by Matthew
Jones
Pushpa
Gopalan is
a Leo
Burnett executive who is on the move.
Literally. When dib finally
caught up with her, she was in the middle of
moving out of her apartment as well as her
office. Gopalan's professional move comes as
the result of a recent promotion.
Gopalan, who is
clearly on a fast track, is now VP, Senior
Planner on three high profile accounts at
Leo Burnett: KraftMaid, Procter &
Gamble and Western Union. The
planning department is enjoying increasing
visibility and influence within the agency;
making it a great place for Gopalan to be for
the present.
Gopalan's
impressive run up the ranks is not the result of
some grand design. She is quick to admit
she did not follow her initial plan.
Gopalan attended
college at the
Birla Institute of Technology & Services
in Pilani, India, earning a Master of
Science in Mathematics and a Master of
Management Studies in Marketing.
“(Birla) was one of the premier institutions in
India – it was affiliated with MIT,” said
Gopalan. “It was very much fashioned to mimic
the American system.”
With two masters
degrees and an internship at Thermax Company
behind her, she was ready to make her move into
the private sector. But first, some decisions
needed to be made. “In India, we tend to study
math, medicine (etc.),” explained Gopalan. “It
quickly became clear to me that maybe Math was a
wrong move.”
Having made her
decision to pursue marketing, Gopalan took a
marketing job in India, eventually moved to the
U.S., and earned herself a third masters degree
at the University of South Carolina –
this time in Mass Communication in Advertising.
Gopalan’s career
really began to move when she took a job at
Burrell Communications, which was the
country’s largest and most prestigious
African-American-owned agency at the time. “I
loved Burrell,” she said. “I was the first
intern (in the planning function). We were
involved in new business as well as existing
client work.”
While making the
move from India to a primarily Black agency
might result in culture shock for some, Gopalan
felt right at home. The culture, the work and
the diversity among the staff all seemed to be a
good fit.
“That environment
was really interesting,” she explained of the
agency’s diverse makeup. “It was an
African-American agency, and at the time it was
African-American owned, but everyone was there.”
There were,
however, some political and timing issues that
came into play. “This was around 1999 and 2000,
and the agency was sold that year, so there were
some growing pains.”
Another surprise
for Gopalan was the access to some very
prominent people in the industry, such as Tom
Burrell, the founder of the landmark
agency. “You know who (Tom Burrell) is, and you
know his reputation,” said Gopalan. “And then
you see him in the meeting - that was
interesting.”
Gopalan found Tom
Burrell impressive in many ways – his wisdom,
his presence and his overall sense of culture.
During her tenure at Burrell, Gopalan was able
to take part in a very important agency pitch
for Bacardi. Unlike most Burrell
pitches, this particular effort was for the
general market account, not just the ethnic part
of the business. In Gopalan’s eyes, general
market pitches should be the norm, rather than
the exception to the rule.
“There is no
general market, really,” said Gopalan. “We’re
all mixed into the mainstream already – the
African-American and Hispanic markets tend to
set the general market trends anyway. We know
this now, but (Tom Burrell) has been saying that
for years.”
A Diverse
Background
Diversity has
always been an important element in Gopalan’s
life. She has lived in many places around the
world, and has forged close bonds with people of
various ethnicities and backgrounds.
“I’m a bit of a
mutt,” said Gopalan. “I was born in Germany –
my father moved there with his previous work. I
lived there until the fifth grade, and then we
went back to India. I went to school in
southern India and went to college up north. In
1997, I moved to the (United) States.”
Gopalan has been
able to use her constant movement to her
advantage. “I’ve been a transient in a lot of
cities,” she said. “I’ve always had to adapt
quickly. I appreciate that sense of distance.
You see things a little differently. It allows
you a certain degree of freedom.”
For all the
different places Gopalan has lived and worked,
she has been fortunate to avoid the racial
discrimination that faces so many people of
color in advertising. In her view, she has been
treated quite fairly.
“I’ve been here
(at Leo Burnett) since 2000,” she said. “I’ve
found myself consistently promoted and moving
forward. I feel my pacing has been right.
Maybe I’m just not aware of (discrimination). I
don’t have that conditioning to look for it.”
Racial bias – or
lack thereof – aside, Gopalan has felt from time
to time as if there are additional barriers and
challenges for women in the industry. While
women, as a whole, have earned a relatively
strong foothold in the advertising world, there
are still certain areas of the business that are
a step behind in that regard.
“As far as gender
(is concerned), I do think there’s a certain
male oriented management style that you rub up
against,” explained Gopalan. “Some clients –
for instance, like in the automotive industry –
there’s just a general movement to it that feels
very male.”
From time to time,
Gopalan feels out of place at client gatherings
where the male-oriented topics fall far outside
of her own interests. “I’m thinking to myself,
‘OK, I don’t know much about sports, and I’m
running out of conversation,’” she
continued. I can sometimes visibly see clients
making an effort to talk about something else.”
Cocktail banter
may seem like a trivial complaint, but it can
affect an account manager’s ability to bond with
clients, especially if they seem to come from
different worlds. “I have to make clients
comfortable, and I have to build the
relationship,” explained Gopalan. “I don’t have
the luxury of saying ‘I don’t care about
sports and I’m not going to learn.’”
Overall, however,
Gopalan sees a positive shift in attitudes in
the workplace with regard to traditionally
women’s issues. “Generally, for the U.S., I
think corporate America is moving from a male
style of management to a more feminine one – now
there’s flex time, maternity leave, and men are
wanting more bonding time with their family, as
well,” she said.
Focused on the Work
Regardless of what
the rest of the world is doing, Gopalan is
focused on one thing – her work. Those who work
with her would agree that she spends her time
delivering the best results possible, rather
than worrying about how she is being perceived.
“The first thing
people notice about me is that I’m about the
work. If I can make it about the work, I can
take a lot of the (political) tensions out,” she
said. “I hold on to the content of work. I’m
focused on the work.”
That leaves little
time for political play, even in an ego-charged
industry like advertising. “I’m fairly
apolitical – I try to rise above that,” she
said.
Gopalan’s
work-above-all attitude has earned her a great
deal of respect among her clients and peers.
When she decides to fight for an idea, it’s for
the right reasons, and says it’s never about her
ego. “I stick to my point of view without being
aggressive – I try to bring people around to my
POV, rather than thump my chest,” she
explained. “It’s not in me to be in your face.
But you will know when I don’t agree with you.”
As Gopalan
navigates the political and corporate waters
with her clients and co-workers at Leo Burnett,
she must also contend with a large and imposing
sea of change occurring in the industry at
large. Marketing as a whole is becoming
increasingly more complicated. So too is
the process of defining what is the work,
and how to get paid for it.
“Strategic
planning is so difficult to define – it changes
as the client, or as the business situation
defines it,” said Gopalan. “It ends up being
like a negotiation between the respective
disciplines. We all have to contribute to move
the brand forward.”
Moving the brand
forward, however, does not mean the same thing
that it meant five or ten years ago. Today’s
consumers have almost unlimited control –
skipping ads with Tivo, blocking pop-up
and banner ads, and generally filtering out
corporate messages from their daily lives.
Agencies, like Leo Burnett, which are committed
to providing groundbreaking counsel, are forced
to dive deeper into their clients’ businesses
than ever before.
“With strategic
planning, you have to take a long-term view of
the brand – you have to move yourself upstream,”
explained Gopalan. “You’re looking at future
product introductions, technology – what’s
the 20 year plan? At some point, you’re
moving into the consulting realm.”
That’s fine for
the ad agency to play consultant, but eventually
that can lead to a whole new set of political
challenges. “Agencies aren’t compensated for
(consulting work),” she continued. “How do you
compensate people for thinking? There will come
a point where those types of things need to be
packaged. That’s where consultants will come in
and try to take your business.”
In the meantime,
Gopalan has handled her challenges extremely
well. The clients are happy. Burnett
executives are happy; and Gopalan – well,
she’s…happy.
Embracing the
Title
“I just recently
got my VP title – it just appeared one day,” she
said.
Gopalan had a
chance to see some of the comments from her VP
nomination, and she was thrilled with what her
supervisor, Denise Fedewa, EVP, Planning
Director, had to say “I didn’t know Denise
was working on it. It was really gratifying to
see – particularly coming from her. She has
high standards for herself, so it meant a lot.”
As far as
standards go, they can’t be much higher than the
levels she sets for herself; and she finds
strength from her family back in India.
While they would much rather have Gopalan at
home, they take great pride and comfort in what
she has been able to accomplish.
“They’re happy
that I’m happy,” said Gopalan. “Their issues
are more with the fact that I moved away and
that I’m not with them. It’s my dad’s fault,
really. My dad saw that I was stagnating (back
in India). He pushed me to move on.
That doesn’t stop
them from missing her, of course. “They want
you to move forward, but they forget that you
move further away at the same time. He’s kicking
himself now,” she added.
When Gopalan got
her promotion, one of her first thoughts went to
her dad. Her supervisor could sense it as
well. “Denise knows how close I am to my dad,”
said Gopalan appreciatively as she recalled how
her supervisor who made sure that she got an
extra copy of her VP nomination. “She gave me
the envelope and said, ‘Send this to your dad.’”
With Gopalan’s new
title comes an entirely new set of
responsibilities.
“With so many
things changing at the same time, it’s difficult
to say (what’s coming up next),” she explained.
“I’m a VP/Senior Planner now. Up until now,
people have said that it’s 80 percent content
and 20 percent style. But at this point, that
starts to switch – the skill set starts
flipping. If people don’t recognize that, they
run into trouble.”
Pushpa Gopalan
recognizes the changes that lay ahead, and she’s
more than ready.
