Page 16 - Adnews Magazine November-December 2021
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                 Perspectives
  pitching with #DitchThePitch, we saw a real change to how they were run. We worked with great part- ners who respected timelines, commercials and the process of procurement. Clients were much more cognisant around not pitch- ing during harsh lockdowns or over festive periods. While there is still some work to be done, it’s made pitching exciting again.
Looking towards 2022 at Initiative, we’re unashamedly focused on growth and progression. We know our people are hungrier than ever to create career defining work. We know the bets we’ve made around operations, technology and process will pay off. We know there are a lot of marketers out there wanting to review their current rela- tionships, so we’re excited at the prospect of taking on the future with more likeminded partners in 2022 and beyond.
Sue Squillace,
CEO, dentsu Media ANZ:
For me the biggest challenge of 2021
Sue Squillace (above). Sunita Gloster (right). Photos by Tim Levy.
was the rollercoaster of working conditions that our people and clients were faced with every day. On and off lockdowns, open and closed borders, no week was ever the same and every market we operated in was different. If you add in a never-before-seen talent shortage or “the war on talent” as we like to call it, then you are placing even more pressure on our people.
In saying that, I have been overwhelmed with how resilient, agile and supportive our teams and our clients have been through this year. I recall one afternoon in June when the Sydney team left the office at 3pm with one hour's notice for almost six months, and they did not skip a beat. I could not be prouder of the commitment to the company and to their clients. The best part is our work, and collaboration has never been stronger!
Empathy is one the most important traits of leadership if not the most critical over the past two years. For me, my biggest learning has been the ability to understand other people's circumstances then adapt and support. This is something I will continue to draw upon throughout my career.
Restoration and growth, bringing our teams back together in ways that they need to be at their best. Listening to our people to design better experiences at work and for their careers. The war on talent is real, but it’s also a great opportunity for us to focus even harder on our people and create agency experiences that meet the needs of the new world we’re in. We have an opportunity now to take the best of what we have experienced and reimagine the office and work life after COVID-19. I am also really looking forward to some good old fashioned office banter and real-life conversations. As good as Teams and Zoom have been to keep us connected and functioning, there is nothing like human interaction within a dynamic team environment to bring the best out of our people.
Sunita Gloster,
CEO of Gloster Advisory:
We have changed. We proved on a global scale that change is not only pos- sible, but that it can be achieved faster than anyone could have imagined.
We unlearned and relearned how to wash our hands. We adopted and accepted new behaviours as the quid pro quo for freedoms of consump- tion and movement. Almost overnight we pivoted to an almost entirely digital existence and we made it work. Professor Scott Galloway described the rate of change seen in corporate-land with elegant simplicity ‘ten years progress in ten weeks’.
We proved we can act in the best interests of our neighbours and the community. Even if it wasn’t easy, nor comfortable. We did it, because we had to. Lives and livelihoods depended on it.
Many called it out as the wake-up call we needed to get to a better place, surfacing issues of mental health, domestic violence, vulnerabil- ities and inequalities.
There is no growth without change. There is no change without loss of old ways. There is no loss without pain. Perhaps the reflective adage for our pandemic times.
Whilst the rapid digitisation of business will be celebrated as the pan- demic’s silver lining, let us not lose what we learned about ourselves, each other and our communities. Most of us would attest there is no going back to the way things were. But how do we move forward?
Whilst the rate of change may be too difficult to sustain, our oppor- tunity is to keep strengthening the muscle for change. Imagine the progress we can make as a society if we acted on the wisdoms of our observations and aligned behind a COVID-19-style response to the ineq- uities that still inhibit an equal future for all.
For us in the media and marketing industry, we are a powerful collective best placed to shape and change consumers attitudes and behaviours.
It’s the label on our tin.
Our industry has the market power to drive humanitarian progress and force change, while simultaneously discharging its duty to brand growth. By genuinely putting the customers we serve first. Think of the discrimina- tion, repression and violence we’ll be accepting and perpetuating if we don’t.












































































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