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Tag: work culture

  • Megha Tata on Discovery’s work culture, her leadership style, women empowerment

    Megha Tata on Discovery’s work culture, her leadership style, women empowerment

    MUMBAI: Megha Tata, a broadcast sector veteran, moved to Discovery in February 2019. Her arrival could come at no better time for the American broadcaster with special proposition genres looking at innovation for growth. At the stage of Indiantelevision.com’s Media HR Summit on Wednesday, she spoke of her leadership style, challenges she is facing as a leader and the company’s culture of treating employees during an engaging chat with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.

    “What excited me in this role is without a doubt the brand. Discovery is a brand I have grown up with not only as a consumer but also as an industry. Discovery India has been here for 25 years and I have worked here for 28 years. So, both Discovery and I have grown together. So, I have a very fond connection and affinity to the brand,” said Discovery Communications India South Asia MD.

    When asked what qualities in her attracted a legancy brand like Discovery, she outlined a few probable reasons. The first was credible experience in the broadcast industry, second her leadership skills spanning previous experiences, and third her ability to listen and communicate properly, getting along with people easily, optimism, positivity and the networks she grew over the years.

    Yet to reach the 100-day mark with her new employer, Megha explained how Discovery’s onboarding process helped her grasp an understanding of the organisation in the first two weeks. She also added that it is not exclusive to the top executives but to every new hire.

    “I have been fortunate and privileged to have inheriting a fantastic leadership team and we all know any organisation is about people. It’s the people who either make or break the organisation. So, I am a big believer in that and I am a very people’s person and my job is to facilitate thinking and give them a direction and vision,” she pointed out.

    The former BTVI COO also spoke about the presence of women in the industry. 

    “I have been in the media industry for almost 28 years and I have seen the change which has happened when I was an executive to where I am today and many women have grown in this industry. They have grown in multiple departments, we have legal heads who are women and we have women in technical departments. In my previous organisation, we hired the first ever female technical engineer representing a news channel. Having said that, more women need to go out there and ask for what they want,” she remarked.

    She also added that a lot of women give up because of self-doubt. Hence, she suggested believing in oneself, acknowledging weaknesses while playing to strengths. According to her, asking for more is important as opposed to being subdued.

    In this milieu of flux which is happening with the changes, uncertainties and ambiguities, mobile, agile, and entrepreneurship-level thinking is needed in any organisation. One of the challenges, she feels, is the lack of talent to deal with this ambiguity. She said there is a limited talent pool as well as limited opportunities. Either you get experience or you get that agile thinking attitude but getting a combination is difficult, Megha argued.

    Talking about her leadership style, Megha said that she is not a micro-manger but needs be in the loop of the overall process. She likes to empower people she hires. The Discovery India topper said if someone has been hired for a certain goal, she believes in the person’s ability to deliver that particular goal. Trust is very important, she added.

    In the context of Discovery’s high focus on people and culture, she said that even the HR department in the company is called as ‘people & culture’. She also added that the culture of Discovery is about inclusiveness, diversity, creating an environment of trust and comfort within employees. She added that she does not have any intent to change that but enhance the exisiting processes.

    While Discovery’s growth slowed down in the recent past, she sees that challenge as an opportunity. Whether it is digitisation, NTO impact, leadership in the kids’ genre, Megha seems fearless. She also added that her aim is to grow the kids business to emerge as the top three player, along with having new d2c business that's on the anvil.

  • Media HR Summit deep dives into emerging trends, work culture & HR tech

    Media HR Summit deep dives into emerging trends, work culture & HR tech

    MUMBAI: Indiantelevision.com hosted the first-ever Media HR Summit in partnership with ZEE in Mumbai on 26 June at The Westin. The day-long conference concluded with some insightful discussions around how corporate and HR leaders are steering media companies into the future on the back of good teams, HR analytics, diversity and inclusivity at the workplace.

    The conference was divided into four sessions, three fireside chats and three presentations related to work culture, emerging trends in HR, employee engagement models, future-focused people strategies, changing nature of employment amid the rapid changes in the media and entertainment industry.

    Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari set the tone for the day with his welcome note. He argued that the media and entertainment industry has never been full of so many opportunities. At the same time, he added that it is facing challenges in terms of talent acquisition and retention. Wanvari pointed out that the human resources department has never been given the due it deserves, highlighting the key reason behind the summit.

    Following the welcome address, Indiantelevision.com CEO moderated a session titled “Responding to megatrends”. MullenLowe Lintas group HR director Heather Saville Gupta, Reliance Entertainment’s Big Synergy CEO Rajiv Bakshi, Madison World executive director Lara Balsara Vajifdar, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd CEO Abraham Thomas participated in the panel discussion.

    During the hour-long panel discussion, the point about the media industry getting younger emerged as a key theme. All the panellists agreed that companies need personalised communication for millennial employees. However, as older generations also work at these companies, making a value proposition for all the age groups was deduced as a challenge. Moreover, speakers stated that. with the rapid change, HR has moved beyond a soft skill or a backend process. On the other hand, digital transformation is also affecting the sector and data is becoming more important day by day.

    The next item on the agenda was a fireside between Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd director Jai Maroo and Wanvari. Shemaroo has been an excellent example of evolving over the years with new entrepreneurial ideas. While the company is going through a rigorous change, Maroo mentioned key winning traits every company needs to follow – putting people first including employee, vendor, clients; the ability to reinvent when needed; seeing where the company is standing at the ecosystem, value chain. While it has unleashed a 5x transformation plan, getting the HR team aligned with that is a key challenge.

    That was followed by another interesting fireside chat between Discovery Communications India South Asia managing director Megha Tata and Wanvari. Tata who has been one of the few women leaders in the media and entertainment industry outlined the reasons as to why women find it hard to shatter the glass ceiling. She noted that the ecosystem may not have been supportive of women who are rising through the ranks. The veteran media executive added that women also give up halfway through their journey due to various reasons.

    Moderated by KPMG India people and change associate director Ajay Venkatesh, the next session revolved around a very compelling topic – building a great team. ABC Consultants FMCG, Internet, Media, and Development Sector director Deepika Ramani, Balaji Telefilms Ltd group head HR Ashish Pinto, Jagran Group head HR Sagorika Kantharia, VATS Consulting founder Vikas Vats, and Saregama India Ltd general manager HR Sonalika Johri took part in the discussion.

    The speakers articulated how different strokes should be used for different folks while hiring. All the experts also agreed that agility and an analytical bent are having a big impact on business. However, companies also need to look at how they use the analytics, the panel said. While digital transformation is already happening, cross-scaling talent is also important, concluded by the speakers.

    The conference further continued with a presentation by Publicis head HR Nikhil Natekar on “Future focused people strategies”. He spoke about cultural evolution, diversity inclusion, skill-based hiring and growth path for Gen Y who are going to be future leaders. He then sat down for a chat with She means Business content creator and workshop facilitator Dipika Singh.

    VATS Consulting’s Vikas Vats presented his thoughts on 'Future of Indian HR in the Digital Age'. He highlighted that there are times when HRs need to work like CEOs. He also added that while using technology is important, focusing on people is more important.

    The events of the day progressed with the session “Tackling the tech leap” moderated by HR Sampark founder and national president Ashish Banka. Reinova Biz director HR Shubham Tripathi, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia head HR business partner Sunil Seth, Associate Professor at Department of Applied Psychology, University of Mumbai Vivek Belhekar, Consultant Analytics Rajesh Save participated in the panel. The panelists agreed that adopting and adapting technologies is very important. While HR was late to join the party of analytics, now both AI and ML have emerged as key requirements for the HR industry too. AI is now taking an active role in both hiring and firing. Belhekar and Save then gave a presentation on Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources.

    The day ended with a compelling session on “Diversity, equity, and inclusion”. Part of the panel were Voices of Inclusion author Deepa Shankar, Mondelez International diversity and inclusion lead (independent consultant) Priyadarshini Gupta, NeoSeven Solutions global HR expert Monika Navandar, with D&I evangelist and founder and MD–Vividhataa, diversity hiring consultants Ratanprabha Sable moderating the session. While diversity is not a big issue in the media industry, inclusion is a big piece that is being worked around, the speakers said. The experts agreed that the media industry needs to be inclusive at little things. Moreover, the industry should also look at creating job opportunities for disabled people, acid attack victims, and mental health patients was an important point that was voiced during the session that kept the audience hooked on till the very end.

  • CEAT promotes work culture via digital campaign

    CEAT promotes work culture via digital campaign

    MUMBAI: Tyre manufacturer CEAT recently launched its innovative digital campaign that gives expression to its organisational culture. Creating a humorous twist on some of the glaring issues in current workplaces, this campaign is designed to connect with a larger audience. The first-of-its-kind digital ad series will be on popular social media channels like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

    The digital advertising series is broken down into three videos of 25 to 35 seconds each, which have a satirical take on some common workplace issues like gender bias, cons of bureaucracy and lack of transparency.

    CEAT Tyres SVP human resources Milind Apte says, “At CEAT, our constant endeavour is to stay relevant to all people who are part of our family. In order to do so, we engage in frequent conversations with them. These videos are based on insights from our employees, on what they like about working at CEAT. We believe it is a clear expression of our culture.”

    CEAT, the flagship company of RPG Enterprises, was established in 1958 and produces over 15 million tyres a year and offers the widest range of tyres to all segments and manufactures world-class radials for: heavy-duty trucks and buses, light commercial vehicles, earthmovers, forklifts, tractors, trailers, cars, motorcycles and scooters as well as auto-rickshaws.