Women who lead: 'I'm in the business of serving clients," says Publicis Groupe’s Amrita Randhawa

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This March, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE is excited to launch its "Women who lead" podcast series, celebrating the powerful female leaders in the marketing and advertising industry across the region.

In this episode, Amrita Randhawa, Singapore and Southeast Asia CEO for Publicis Groupe, shares her move out of a 17-year tenure at Mindshare, and her love for advertising. She also opens up about how she navigates relationships with clients and why it matters to show genuine care for a client’s business.

Before her stint at Publicis Groupe, Randhawa first started off as a journalist in New Delhi, before dipping her toes into the world of advertising at JWT Media. Later, she joined Mudra Communications, Starcom India, and made her move to media agency Mindshare. There, Randhawa rose up the ranks to become the CEO for Asia Pacific and the executive chair for Greater China.

Don’t miss: Women who lead: M&C Saatchi's Lara Hussein on being a specialist over jack of all trades

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: You were at Mindshare for quite a while— around 17 years including your internship there. What was the catalyst that made you leave the media agency?

Randhawa: It came down to a few things. Perhaps the most important factor was my clients and what they wanted. Increasingly, all of the clients I was speaking to were asking for more. They wanted better solutions which were more cohesive and less siloed, where we could worry less about what our scope was or wasn’t. My clients were quite frustrated by trying to navigate the company and found it hard to figure out: “Who does what?”.

So, I made a deliberate choice to make a career jump because ultimately, I am in the business of serving the clients. I stepped back, and looked at all the agency groups to find out who could enable that kind of freedom and creativity to bring together the solutions which clients were seeking.

Publicis Groupe walked the talk, and so that convinced me.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What are your thoughts on long-term client-agency relationships that last over ten years?

Randhawa: Business can either stay or move. But I think clients are very interested in building partnerships for the long run.

It’s very simple, actually. There needs to be genuine care.

People who genuinely care about the client’s business, will take the time to understand it and treat it like it is their own business. Meanwhile, genuine care also needs to come from the client’s side for the health, wellbeing and future of the agency teams. Genuine care is the bedrock for every successful relationship.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t push each other to be better. For us agencies, we need to be thinking of new ideas for the clients and the clients should not be berating, but encouraging their agencies to think of new ideas and solutions. If you get that kind of twin access to genuine care, paired with the act of pushing each other to be better, you get truly exceptional relationships.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What are your thoughts on the notion that the advertising industry is very “client-driven”?

Randhawa: There is this one thing that I tell every client I meet, and the clients who come across this will laugh because they will remember that I have definitely said this to them before at one point in time. I think clients still do not truly understand how much we value recognition from the clients.

I think that the average agency person will have no problem going the extra mile for a client who genuinely recognises them for going the extra mile because we all get it, business has exigencies and what not. So, I always tell my clients "It’s kind of up to you". I can keep telling my team that they’re doing a great job all day long but if the client says it once, they’ll talk about it for weeks afterwards. We have to tell them “You can’t”, even if there might be consequences.

As leaders in the industry, it’s also our duty to speak truth to power and tell clients when it is an unreasonable ask.

To catch to the rest of the conversation with Amrita Randhawa, tune in to the Women who lead podcast series on Spotify, or listen on the go:

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Join us this coming 23 - 24 April for #Content360, a two-day extravaganza centered around three core thematic pillars: Challenging The Norm; Technology For Transformation; and Unlocking Imagination. Immerse yourself in learning to curate content with creativity, critical thinking, and confidence with us at Content360!