Market Maverick

Curious as a child, living in the small town of Bihar Sharif, Dheeraj Sinha—now the chief executive of FCB Group India, a marketing company—spent a large chunk of his days looking out of the balcony of his house. It was the main market of the town outside his house. From his vantage point he would observe how the marketplace operated.

The shop owners opened their shops every day, brought out the same products, dusted them and hung them outside for people to see even when customers went to 12 different shops only to bargain and reject them. He was amazed by the resilience, perseverance and patience of the shop owners.

That childhood interest later took him to Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), via Shri Ram College of Commerce where he studied economics. At MICA he met people who he termed as “cool” as they had tattoos, listened to Western music and played the guitar. He wondered how he would fit in an environment which was so posh.

“I had no idea about David Ogilvy or Bill Bernbach. I realised that I was so boring,” he says. Then he found a subject that he thought would suit him the best. “I realised there is something as boring as strategy in advertising as well. This is about thinking, being deep...you do not have to be so cool.” This is when he got interested in strategy and consumer behaviour.

The biggest lesson that he learnt early in his career is that people like standing in long queues. “In India, popularity is seen as a surrogate for quality,” he says. It is only the top 2–3 players who have 90% of market share. “It is important to be a leader brand, to build the longest queues. We want things which are tested by others. Amazon, PhonePe and Spotify are some of the brands that have been built on these insights,” he says.

While building a marketing strategy, the real challenge is not the country’s diversity, but that India behaves differently from Western markets, feels Sinha. “Unfortunately, all marketers, advertising and businesspeople have been educated into western marketing models which do not work in India.” The big challenge in India, according to him, is how to think India ground up without getting caught in Western marketing models.

A lover of music, Sinha has a very elaborate stereo system at home. He listens to all kinds of music including jazz, rock and classical among others. Music for him is a big de-stressor. So deep is his love for music that he has managed to accommodate that in his work. While he was at Leo Burnett, he worked on the IPL campaign for Spotify that was themed on music.

It is interesting how Sinha perceives music. “Music makes life easier. It plays on the radio in a small-town shop. It plays in the kitchen. It plays in autorickshaws. Music helps you hustle along,” he says.

Exercise is another permanent fixture in Sinha’s life. In his office, Sinha has a standing desk. In his previous workplace, there was a walking track where he used to do a lot of meetings walking. He also likes to play volleyball or table tennis in his free time.

Writing is important as it allows him to put his ideas in one place, forcing him to think anew. “It is highly cathartic because it forces you to pour everything out,” he says. Sinha has authored two books on the Indian consumer market. He loves writing because it is the best way to get clarity of thought. Comparing the process of writing with a sculpture where something is carved out of a big piece of wood or stone, he says, “You take the unnecessary stuff out by writing, rewriting and editing. Finally, you have a very chiselled piece of thinking left behind.”

 A leader is supposed to impart something to their subordinates throughout the day which is why Sinha started his own podcast where he invites other leaders to learn from them. “I fell in love with podcasting because I realised I am getting an insight into the life and the work of a leader. In one hour of the conversation, I started gaining, it became my nourishment into myself,” he says.

Success, for Sinha, is a collective and a democratic idea, not an individual one. Success of the team and clients gives him joy. It must reach down to the bottom levels of the organisation. “One of my friends said it very beautifully that leaders open up the sky for people to fly,” he recalls.