L'Catterton India's Sanjiv Mehta Shares Insights On Steering Through Adaptability

In a keynote at Goafest 2024, Sanjiv Mehta, Executive Chairman of L'Catterton India outlined the imperatives for businesses to thrive in what he termed the 'Age of Adaptability'. Sharing his perspectives, Mehta said, "The companies that will survive are those that seize opportunities from the changing, tumultuous world and transform to offer better, cheaper and more sustainable products and services."

Defining adaptability as "the ability to adapt strategies, operations and redeploy resources to thrive amid change", Mehta emphasized flexibility, agility and foresight as key drivers. "Flexibility involves reacting to change, while agility refers to proactively anticipating and responding rapidly," he explained.

Mehta urged businesses to be driven by an authentic organisational purpose beyond just profits. "Purpose is meaningful when it changes people's beliefs and behaviours. It must be coherent, have integrity and be dynamic," he stated. Citing examples like Danone, Dr Reddy's and Tatas, he added, "Companies with value-driven purpose see more engaged employees and better financial performance."

On leadership attributes for the new era, Mehta stressed preparing for turbulence, developing sense-making abilities, having care and compassion, unleashing collective genius and being purpose-driven and collaborative." He remarked, "Sense-making helps foresee ahead of others, not achieve omniscience."

Turning to the ad world's roadmap, Mehta advocated tech integration through AI, AR, VR and personalisation to deliver engaging experiences. "There's no getting away from technology to serve customers better," he said. He also emphasized an omnichannel, consumer-centric approach aided by real-time data.

"Though technology is vital, storytelling remains core to create emotional brand connections," Mehta stated while underlining sustainability and social causes as focus areas for campaigns. On talent, he advocated developing new skills, hiring versatile experts and industry cross-collaboration.

Finally, Mehta stressed enhancing trust through transparency on data usage, ethical practices and effectiveness attribution. "The adage of half the spend working is over. With data and analytics, you must now deliver attributable growth," he remarked.

Reema Bhaduri

BW Reporters The author is the Editorial Lead at BW Businessworld. Majorly writes on marketing, advertising, experiential marketing and retail. She closely looks upon the vertical of BW Marketing World and BW Retail World.