello (name), I need to know the upcoming cover story if you can kindly let me know, so than I can plan the issue from the advertisement front.
He seemed irritated beyond imagination, but he politely told me something on the lines – speak to my EA and hung up the phone. Within 5 minutes my boss calls me to his cabin and starts laughing. I thought I would have done something right.
He was laughing because he was so angry that his anger translated int laughter and ‘then he told asked me – Did you just call up our Editor-in Chief for the cover story? I said ‘Yes’. Then he explained to me the process of approaching someone. That day I learnt the questions we ask, needs to be worth someone’s time and not just asking something to someone.
Instance two – During my initial days of digital, was handling a campaign for a big travel client of ours. I had not done my homework and under pressure I set it up on the wrong target audience which led to some revenue loss for us in just two days.
When my boss called me to speak about this, I thought of packing my bags. When he spoke with me, he was keener to understand three things – do I realize my mistake? Do I understand how did that mistake happened and what could I have done to avoid it? Am I confident that a similar mistake will not happen again?
It would have been a 15-minute meeting, and he was so calm as I answered. He just said something on the lines – get started again and have a deeper eye for detail. I’ll take care of the damage. So that day I learnt the importance of having an ‘eye for detail’. Most importantly, always stay calm.
How do you build a resilient team? What qualities do you look for in your team members?
Ankoor Dasguupta: In my experience, this is a simple technique, however, I see a lot of leaders making this as complex to understand.
Be it any value, like resilience, it is not a magic wand. Like, when we go the the gym consistently, we undergo a pain to transform our body, fitness. Likewise, an attribute like resilience is only built by going ‘through’ the much required pain.
Joy is only a by product of pain which means that if you experience pain , you ae ready to understand how to bounce back. Yes, it may sound profound but it is rather simple.
What I connote is no need to be fearless. It is okay to have fear, but acknowledge it, recognize it and still go ahead and do the thing that is creating that fear. This has at least helped me a lot in my career journey.
So where ever I have been, I have always had meaningful and reflective conversations with my colleagues and team to understand their unique journey and then helped them to realize their deeper potential by ‘not mentoring’ but asking questions that helped them think better in the way they think.
See, our education system tell us to ‘focus’, but do they tell us how to focus? Like wise something like resilience can only be experienced in making!
How do you maintain your personal resilience during tough times?
Ankoor Dasguupta: I reflect. I sit alone for sometime. I water the plants in my garden. I genuinely believe that “this too shall pass”, and most importantly I feel grateful for the challenges that I face as that enables me to become stronger.
This is more of habit based and comes with building this as a practice over time. Our mind and our brain are simply amazing and what we can achieve with just the way we think and believe.
Also, thankfully I have some trusted friends who know me since childhood, so I talk to them as well, which helps. I think of all the happy memories from my childhood when I was more curious and more fearless.
What strategies do you use to manage stress and maintain focus during a crisis?
Ankoor Dasguupta: There is no strategy that I have. I simply don’t let stress creep in for longer period. I keep my diet focussed as what we eat and when we eat is crucial in eliminating stress and has high impact on focus. Pressure is how we define it and directly relates to resilience as well.
As I shared the example of going to the gym or training for a marathon, we do this for what ? To stay healthy and to build endurance. So managing stress is more of consistency in preparation so that when it strikes, you are ready to strike nack with calmness. Is it easy?
No it is not. Is it possible? Yes, with commitment to prepare in small daily habits.This is something I practice since many years now.
How do you communicate with your team during a crisis?
Ankoor Dasguupta: For me, how I communicate stays consistent. It is calm, showcasing my self as no super human but one of them but someone who is sitting on the top of a branch and has a bird’s eye view so I can see a problem from far.
The job of a leader is also to anticipate better than anyone else. That’s where the vision comes in handy. If I had to summarize in 5 bullets; it will be –
Transparent – I believe in being transparent about the situation at hand. This means providing accurate information, even if it’s uncomfortable, and ensuring everyone understands the gravity of the situation.
Empathy – With practice, one can ‘demonstrate’ empathy. I am always in pursuit of cultivating a culture of understanding and solidarity within the team, which further percolates to other team members in cross functional roles.
Encouragement -Amidst a crisis, it’s important to acknowledge the efforts and resilience of team members. I make a point to recognize contributions, celebrate small victories, and provide positive reinforcement. Judge the situation, not the person.
Leading by Example – This was the first beautiful value I learnt during my work at GE. his includes maintaining composure under pressure, demonstrating resilience, and displaying a commitment to the team’s well-being while walking my talk not only in crisis times but also when I am preparing for such times.
Open Door- I have always believed in this. Closed cabin work (unless a board meeting), is claustrophobic. Allow team to look at you!
What advice would you give to other CEOs on building resilience in their organizations?
Ankoor Dasguupta: May only one thing, open up! Speak more often with your C-Suite. If all C-Suite members have Emotional Intelligence, it will automatically percolate downwards to all team members.
Culture is not only about talking, it takes commitment to believe in one things – are you people first or business first? If you flinch while answering, you know where the problem is. Reflect on your personality type and see how it combines with your leadership style.
Last but not the least, get a Coach. Coaches have the potential to raise your level of self-awareness. I can also say this because I am a PCC coach from ICF and have been a Coachee as well. This all adds to to build resilinece.
How do you prepare your business for potential future crises?
Ankoor Dasguupta: BCPDRP- Business Continuity Plan Disaster Recovery Plan.
The thing is I have observed most leaders treat this as flight insurance where you seldom hit the checkbox while booking your ticket.
Let’s take an example of the marine forces. Are they always in war? No right? But are they prepared for war anytime? Yes right?
Now ask- why are they always prepared? The answer is war can happen anytime. Now ask- how do they prepare? They practice, they train consistently.
When I was with GE, we used to have serious mock drills for business continuity plan. This has a detailed plan pf action with atleast one volunteer from all the disciplines and teams involved.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about leadership in times of crisis?
Ankoor Dasguupta: Stay calm and know what is that one thing that needs to be addressed during crisis.
Where the experience of leaders, C-Suite folks must be useful is that they know the ‘how’ of staying calm under pressure and ‘how’ to focus on that one thing and not being all over the place in thinking.
What has worked for me is that I always prepare a SWAT kind of a team who are commandos at work. I have learnt this from myself when by bosses started introducing me as “Man Friday” (which is a term that originated from Daniel Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe,” published in 1719).
I felt so good about this that I started looking for and building this small trusted crisis-facing team. It takes some time but when it happens, you are feel good about any crisis.
Last point- breathe…focus on breathing even if it one one minute of focussed deep breathing while you listen to yourself breathing.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Ankoor Dasguupta for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Ankoor Dasguupta or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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