New Meaning – An article in Changing Lanes/ET Empower/EcoTimes/22/05/2007

CHANGING LANES

New Meaning

SANJEEV ROY’S move from advertising to setting up his own search and HR consultancy firm was triggered when in the middle of his life he started asking questions on what he wanted to do with the rest of it.

MY FIRST job deal was struck over a breakfast table. Unhappy with the way my PhD programme was going, I landed up one morning at my best friend’s breakfast table, dug into a large spread and poured out my heart. Secretly I knew that I just did not want to study any longer. My friend’s sister who, at the time, was a senior executive with a large advertising agency heard me out and asked me if I would like an advertising job.

A couple of interviews later I was an Account Executive sharing a cabin with another AE and some old Dunlop tyres. I was 23 then and took to advertising as if I was born to it. For the next 16 years through Ogilvy, Grey, JWT & Euro RSCG, I had a blast. I worked in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. I was already a ‘Director’ with Euro RSCG, had been through three start-ups, undertaken training in marketing services in Paris, London and Edinburgh, been sent on EDPs to IMD Lausanne….and then the feeling started.

Getting to office was a drag. The joy of cracking a positioning, selling a campaign or meeting the numbers was gone and I was losing the passion and energy that is critical for success in advertising. I knew I had to do something else but did not know what or how I was to do whatever it was. I was also afraid to rock the boat. With a wife and a kid to look after, I did not want to take a risk.

My wife however thought otherwise. She felt I was wasting my time and instead needed to do something that I enjoyed, and, most importantly, on my own terms – advertising had run its course. Meanwhile, I walked the usual path, meeting consultants, calling up contacts looking for a job outside advertising. Needless to say, things were not going too well for me at my office. I finally decided to quit.

Three months into my notice period I was panicking. No job, no new ventures, nothing at all. Was I too old to start afresh? I explored a range of options and toyed with many a whimsical idea at the time. I was clear on two things: I did not want to be in advertising and I wanted to do something with people. I knew I had been a good mentor and counselor to my colleagues. Vast reserves of patience and natural empathy were my strengths. I started looking for jobs in Search and Training organizations. The idea of being on my own was still very scary.

With a month to go in my notice period something happened. One of those things that happen to most people who finally change lanes. A friend asked me to help his organization find ‘trainers’ across the country. I leapt at the offer. Here was a live assignment. And thus was born BullzI Inc., the ‘Inc.’ added for effect. My wife became my partner and we set ourselves up with two computers and two phones trying to find trainers.

We did not place a single person in that assignment. However the process gave me the confidence to pitch myself as an “HR consultant’ in Search and Training. Along with it came the insight that there were innumerable opportunities out there if one just had the courage to take the first Big Step beyond the tried and the tested. Help came by way of old associations generously offering new business. I did not dither in asking them for work either. But completing the assignments was quite another story. After a couple of quick successes (beginners’ luck) the well was dry for nearly six months. It was a time when we had to fall back on our savings and watch it deplete every month.

That is when a great job offer happened. But the adrenaline had already started working and the sense of satisfaction that came with a job well done was not something I could easily give up any more. On the other hand, turning it down now came easy for both my wife and me. Meanwhile, we moved to a cheaper apartment and got rid of one car. We also joined two video libraries – watching movies at home was cheaper.

Working out of home also presented its own challenges. I rediscovered how to file, manage a database, book tickets, fix appointments, all the while juggling with the doorbell, the presswallah and in the absence of a driver, picking up my son from school. It is also difficult to believe you are working if you can saunter into your office three paces away in bedroom slippers and shorts. It took me a year to get a discipline going.

The most difficult challenge however was to teach myself new skills at age 43. It took me a long time to read ‘text books’ in the old way of making notes, looking up references. I also spent a lot of time with some great HR people, getting a first level understanding of a completely different and fascinating skill.

BullzI Inc (www.bullzi–inc.com), now in its third year, is a reasonably well-established senior level search company of some repute. In the training area we work on very strategic assignments involving facilitation of change management. Very soon we will be adding on Executive Coaching and I have other partners interested in teaming up today. We have just moved into our own house, lead a very comfortable life, and am able to give my 6-year-old son, family and friends a lot of time. I manage money a lot better. And the one big thing I have conquered is Fear. Today, a regular office job and reporting hierarchies are for the rest. May their tribe increase.

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Link to the article.

Scanned article here … New Meaning – Changing Lanes/ET Empower/EcoTimes/22/05/2007.