Poaching in AD-LAND

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Acceptable business practice or unethical, unscruplous trespass?

Monojit Lahiri invites perspectives from the adfrat
“Encroaching, infringing, intruding (sometimes cutely referred to as seducing, wooing, and attracting) even plain stealing, seems to be the flavour of the day,” says a new, shaken-up, entrant to Adville. He is obviously referring to DAVID’S National Creative Director Josey Paul moseying over to JWT with half a dozen Creative Directors following him. The other JWT creative superstar NCD Agnello Dias appears to be keeping pace too. His red-hot reputation is allegedly attracting hordes of creative talent from Leo Burnett, who however are playing super cool. Why? Because (insist insiders), they are busy “jhadoing” truckloads of talent from Lowe! In Delhi, Rediff are all set to re-vamp, expand and add muscle to their creative department. No prizes for guessing how they are going about it… You guessed it right guys, poach at O&M! “Is this moral, right, fair?” questions the shocked kid. Hey cool it, we said, before he went into comatose, and set out to find answers… and this is what we got.

We got Josey Paul (yup-the same pied-piper sweets!) to open the batting and boy did he go wham-bang from ball one! “If everything was ethical, then business would never move, okay? Besides where the hell would you attract new talent into your business from?” Rohit Ohri, JWT’s senior VP and Branch Head (north) appears more circumspect. “Let’s face it, poaching today is acceptable business practice. “ Having said that, he quickly adds that there are certain parameters within which agencies operate. “The WPP Group, for example, has a very clear guideline on poaching from group companies.” From personal viewpoint, Ohri believes that companies should be guided “by engagement of employees rather than poaching.” If this is done in a meaningful manner, he reckons, the employees will enjoy a sense of well-being, feel secure and wanted, decreasing the reasons to quit. Widening the debate to touch the larger issue (Is poaching the best business practice)? Ohri feels it’s a question the agencies seriously need to grapple with. “We are facing real tough times. Good talent exiting, mediocre talent raking in the moolah by moving from one agency to another, cashing in on the situation… To survive, grow and fly - fresh talent, ideas and blood is essential. How long can one recycle burnt-out engine oil? What is the option, but poach?”

The burly, bearded chairman of TBWA Anthem, George John offers a wide-angled perspective. “In this business, we are constantly on the lookout for talent but unfortunately with the exclusion of MICA, there are no specialized institutions which can provide them. Start-up salaries and booming opportunities in entertainment, media, marketing, pharma, real estate, retail, finance, investment banking have rung the death knell for good talent entering adbiz. To further worsen matters, a middle management executive in an ad agency today has no problem picking up a job in another industry at double the salary. “People who remain in advertising choose to consciously do so because they love it, are committed to the profession and genuinely believe that the line excitingly fuses fun and creativity with social purpose. However when key people quit, they need to be quickly replaced so as to not impact business… where do you go? What do you do?” John believes that the “P” word is unfair. It’s a professional compulsion based on the supply- demand equation existing on the Adland! “When NCDs or CEOs quit or are poached, the business media goes to the town! Frequently agencies themselves create a big buzz when inducting stars by announcing in grandiose fashion that they are re-structuring to build a dream-team!” John believes it has to do with projecting the “feel good” factor about the agency, adding a provocative truth, “How come they never let fly a choo about people leaving?!”

Newfield Advertising CEO Esha Guha believes that poaching, in some fashion, has always existed. It’s just that with the image of the industry getting sexy, glamorous and newsworthy, this area is gaining prominence. “Regarding the ethics aspect, I categorically believe it is wrong, underhand and slimy! To entice talent – individual or a team – for vested interest after an agency has invested precious time and money to groom him, is criminal!” Guha said. She, however concedes that it’s probably a sign of the times. “In an environment where I-me-myself is the most popular anthem and everything else is slung to the backburner, the temptation to yield to the highest bidder seems to be where it’s at. It’s sad but true…”

Dentsu’s Gulu Sen, however, can’t figure out what the fuss is all about. “You mentioned about the raid in Lowes Bank but did the agency’s reputation, credibility, creativity or bottomlines suffer in anyway? Unlikely, so what’s the big deal? Besides, if you think that hot-shot stars, by switching for big bucks, guarantee value-addition, you’re sadly mistaken. Most of thetimes, it’s about sending out signals to demanding clients from insecure/incompetent agencies unable to deliver. They think stars will work miracles… poor sods!” Gulu puts it.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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