Megha Agarwal on Why CMOs Need To Think Like Growth Architects

Guest Intro

Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Contra Minds Super CMO Podcast. Our guest today is a go-getter, a lifelong learner, and somebody who’s willing to question the existing marketing playbooks. She’s also somebody who’s moved across industries, CPG, to new startup categories as a CMO. She’s worked with Kevin Kare, Unilever, WeWork, and Megha Agarwal is currently the CMO of Table Space.

She’s also a prolific writer. She’s authored a book. She’s also an influential LinkedIn voice. I spoke to her about why she calls herself a non-traditional CMO, a growth architect, and what makes her one, and how she transitioned to different industries, her learnings, her mentors, and what she learned from them. There’s a lot more she packed in this conversation. I loved her energy.

enthusiasm and the openness with which she shared her experiences and ideas. Over to my conversation with Megha Agarwal.

Q1 Why Old-School Marketing Thinking Is Breaking Down

ContraMinds Podcast (00:20.494)

So one of the things that you really talk about is the fact that you are a non-traditional CMO, right? And that caught my attention more than anything else. Why do you really call yourself a non-traditional CMO? 

Megha Agarwal (01:23.541)

I think it’s a brilliant way to start and somehow I think the personal branding piece is working because you picked up the one word that I wanted most people to sort of notice on the profile. And I’ll tell you what, you hear the word playbook a lot mostly from marketeers. I think we are known to create playbooks and abide by playbooks. But I think one thing that most people are missing is the whole playbook of the CMO is constantly evolving. And as somebody who’s worked a decade in a company like Unilever, which is a marketing institution in the country, for most people who’ve come out of that company, will believe and will tell you that that is, I think, the shortcoming that people see. You think that marketing is a parallel track and you keep working on it. You do the four P’s, six P’s, seven P’s, the P’s keep changing. But it is so much more. The moment the startups came into the country, the moment you see the kind of talent that is in the market, growth marketing became a vertical, digital marketing became a vertical, and somehow they were not marketing.They became their own respective verticals. 

That itself was very early indication that the traditional marketeer who was controlling some aspects of marketing would continue to only control that if they did not upskill in these and start owning them. And I think that’s when I realized that I don’t want to be the traditional marketeer, only holding some aspects of marketing. And all my rules therefore had an element of very different learning in every role that I took on. And therefore I’m not your traditional marketeer who will only treat myself or my function as an OPEX function. And I think that’s where the playbook really changed. I’m creating my own playbook. I don’t think I’m looking at any specific CMO’s journey to say here is a playbook that I want to sort of follow to be a successful marketer.

ContraMinds Podcast (03:07.136)

When you say that you’re a non-traditional CMO, and you also tell me that you’re not using the similar playbooks, what does a traditional marketer have as a shortcoming? Or if you ask me, the importance that business ought to give them and what is it that you are changing in your playbook?

Megha Agarwal (03:44.129)

So I’ll give you a very recent example, Swami. I visited my Alma Mater recently. I’d written a book, and a lot of the book had my college and the journey sitting there. And I’ll tell you the most disappointing aspect is the same questions are still in the room, saying, when I join the marketing function, will I be creating the next big brand campaign? What will be the digital marketing strategy? A little bit of AI was such an abuse term. Everybody’s like, will AI take over my jobs? I think at the end of it, everybody is talking just the four P’s of marketing saying I will handle the product, will handle consumer insighting and research, I will handle a little bit of distribution and I will have control on pricing beyond this and a little bit of the entire agency function for anybody who wants to enter that space and the creative side of it. But that’s the understanding on marketing and the books also capture that.

What I have seen really is if you’re not a marketeer who’s understanding the P&L, you’ve already lost the battle. So that’s always been one aspect of my journey, which is why I took on the role when I got for the GSK merger. While it started off as a marketing role, it was a heavy PMO role where I had to look at functions across board from supply chain to finance to anything that impacted the integration itself. So P&L understanding extremely important. 

The second piece which nobody talks about is how do you constantly understand the pillars that become relevant for marketing? Nobody talks PR enough. And I think it is such a crucial function lying somewhere between verticals as MarCom and done very poorly in most companies beginning to start their journeys. And PR is almost sometimes the least on cost. And if done well, can be your single largest marketing tool, but not sitting with marketing more often than not.

This has been a space that I have been personally investing a lot of time learning over the last four, four and a half years. We don’t talk about events enough. We leave it for alcohol and tobacco industries who have to do, you know, a different kind of marketing, but events are so important in B2B and they are strategic. So whether it is a space like workspace where you have to meet key IPC partners who are our broker partners or clients.

I mean, in FMCG, I would not even know who my consumers are. It’s a faceless marketing strategy. Here, it is a one-to-one marketing strategy, and I want to meet my consumers or customers in our case, understand what they mean. So events becomes really important. Nobody teaches you how to do events. And it’s left as an agency activation piece, and that doesn’t work in most cases. So over the years, things like events, partnerships, PR, digital marketing in a very strategic sense, growth marketing in a strategic sense.

I have added these layers as things that I’m really good at and I don’t have to depend on a second person or a second sub function to work this with me. I think that’s where the playbook really changes where you are foreseeing what marketing can influence and take that over. One other piece which I found specifically that worked in my playbook is having a very core love for monetization. So marketing’s job is not just to spend as marketing we can generate pure gold for the company if done really well because our activities don’t require cost. So when I activate and say revenue at a workspace operator like Table Space, then there is no cost. I’ve already paid for the cost when I built out the workspace. If I’m using the space for shoots, events, and so on and so forth, that’s extra money coming into the kitty, right? Which nobody has accounted for. 

My CFO is suddenly very happy, but I don’t think more marketeers are thinking like this. And then, you know, the relationship changes. Why does a CMO and CFO always have to be at bulls heads on this one. think I and my CFO get along brilliantly because they are strategic conversations saying I need to spend this to get this. By the way, do you also know that I’m getting in this monetization piece in? It’s a fantastic conversation, but I think it’s so polarized in the marketing, CMOs and CFOs have to always fight. But I think it’s about, again, defining the playbook and understanding who your key stakeholders in the room are.

Q2 Brands Are Built in Years, Judged in Quarters

ContraMinds Podcast (07:54.094)

So looking at the point that you’ve been talking about, which is the P&L, typically brands and brand building is seen as a long-term investment, but P&L is seen as a short-term, quarter to quarter kind of a focus. So how do you really balance it? Because it’s a tough ask because you’ll say, hey, to build a brand, need a couple of million dollars over the next five years. And you really…

Megha Agarwal (08:03.53)

Correct.

ContraMinds Podcast (08:22.85)

have to put in a lot of money, but you don’t get the results immediately. And therefore it sits in the PNL as an OPEX. So therefore, when you say you need a P&L orientation, what’s your conversation like with the CFO on matters like this? Monetization, I understand, but on, I would say qualitative factors, how do you really have the dialogue with your CFO?

Megha Agarwal (08:39.264)

Mm.

Megha Agarwal (08:47.23)

No, I think this is where the loggerhead conversation really comes in. And I’ll talk one part where it’s been a blessing that I’ve been in companies who understand the long-term value of investing in brands, whether it was Unilever or WeWork and now Table Space. Without a leadership understanding of why investment in long-term activities is important, as a function, marketing fails in most organizations.

Sometimes you get it as an inherited piece where there’s always appreciation and therefore you just take the patent and you run. But in those situations where that understanding is not there, it is a big job of the CMOs to educate. And trust me, you have leaders in the room. I’ve done it in organizations and functions and categories that I don’t want to detail here. 

But education is the key, results is the key. So if you’re able to demonstrate over long term how this really matters and now thankfully there’s enough research. Byron Sharp has done phenomenal research in this space that beyond a point if you keep investing in short term, you are not impacting the top funnel. And you will be surprised how many CMOs already know this and how many CFOs already know this. They just want their CMO counterparts to know this and be able to bring it to the table. Trust me, I think a lot of marketers just assume that the audience in the room will not understand. It is a test for the CMO to land that long-term narrative really well. Once done, I think the audience is smart enough to get it. And honestly, my experience says that they already know it. They just want to get the confidence from the marketeer who is taking on that money. it is a responsibility sitting on their shoulder.

Q3 Nobody Prepares You for Real-World Decisions

ContraMinds Podcast (10:21.59)

OK. The other thing that you have done is you have moved industries, right? So you moved from Cavin Care to Unilever to WeWork to Table Space now. So what’s this one disorienting insight that your MBA did not prepare you for?

Megha Agarwal (10:38.752)

I don’t know how to make it one because there are so many. I think MBA and any formal education gives you platform frameworks and I think a sense of comfort saying I know some things but 

…I think the biggest thing that hits you once you step out is you have to be really open to learning. One thing that you have to be very clear of is what you’ve got from college or all the years of education does not prepare you for anything that will hit you at the workspace because every day is a challenge, every day is a new learning and you’re constantly learning. Nobody teaches you for the real life decision making that you have to do. Maybe sometimes right now saying, tell me what to do. And I think that nobody prepares you for and that’s a huge sense of responsibility for the longest time. I think till you’re in college and till your first job, a lot of your decisions are taken by people around you. You are mostly executing them and maybe a party to the decision making. But once you’re out, that entire piece can be sometimes the most scary for a lot of people. And especially if you’re growing really fast, that’s one thing that you have to be very comfortable in your skin with and be okay with. Good, bad, ugly. I’ve taken a call and I’ll take full accountability. Nobody prepares you for that.

Q4 The Consumer Is Still the Most Important Person in the Room

So you’ve been in Unilever, it’s almost like Unilever actually teaches you the master class for brand building. So if I were to ask you, what is this one brand building culture that none of the case studies or documents that you see online, that you see in conversations, that you believe that you picked up and can you share some learnings around that which you believe you picked up? 

Megha Agarwal (12:50.122)

So for Unilever, think you can leave Unilever, but you cannot leave Unilever or the Unilever in you ever. It sort of solidifies all things marketing. I will talk about a concept. I think the slight difference is it is available a lot as content, but nobody tells you how to do it. And I think Unilever does that really well. So everybody talks of consumer love, consumer obsession, and the fact that everything starts with the consumer. There are several researches, several brands who talk about how obsess over it. But… 

…what I learned at Unilever is how and really how do you go about that entire love and affection. So and then this happened, more by seeing so our CEO Nitin Paranjpe and I was one of the lucky ones who worked during his tent. He was visiting one of the markets, you know, and he did a lot of these surprise visits. And he just walked into a shop and started having a conversation about the brand, about how the placements are, who picks up what. He called up the CMI head and said, I want to do some two or three consumer visits while I’m here. And, you know, as a very young marketeer at that time, to see the CEO himself you know, put in that kind of effort, spend some time, listen to stories, the same kind of story over and over again with so much curiosity, genuine curiosity to know, you know, what happens in my consumer’s life who’s using a 10 rupee detergent bar. That level of obsession brings insights to life. 

And I think that was a big thing saying at no level, no matter whether you are the CEO or the management trainee of a multi-billion dollar company when you’re with the consumer, he’s here, right? He’s at the pedestal and we are here to learn humbly from you. And I think that is something that I learned, which is very, very precious to me at Unilever. We’ve seen, as in during my stints…

…I’ve seen leadership stand, including myself, watch consumers clean their toilets, understand how it works, clean the homes of consumers to understand how it really works. Why is it so difficult? 

Why the 10 rupee soap bar has to do two buckets of clothes at least to ensure that she sees value, not the value that I see in my eyes. So when they say that, you know, companies who operate out of these castles, I don’t think that’s true for Unilever because time and again, we are forced and pushed to go live our consumers life to be able to bring those insights back. That’s why they’re able to do phenomenal marketing. 

That playbook cannot be taught because you can tell people, go do these 500 hours of consumer, et cetera. But how and you know, the eagerness with which you go…that experience stays with you forever. 

The linked part to this, and I think I’ll just end with that is when you are in rooms, you also become that voice of the consumer. 

So you bring that learning, you share that learning in rooms and always share your point of view extremely strongly when there are conversations on cost reductions, formulation changes, and those pressures will keep coming to an organization given the VUCA environment that we are in. But you are the voice of the consumer and that company gives you the freedom to say it won’t work or do this and only then it will work or push for the research and the blind test. You are the voice of the consumer and it is your job to ensure that you put that point of view across so that every decision of the company makes the finance team, the supply chain teams are doing their jobs. You have to do yours as a marketeer and stick true to that job that I carry even today. And I think it’s become more relevant in a B2B environment where my consumer sitting right across the table.

Q5 Big Brands Cannot Afford Recklessness

So I have two related questions. I have no doubt the fact that consumer insighting is probably something that Unilever has taught many of us, right? It’s taught many of us. The challenge that I see is sometimes Unilever has been a laggard in innovation. It’s been a laggard in, you know,

Megha Agarwal (16:30.335)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (16:53.054)

Mm.

ContraMinds Podcast (16:55.83)

insights to action. So where do you think the challenge of the curiosity moving from an insight to an action to an innovation, where is the breakdown and where does it decouple in your view?

Megha Agarwal (16:57.663)

Hmm.

Megha Agarwal (17:11.956)

So it’s interesting, right? So while we might call it a laggard, I think it is the style of operation of an extremely large mothership of sorts. And I think we’ve discussed this in multiple forums. It’s not like that Unilever does not know or a P&G does not know that they are these large ships and sometimes they might miss on opportunities because of the sheer process and the sheer rigor they put into every decision that they make. I think the startup culture, and it is still very new. We’re calling them laggards today because we are seeing some companies do it much faster at scale. These companies are willing to take higher risks, a higher risk of appetite for failure as well, because the damage is only so much as they start. Every decision that goes wrong for a Unilever not just cost them millions, but also impacts their brand at that scale. So maybe for a company like that, that risk taking appetite the way it is, maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, I don’t know. 

But I know that if something goes wrong there at that scale and we’ve lived through some of those decisions. I have seen some big failures because we were pushed to the corner saying we have to go fast because market’s going fast and those repercussions are not good for a brand like Unilever and they have to operate at that might and scale.

It’s okay, which is why I think they’re right now in the strategy of let’s pick brands that have really done well and they fit into our strategy, which is why they’re acquiring brands which fit into their strategy. They’re letting go of brands which they feel right now are pulling them or slowing them down. I think that also works. As long as you’re able to stay relevant, it works. But I fully understand and appreciate where you’re coming from in the sense that they are a slow company, but…you’ve lived through that life yourself. The amount of research that goes in gives consumers a lot of confidence when a product comes from that house saying… you know, it is well researched, it is well thought through, is a good product and so on and so forth. And you’re not so scared. And I think that’s important when you’re operating at that scale for brand like Unilever. I’m okay with them being a little slow as long as they continue doing a really good job and staying relevant versus being rash. I don’t think they can afford to be rash at that scale. Very, very risky.

I think very good points there. 

Q6 Building Is More Exciting Than Managing

ContraMinds Podcast (19:24.686)

What made you switch from FMCG to say we work or a Table Space because that’s not that’s unlike any marketer, right? So what did you have to learn and unlearn and relearn when you did this transition?

Megha Agarwal (19:42.292)

You have no idea how many people have asked me this Swami saying from FMCG, is every marketeers dream to real estate, which not a lot of marketeers go to and that too from Unilever, which is like this large mothership to a company like We Work at a time when there was COVID when people thought flex is going to die. I don’t know. It’s like I said, I’m running my own playbook. I go on gut a lot as a marketeer. So while data is really important. When I decided to move from Unilever, the reason was around wanting to do different things, adding more to the layer of my playbook saying, I know FMCG really well, I know B2C really well, I’ve done global and I think I know certain aspects of marketing really well. I was very interested in a pure play P &L ownership role. I was very keen on that. And I wanted to add more layers beyond digital marketing and the four P’s of marketing.

And when WeWork came as an opportunity, it just opened up all of these layers which suddenly looked extremely exciting to me saying, you know, here is what I get to build. At Unilever, I was working on brands that have been carefully built and nurtured by several marketeers before me. With WeWork, I had a chance to, you know, plant my own little plant and then see it grow and hand it over to the next marketeer, which does not come a lot of times. And I think I was ready for that.

The GSK role also sort of helped me take that decision because after that everything seemed small. It was such a large role. It had so much freedom. It had so much decision making power that I think whatever Unilever would have given me next wouldn’t have satiated my appetite for risk. So therefore I think I took the plunge. It was a big risk, but I think one of the best decisions I’ve taken in my life from a career point of view because I love the space right now. I think I’m loving the fact that I’m building and I’ve realized that this is the area that I enjoy most. So I’m great at nourishing and maintaining brands, but what I love phenomenally is building. And this is the space that I think I’ll continue to be in for a while.

Q7 Growth Fails Without Foundations

ContraMinds Podcast (21:50.806)

So what does it take to build a category like what you’re doing now? And what did it take differently to build a category like a well-oiled FMCG brand? So what are the rule books that you think you are unlearning or relearning?

Megha Agarwal (22:09.099)

So you answered it in your question Swami. So I think when I had a brand which was already working, I had to really just follow a very very well done playbook and ensure that whatever I’m adding, you know, kept adding to an already really good playbook. I had to maintain some things because also I’m not a believer that you have to always rewrite the playbook as a marketeer, especially when things are going really well. But you have to keep adding to it to ensure it does really well, which is what I did through those tens.

And when I came to a build role, I had to create playbooks. And I think that is a very, very big difference. Suddenly everything that I had learned was in a lot of ways not relevant, right? Because I was used to having processes. I was used to having playbooks. Imagine walking into a system where, you know, there is no email marketing tool. There is no CRM, broken tools. And suddenly you’re figuring saying, I want to, you know, you have these 1500 ideas saying, you we should do email marketing. We should do digital marketing.You realize your GA4 is not set up and people are asking what is GA4? 

So I think my big learning on build is to not get too excited about the fact that I have a marketing plan and this is how I’m going to build. It is about just taking a pause and understanding, taking stock of what you’ve really signed up for and laying the foundation really well. And I think across WeWork and Table Space, what I’ve really done is that. So year one, one and a half, 18 months is about strong foundation building.

ContraMinds Podcast (23:19.726)

Mm-hmm.

Megha Agarwal (23:36.67)

and then you take off because by then you’ve got the house in order you’ve got the basics in place on some of the brands that I’ve worked there were no logo files there were no brand playbooks and therefore as a marketeer a lot of times what you get for granted in large organizations you are starting from scratch and they are so important and they also help you build that you know strength as a function in these companies saying my god… this is what this function really does and takes you from zero to 100 really quickly. And from there, then there’s no looking back because then you’ve got your playbook set and the entire companies and working with you together to scale the function further.

Q8 You Cannot Scale Chaos Forever

ContraMinds Podcast (24:18.456)

So how was it to build the foundation? Because when you come from an established marketing company, a brand book or a brand key or stuff like that, you kind of access and you get it. And suddenly here you have to build it and a lot more real thinking has to go into it. And you really also don’t have the same kind of talent around you, right?

Megha Agarwal (24:30.763)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (24:35.201)

Correct.

ContraMinds Podcast (24:48.268)

So what are the frustrations and the joys you went through?

Megha Agarwal (24:53.053)

I think it was very frustrating initially saying, my God, how can we be operating for all of these years without some of these things? But that phase passes very quickly, Swami, because you realize that I don’t have this, but I need this really quickly. And you know what, as a woman who runs her home, it’s like I’ve got guests coming at home. I don’t have XYZ ingredients, but what is next step? So I’ve gone through the frustration really quickly because I’m expecting people home.

And it is exactly that. So the frustration passes really quickly and then you get into a very hyper build mode. And I think I thrive in hyper build modes where I then have my own checklist saying here are the 15 things that we need to attack. And you’re right on talent. A lot of places that I started, I didn’t have teams to build aspects of the brand that needed building. I mean, if those teams were there, I’m assuming those aspects would have been built already.

And therefore I really believe that marketing as a function that ways is quite blessed because you can get a partner of any sort on a 24-hour notice if you really want it. after being in the industry for so long, having worked with brands, especially with the Unilever portfolio, I have a very, very strong partner ecosystem and I’ve always worked with them as extended teams and they really come to your rescue. So the idea is you should know what to fix and then…from there on, you’re already sort of on the fixing spree. 

But identifying that is very important, which is why, to my point, when you enter a setup where, you know, don’t start saying, is what I’m going to do from a building the brand point of view. You have to figure out whether you have the right tools and the right ecosystem, the right foundation, fix that, and then plan you already know. I mean, as a marketer, you already know what you need to do. It’s the standard stuff that you do, but it will not work till you have the house in order. And then I think with Teams without Teams, once that’s identified, you can plug, play solutions and take it live.

Q9 Startup Reality vs Corporate Comfort

ContraMinds Podcast (26:48.878)

So did you find it difficult because what you thought was taken for granted, you would actually access it on a central drive and you’ll get it. But in the case of say the WeWork and the Table Space, you have to go build it, right? When you’re going and building it, suddenly you realize, hey, I didn’t know this. Hey, is this so difficult to do? Because what you thought was like a couple of days work.

Megha Agarwal (27:00.373)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (27:04.629)

Yeah. Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (27:12.545)

you

ContraMinds Podcast (27:18.218)

suddenly is like a fortnightly work, right? So did you go through that? Because, you know, as an entrepreneur and a startup guy, I went through that because I found that, you know, I work in a multinational and I realized that, it is so easy to get it overnight. Here, suddenly I realized that I didn’t know many things and I had to be vulnerable to my own team. Did you go through the process?

Megha Agarwal (27:18.39)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Megha Agarwal (27:34.227)

Ha ha ha ha!

Megha Agarwal (27:39.798)

Yeah.

Yeah. So some pieces were actually very surprising. So, and very frustrating, honestly, which is the entire Martech piece. As a marketeer, you know how to use these tools, but you might not know how to set them up and the complexity required to set them up. And across now two organizations, I have sort of set that process and you know, I really had no idea on timelines on this and it impacts a lot of your planning, right? 

Because you go ahead and commit to the board saying, you know, here is something that I want to do. It’s possible in three months and it’s already six months and you’re still in some processes which you don’t know why it’s taking that long because honestly, some of these pieces are not your direct control pieces saying, you know, I get these three people and these two partners and it’s done. The dependencies on multiple functions takes a toll and they were operating perfectly fine without you. You come in, you say, here are the five things that I want. They’re like, what the, And it’s not core priority for you. So I think that can be really frustrating. 

What I’ve learned now, given this is the second space I’m doing it is you, you lobby for it right in the beginning. So it is important that you don’t say that, you know, here is what I’m going to do, but you take the entire leadership team through your plan, get their sign-ins, and then everybody’s alliance saying, here are the five things that are hitting three other functions where support will be needed. And that is very important. 

A lot of times I think this whole piece around I did it, I won is a huge problem which leads to failure. I am okay if I don’t win. As long as the brand wins and the company wins, I’m in a very great space because I mean at a certain level, the I doesn’t really matter, but I’ve seen that a lot of failure happens because of the I and at leadership level that lobbying that that landing the information, getting the support is extremely important. Otherwise, no matter what your intent, how deep your pockets, you will fail. And I’ve seen a couple failures happen very, very early on when I was trying to build functions. And I’ve taken big lessons from those.

ContraMinds Podcast (29:45.57)

Interesting, brilliant. I think very lovely insights and some of the points that you said, you you don’t necessarily need to win the I has to be taken away, especially if you’re working in marketing. You know, what I found one client said was the function that has to be most open in my company is the most closed. That’s what the CEO said. Okay. So, so I think for me, it was a bit of a shocking moment.

Megha Agarwal (30:08.417)

Lovely. Yeah.

ContraMinds Podcast (30:14.286)

because he said, that’s really what the CEO said. Okay. So, I really love what you said. 

Q10 Most Career Limits Exist Only in the Mind

I want to, you know, talk a little bit about your Unilever GSK integration, where you said you played a PMO role. And so what did that experience compress in terms of leadership, learning in the few years that you kind of did it? So what did it take and what did you learn

Megha Agarwal (30:18.421)

Yeah, yeah, I get.

Megha Agarwal (30:30.443)

Yeah.

ContraMinds Podcast (30:44.302)

that made you think about the new playbook for the CMO and the mental model that you run with today.

Megha Agarwal (30:52.065)

So the biggest thing, Swami, and you know, every role has its own thing. Unilever, for all its amazing pieces, is also an extremely hierarchical organization, right? I mean, the grades matter, the designations matter, and rightfully so, some of the senior leaders come with a lot of experience. And this particular role, I think, just broke all of that for me. So a lot of kudos in my head to Unilever to trust a young resource with something like this.

I was, what, eight, ten years into experience and this was a very large role across international markets. 

One of the most covered pieces on media for Unilever because it was one of the largest integrations in the FMCG space. 

And my initial pieces where you’re figuring it out, right? 

I mean, one of the bigger roles where I was… figuring out every day saying, what do I need to do? I don’t know supply chain. I don’t understand so much about finance. Legal is beyond my understanding. 

My only conversation with legal so far was please approve the text on packaging. Is the lemon size OK on the detergent bar pack, et cetera? 

But the complexities of an M&A across countries, cultural nuances, and plus it was a food product. So you can imagine the kind of complexities and regulatory requirements across countries. 

And I’m just thrown into it, right? And lots of trust from the organization, which also puts a lot of pressure on you saying, I cannot afford to fail because, you know, I’ve been handed over this responsibility. And after the first couple calls, when things were not moving…

I had this chat with my then boss saying, you know, I mean, you’re putting me in rooms with CEOs, et cetera. We’re discussing pieces around whether we should continue the brand, not continue the brand. What do you want me to do? Take notes, come back to you. He’s like, take decisions.

I was like, how can I take decisions? you know, I mean, it doesn’t make sense at that time. It just seemed like, you know, you’re joking, right? I mean, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do in these rooms. And he’s like, Megha, your grade is at Unilever. That is an internal conversation from the point of view of the project – 

…you are the project lead and you are running the calls. You are running the shots. So you will be working with the various teams. You will come back with plans and share whether we continue say chocolate Horlicks in Africa or launch a separate product in South Africa, you have to discuss, understand and come back. So you will have to stop thinking designations or grades, but think about the role that you’ve put into and come back and share that with the teams. 

And suddenly it was like a switch that clicked in the mind saying often a lot of times our capabilities are limited by us. I don’t know if you’ve seen that and you know this Instagram doom scrolling sometimes gives you some very interesting concepts. I saw this video of this and you know on a piece of paper and you keep drawing lines and it keeps going smaller and smaller because it thinks those lines are real fences for it. Grades and designations a lot of times are in our mind. It is what you do with the role that’s given to you irrespective of the level nobody’s stopping you to go above and beyond and you know I keep having that conversation with my teams especially the younger ones saying…you don’t have to stick to those guidelines. Who’s stopping you to come up with an idea or a project or a plan? You’re starting at a certain grade in an organization does not limit your thinking or capability. That role really taught me that. And that one conversation opened up everything in my mind and I did not look back. 

So through COVID, we handled that. I think it was the international, the entire international merger was a phenomenal success for the company. And it was at one conversation. So one, I got phenomenal trust from a company like Unilever, which, you by the way, is a slow company, process-driven company. And then they do things like this saying, you know, a young resource can handle this. And they show such trust in their resources. And second, it’s not just trust on paper. They empower you to sort of say, you know, go ahead. You fall, you fail. We are there. Try not to fall and fail. But if you fall or fail, we are right here. And I think that has been a phenomenal piece for me. don’t think a lot of people get the opportunity and the right bosses and I think I’ve been blessed and that’s very important. So in marketing also being at the right place at the right time is very important and I think I’ve been lucky that way.

ContraMinds Podcast (35:12.93)

Very interesting. 

So when your boss said take decisions. So how did you go about it? Because you may not know a market, you may not know a category, you may not know a consumer need, you may not know the competitive forces in categories. So how did you go about taking those decisions?

Megha Agarwal (35:17.535)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (35:22.347)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (35:26.55)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (35:38.294)

I think that’s where the marketeer piece comes in. So once you’re pushed to a corner, Swami, I mean, I was somebody who had handled brands. So I built a beverage category at CavinKare. I’ve launched categories for Cavincare. I’ve built RIN, scaled RIN. I’ve worked on purifiers, which is one of the most difficult categories in India. So it’s not like I didn’t know how to do it. It was just about a limitation in my mind on… I can’t do it. I’m supposed to be doing PMO, but launching into markets expansion or killing categories is my core forte. I’m a marketeer. So I think even the company is smart, right? They hire for skill and they hand rules basis skill. And this role, while it required a large part PMO had a very, very strong marketing requirement in terms of what do we do with portfolios across markets? And the playbook was very simple, right? I mean, once I knew I had to take decisions, then my PMO narrative shifted from just project management and timelines to sitting and spending time with the marketeers on the other side of the table and taking their view because they understand, like I said, it’s not about me, right? They know their brand best. So it was, I was a sponge, I was absorbing what works, what does not work, talk to the sales teams. I spoke to multiple people who influence and live the brand on a day-to-day basis. And then the came up with our plans, our recommendations as Unilever, who’s the most structured organizations. We layered our strengths saying, you know, if I have to kill something in a market where it is not working, it’s not working because of say distribution. Unilever’s largest strength is distribution. So we technically don’t have to kill it. The moment Unilever takes it over, the distribution takes over and the brand can still work. 

So it’s about figuring out what was working, what was not working, layering our strengths and weaknesses and then submitting my decision or my plan to the board on this side and then anyway it was something that was close at an overall level. But then the direction was very important saying I know exactly what I need to do and this I know how to do so it was about giving that power to the person saying come back with your plan and then that also puts a lot of pressure so a lot of research went into all of this before the plans could be submitted to the category leads on this side.

ContraMinds Podcast (37:51.823)

interesting. 

Q11 Growth Architect Thinking

You call yourself a growth architect and literally one thing that I picked up was if you’re a growth architect the way you touch a brief, the way you handle a budget must be very different if you really have to architect growth. So how do you really approach it?

Megha Agarwal (38:05.483)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (38:11.913)

So I think one of the things that works when you say you’re a growth architect and we bring the word brief to it. So my briefs are very unconventional, right? A lot of, and let me take an example. So a lot of agencies have very standard brief templates saying, know, tell me what you want to achieve, which category, is it a short-term thing, long-term thing? I mean, it’s like the standard stuff that you fill in and share.

Now, all of that is basis of current understanding, a current requirement that you’re really looking for. A lot of times the impact pieces that we’re looking for don’t come from these briefs because if I had it all stitched up in my head, I would get the ideas and I would just go say execute. A lot of my briefs are open briefs saying, you know, here are three or four large challenges that we are seeing as a brand. Or here are three or four large areas that we see globally as growth, but we’re not seeing it for ourselves. Or trends that I’m seeing, but we’re not doing much about it. And push the challenge to teams and agencies. And then the ideas that they come back with. 

So it is about boxing them and saying, bring ideas to or you give them a problem statement and trust them to come with solutions. A lot of times we think we know all the answers and we want a plan around a solution or a plan that we’ve already thought of. We want execution folks. I want my partners to also think, you know, because I think that’s the difficult part. Execution beyond a point between multiple agencies, they’ll figure it out and one will do slightly better than the other. But thinking is what gets the needle moving.

And some of the best ideas for me have come when I have issued briefs like this saying, here is a problem that I’m facing or here is an opportunity which I think I’m not tapping. Come back and tell me how do we open up this entire space for us. And I think that’s where I think I call myself a growth architect because it’s not about tying and expecting people to work in a certain way, but getting them to work with us. And I’ll tell you what these briefs the agencies take very seriously because they love to think, they’re not allowed to think enough.

Megha Agarwal (40:13.313)

So yeah.

Q12 The Future Belongs to Hungry Agencies

ContraMinds Podcast (40:14.902)

So a related question that I have is how are agencies prepared for this change? Because the agencies that I have seen to the agencies that are there today, they are so verticalized. Pretty much the CMO, in my opinion, is almost like the Zubin Mehta, right? You have to orchestrate everything because they don’t know what they are doing with each other, right?

Megha Agarwal (40:18.677)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (40:26.485)

Thank you.

Megha Agarwal (40:30.272)

Mm.

ContraMinds Podcast (40:43.374)

So therefore, are the agencies of today, know, the right partners in your thinking and what do think the agencies need to do to really be relevant for the now and for the future?

Megha Agarwal (41:00.18)

Yeah. So Swami, think I’m sort of going to contradict my entire point of view earlier on the whole laggard versus quick piece. So right now, given I’m in a very startup space, I don’t think the traditional agencies, and which is why we’re seeing stories of agencies shutting down, exactly for your reason, they’ve not figured a way to grow and evolve to this startup thinking. I still believe while we are a very large, upwards of 3,000 crore company today, we still work like a startup, high hustle and we don’t have the liberties of a Unilever for example. We’re not that large yet. And therefore everybody in this space, the category is about 10, 12 years old and therefore we need hustlers. 

I work with very young agencies, agencies who are extremely hungry, agencies who want to be treated like extended marketing functions and who want to do a lot of very interesting creative work, whether it is AI, whether it is, you know, creating IPs, whether it is creating absolutely new stuff in the market which is award-winning is extremely exciting to this bunch. So I work with young hustler agencies and trust me the kind of work that they pull out is phenomenal. They just need confidence from the brand side saying you know we are listening to their ideas, willingness to spend, willingness to experiment and they’re able to do a phenomenal job. I have tried briefs with the much larger agencies especially on the creative side. I think on the media we’re good because you know that playbook works at scale. But for creative, I have struggled with the larger agencies and I think it is best to work with smaller. I’ve tried and I think from an agency point of view, what they need to do is really learn from some of the younger agencies and not just be paranoid about them because they’re doing some really good work.

Most of the awards today are also being won by some of these younger agencies who are doing such good work in the IP creation space, virality, social content. They understand the consumer of today and are able to work accordingly. So I think that’s what’s working for us. I don’t work with large agencies on the creative thinking aspect at least.

Q13 AI Makes Creativity More Valuable, Not Less

ContraMinds Podcast (43:05.944)

So one of the challenges that I see with the agency and somebody who’s experienced as you on the marketing side, the typical remuneration model does not work, right? We are at the past plus model and IPs are not paid for by clients. So you actually have a valuation model, okay? And you basically go out and become a billion dollar unicorn, right? And I’m not saying you, but I’m saying a lot of startups, okay?

Megha Agarwal (43:13.461)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (43:21.515)

Hmm.

Megha Agarwal (43:29.045)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (43:33.59)

Yeah.

ContraMinds Podcast (43:34.35)

the agencies have not learned the art of valuation, right, of their ideas. So have you kind of worked on a different business model or a remuneration or a revenue model with the agency so that you build unicorn agencies?

Megha Agarwal (43:40.106)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (43:55.926)

So to be honest, not surely, but I have worked with an agency partner who’s working exactly on the thinking that you just mentioned. I think their agency stands out because of that. They actually go out and say no to clients that they don’t want to work with. And I am seeing three, four agencies pick this up. And that’s the future really. I don’t want to name any because everybody’s got their own commercial model going. But as a marketer, I think it’s phenomenal. At the end of the day, especially with AI and to all the conversation on AI, everything will become the same. What you are saying, what I am saying or any other marketer because everybody is using these tools. 

So what will stand out is creative thinking. You know, I keep telling people who talk about AI so much saying we keep talking about marketing as art and science. And I remember my time at Unilever where the science part of it was really valued saying how much can you do want research? How much can you do data? The art was there. It was it was assumed that it is there and you know, that’s that’s me to have that to be a marketeer. But the science was really up.

Now, the science is becoming the common piece because all the AI tools are doing that for you. The creativity has never been more important because that’s what I don’t think an AI tool can do today. So agencies need to understand this entire piece because honestly, they are the creative brains that work with most functions and figure out monetization accordingly and work with clients. Somebody being on the other side as a decision maker and the one holding budgets, I’m open to a conversation, especially if I’m getting something which is completely breakthrough and I can work on that same thing with the kind of agency commitment. 

Also, the whole IP model brings in commitment from both sides. It’s not somebody who’s just taking retainer or a cost plus approach. It’s like a labor job, right? Where I’m paying for the hours. It doesn’t matter beyond the point. But here I’m paying on project where there’s ownership and suddenly it works really well for both you and the agency. So I think there’s a lot of meat there. Am I trying it? No. But the smarter agencies who know they have the talent. They are already doing this and God bless, I hope you see more of these.

Q14 Perfect Work-Life Balance Is a Myth

ContraMinds Podcast (46:02.222)

As a CMO, one of the big, you know, difference that I saw in your body of work, if I were to call it, is you write a lot, you are a, you know, influential LinkedIn voice, you’ve written a book. So what is one thing, if I were to call it, which you wrote, which resonated with, you know,

Practitioners which even surprised you saying hey, I didn’t think this will kind of resonate with my audience and you know with my I would say, know fellow practitioners, so anything that caught your caught you by surprise.

Megha Agarwal (46:47.019)

So I’ll tell you what, I’ve not written a lot about it, but it is sort of the foundation of my book, but I’ve not articulated in such a way. You know, when I was a child, I was in early college, one of the visuals that caught my eye during, I think maybe it was Women’s Day, where you see this beautiful format of the woman like the Indian goddess with multiple hands, one holding the laptop, one feeding the child, one cooking. That visual got me very annoyed. I think it still irks me when people use that visual. 

And I’ve spoken about it in forums, and I’ve spoken about it in my book in some form. I mean, it’s the basis for this entire thing, saying this whole multitasking thing, whether it is woman or man, mean, today even men are doing this where they are single parenting or whatever is such a false depiction of anybody because you are putting this societal pressure on somebody to be handling it all. You know this whole juggling the balls and never being able to drop it. Only the joker can do it because he’s practiced that over the years. Try doing it, it’s not possible. 

So why are we expecting somebody to be able to do all of this perfectly and not fall? You know the cases of depression or the cases of you know anxiety, postpartum, all of that happens because there is so much pressure and it links back to the four burner theory as well. So there’s a scientific explanation of that as well saying you will have to and when you see the stuff all flames don’t run equally. So if you want one to burn really high you have to compromise or slow down the other so that that one flame burns. So if you want to commit those extra hours at work you are missing the time to maybe read that story to your child because the child is stepped by the time you come back home.

ContraMinds Podcast (48:20.302)

Mm.

Megha Agarwal (48:35.229)

And you should be okay with that because you took the call to stay those two hours at work. And I think that education, especially as a leader, to your teams, to your partners, to people around you, your family is extremely important. think when educated well, it resonates, which is why I wrote the book – ‘She Asked For It’… saying you have to ask. Don’t assume that people around you will understand why you can’t balance everything because everybody has been taught that you can balance it. And the book is just about that. And it’s resonated very well with people who’ve read. They appreciate the fact that you have to ask for help. 

You have to tell people that, you know, what I’m going to be late, pick up my son and build that ecosystem around you so that people understand what you do. So my children, for example, they’re seven and 12. I have a son and a daughter. And when I’m in meetings or when I’m taking calls, they understand and they know that mama works really hard. And that’s important to educate them, right? So they appreciate what I do. They appreciate I work and they don’t take it for granted. I’ve seen families where, you know, where the fathers come back from work, the children are like, dad’s tired. Mom, can I get a glass of milk? No, I think it has to be fair. It has to be equitable. And that happens at home. You have to educate your children at home because otherwise you’re setting the same precedence around, you know, expectation from family. That concept now has shaped my life significantly and I think I have been successful because my spouse understands, my family understands, and that’s because I’ve asked for it. 

If I don’t, then I can’t blame them saying I don’t have a supportive husband, I don’t have a supportive family. You never asked for support. So whether it is for support at home or your preferred job at work, you have to ask. Because even the role that you spoke of, the GSK role, I had to ask for it. I was not the preferred candidate. I was somebody who came back from Mat-Leave.

And this job required a lot of travel. It was a global job. It had really bad working hours. And therefore, I was not. So HR clearly said, Megha, this is not the role where we would recommend you. They were coming from the right space in their heart saying, you’re a new mother. They are right in their piece. I wanted this. I wanted my career to fly because this particular role was a once in a lifetime role. And then I was willing to make that sacrifice. But I had aligned everybody at home saying, I want to do this. I will need the support.

So at every given point in time, have to whether man, whether woman, depending upon where you are in your life stage, ask balance. There’s nothing as such as perfect balance. You can try at best and that’s where you’re happy, which is why I love what I do. Right? I’m able to bring my hundred percent because I don’t carry guilt. I love building. I love my work. I love building the brand. I love growing my children. It’s everywhere, but I know at some times I will falter.

But that’s okay with me. I’m not perfect. I’m not expected to be perfect. So I think that’s one piece that has shaped my life. It resonates very well when explained well to people. And then suddenly it’s not a conversation about bias and women and inclusion. No, it’s not about that. It’s just about letting people know what is possible, what is not possible. Because then you’re able to bring your 100% without guilt and therefore you’re so much more productive. So yeah, I can keep talking about it.

ContraMinds Podcast (51:52.398)

It’s almost like, it’s beautiful, it’s beautiful. think, so you’re really not talking about the mythical work-life balance to actually saying, hey, it’s about work-life integration, right? So therefore that’s something that you talked about, very nice. 

Q15 The Best Mentors Don’t Give Answers

I’m gonna ask you from whatever I hear and whatever I heard and whatever I see, there are people, mentors.

Megha Agarwal (52:01.911)

Yeah.

Yes, yes, yes.

ContraMinds Podcast (52:21.418)

sparring partners, adversaries, who would have shaped what you are today. And what did you learn from them? And can you share, you know, what was the interesting moments that made you stop, made you reflect, and you continue to actually apply many of their principles even today, or maybe you’ve, you know, added a lot of learnings on top of them.

Megha Agarwal (52:47.531)

Swami, this is such a beautiful question and you know…

…I can’t emphasize the importance of mentors, coaches enough in your life, especially as a woman leader because you know what, I think we don’t spend enough time in building the right networks, the right mentors, coaches. I think men do it a lot better and there’s a lot to learn from them on how they do this over casual conversations, they take advice really well. I don’t think women do enough. I have been lucky. I think at every stage,

of my life I’ve had somebody who’s always been a bouncing board and one of the things that I’ve learned is none of them ever told me what to do and that’s brilliant and I carry that with me till today. 

They spoke to me, they heard me, I think heard me more than they spoke to me and laid out options and directions and the decision always was left to me.

That’s very powerful. We all love to advise. We all love to tell what to do. But I think some of the most amazing coaches, mentors that have encountered, they just listen to you and base their experience, share what all is possible, and leave it to you to say, now, you know what is best. And that’s been very powerful for me.

I think important that you stay in touch with people, at least the ones that you know will listen to you unbiased, will not judge you. And you need to have different kinds of people. That’s also very important. 

So there are people that I reach out to for career advice, for how do I manage my teams when I am stuck with a difficult decision at work. And you are put in some difficult spots. You might have to let go of somebody that you might not agree to. And there are complicated pieces.You’ve been through all of that, I’m sure. And therefore, you need somebody who can just listen to you and play part in what you should technically do. 

And you also need a very strong personal support system where you can reach out when you’re feeling overwhelmed at work or at home. Because a lot of times, and this has been my experience, and I’ve seen enough people go through depression cycles, anxiety cycles. It’s more common now than ever. 

And I think a lot of time it’s because people don’t have the right ecosystem where they can have open conversations, get guided. And if you don’t have that, have a medical practitioner work with you. It doesn’t matter. 

But have that safe space to have conversations which are troubling you. 

Because today, it’s very competitive. I mean, my seven-year-old son and my 12-year-old daughter are sometimes discussing what will we do in the future. I’m like, my god, you guys are so young. And they worry about things like this because some of your friends have already got things figured.

But that’s the environment that we are living in. 

I think most organizations, leaders, have to sort of guide their teams, their peers, to sort of have these two ecosystems at place where they can have both kind of conversations and be guided. And don’t live in your own silo. I know work is important, success is important. It’s very important to me. But at the same time, taking care of yourself, your personal happiness is extremely important. 

Otherwise, you can run only this fast, even in marathons, you are successful when you’re able to do the longer run at a certain pace. The quick run will not do much for you. But a lot of people don’t understand, they don’t get the guidance. So through my learning, through the mentorship that I have got, I just try to pass this piece on to more people.

Q16 Your Strengths Matter More Than Your Weaknesses

ContraMinds Podcast (56:14.176)

Any names that come up to you saying, hey, this is somebody that I really think changed something. You used Nitin Paranjpe’s name, which I think he’s a phenomenal guy. And obviously, he’s very, very senior. And ones whom you work closely with, some names you think. And I don’t want you to say it if you are not comfortable, but somebody who you think you learned the art of.

Megha Agarwal (56:31.071)

Yeah.

Yeah.

ContraMinds Podcast (56:42.326)

negotiation, the art of asking questions, the art of brand building. So some names that come to you, the art of distribution.

Megha Agarwal (56:54.825)

I’ve been actually quite open about it.

So the now CEO of Unilever, Priya Nair, is somebody that I’ve worked with directly. She was the category head when I was on RIN, and one of the first women leaders that I’ve worked with. And she is a force to reckon with. And I think in a lot of ways, she has shaped my thinking on leadership, thinking on how to sort of present your POV in rooms where your POV matters the most. 

She’s also shaped a large part of me being an extremely confident leader in rooms because when you see her leadership style and I had the chance to work with her for three and a half full years very, very closely and I have all love and respect for her. She comes down to your personal level and puts in the effort to understand and shape you. 

One of the first ones who told me that a lot of people, Megha, will tell you that here are your areas of weakness, fix them. And she told me that here are your areas of strength become so good at it that nobody else can tell you that you have weaknesses. Manage your weaknesses. They should not come in your way… you know, become so strong at what you do that you are the person that people call on to when that happens. And that becomes your differentiator. 

I think that’s shaped everything that I’ve done from there on really. And which is why the growth architect, which is why the non-traditional CMO. I think some of those things, which she said, you know, as somebody who worked with you, I don’t think even she realizes the impact of those words on me. I was a very young brand manager at that time, one of the only girls in the team. And she treated me with so much love and affection and I think it’s really shaped the person that I am and I only have a lot of love and respect for her and she’s also one of the names that I’ve spoken about in the book and one of the ways that I’ve expressed my gratitude to her in terms of shaping who I am.

Q17 AI Can Analyze Consumers. It Cannot Love Them.

ContraMinds Podcast (58:53.374)

I think no conversation ends with the impact of AI in marketing. So what part of AI in marketing that can never be automated?

Megha Agarwal (58:59.605)

Ha ha ha ha.

Megha Agarwal (59:05.333)

Now, like I said, think creativity will singularly be the most important piece that marketeers bring to the table. AI can’t love consumers, and it’s very important that, you know, there is that, we’ve spoken about it at length around consumer love and obsession. AI will use math to sort of come to decisions, suggestions, product ideas. You know, oftentimes we tell that, you consumers tell you what they want.

I mean, they don’t tell you, tell you, they will, they will say multiple things around, you know, problems that they are facing or something not working. They will never tell you that they need a product. Right. 

It goes back to the whole conversation on how cars happened. If you ask consumers, would have asked for faster horses, not a car. Right. And I think that’s the thinking that a marketeer brings to the table because AI is today working on existing knowledge. It is not creating anything new. If cars didn’t exist Claude or Gemini or Perplexity will say horse. It will not say car, right? So I think that aspect very truly stays with marketing. 

I’m sure there will be evolution in this space. Maybe they’ll start playing creative as well. But that also pushes us to keep working harder in this space. One of the other things that I would want to add here is, you know, when industrial revolution happened, people thought, my God, all the jobs are gone because suddenly manual is becoming industrial. was a whole conversation. When internet came, people were worried. When modern trade came, people thought the general trade will get over. Ecom came, people thought something else will get over. The point is we are evolving as a community, as human beings, and something new will always keep coming. 

It pushes us to keep getting better and keep expanding what we are really capable of. So maybe AI will become more creative like humans. By that time, humans will also have become better at something else, which AI can’t. We created AI. We should not be scared of it. We’ll create something else. So I think that’s my view on AI. We should not be scared of things that we ourselves create and figure out how we continue using them so that we can do our job a lot better. We created it for exactly that.

Q18 The Best Marketers Constantly Reinvent Themselves

ContraMinds Podcast (01:01:10.23)

What you think the next generation of marketers need to prepare for the new environment, the environment that’s going to be there in the next couple of decades? So what would you think are the three or four, I would say, roots or pillars that will stand the test of time?

Megha Agarwal (01:01:22.047)

Yeah.

Megha Agarwal (01:01:33.813)

So one would be, I think we’ll start with the consumer saying, you know, always keep your consumer at the center of everything and keep building around that. Because I think today it’s become very difficult to be a marketeer. The pressure from ever evolving tech to CFO pressures, to pressures on speed, time, show me result now. So it’s never been more difficult to be a marketeer. So therefore keep your core very, very intact  to consumer because that’s the only narrative that will win you in the room.

Second, keep evolving. I think you will have to believe that no playbook is a constant and therefore keep challenging your own playbook before somebody else comes and challenges you because it’s better that you’re challenged by yourself than somebody else and you’re caught off-guarded. 

So constantly keep innovating, constantly keep working on this space. 

And third, build a very strong network of partners, teams, et cetera, which sort of…work with you on your vision. think having the right team and the partner ecosystem is extremely important because you alone can’t do anything. And therefore, spend time on grooming your team, spend time sharing your vision with the team and partner so that whatever you’re planning actually comes to life. 

So I think these three come top of mind to me. And I’m sure there are a lot more, but these three in my head are non-negotiable.

CLOSING

ContraMinds Podcast (01:02:52.142)

Thanks, Megha. On that note, it a lovely conversation. was strapped with insights, so many thoughtful comments and experiences. And some of the mentors and their advice and insights that you shared were really, really valuable. And it was a very engaging and I would say involved conversation that I’ve had with a CMO. So thanks a lot. It was lovely having you on the SuperCMO Podcast.

Megha Agarwal (01:03:22.465)

Thank you so much, Swami, for having such a lovely conversation. think I’ve not had such an open conversation on marketing and life in general. So thank you so much. Phenomenal opportunity for me. Thank you.

ContraMinds Podcast (01:03:32.514)

Thanks.