A Dream Called 21N78E

Sometimes a lockdown is what is needed to unlock memories, go back in time and evaluate. I was reading up on how agencies across are dealing with the current COVID-19 scenario and the impending slowdown. As I look back at 21N78E I feel quite happy with what we have achieved over the last 5 years.

Starting a presentation with a good conversation is never an issue when you have a unique name like 21N78E. And every time I tell the story, there is a sense of achievement. But there is so much more to 21N78E than its name. Business and scale wise we might be a tiny dot on the horizon, but we have the stomach for a fight which sets us apart. We have a team with lot of character and firepower. We take a lot of pride in lost pitches too because more often than not, we have been told that we were better, but a big network can get global learnings. And in few instances the lost pitches have come to us within few months.

A sense of pride has set in after 2 months of COVID-19 and nearly flat business and there are many reasons for it. It has a lot to do with the way 21N78E was conceived. The fiscal prudence, the people centric policies and processes has the been the biggest contributors. Its an outcome of years of experience, success and most importantly learnings from past failures of all the founders.

My first attempt at being an entrepreneur started with a business idea powered by the dotcom boom in the late 1990’s with my engineering Chhichore gang. We formed a company and used to meet every week and expected the idea to take off. And that is where it ended. Years later a similar idea was launched by someone else and most of us use their services. With it came the first level of learnings

When you have a germ of an idea, don’t waste time in waiting for the Utopian moment
When problems are common, many people will be looking for a similar solution
Part-time involvement is as good as no involvement

Then the first dotcom meltdown buried my ideas and I picked up an advertising job. In 2001, when I was asked to lead digital @ Grey, Nirvik Singh (now the global COO of Grey Group) reacted to a break-even business plan and said that he understands only profit-making ones. Luckily, I was adopted by the then Grey CFO, Late Vinod Prabhakar and there started by journey of being a paid quasi-entrepreneur. I owe a lot to what I am today to Vinod. Around 2008 is when I felt like giving a serious shot at becoming an entrepreneur. But as work got hectic, on the back of some fabulous wins, dreams had to be parked once again. Fear of the unknown was also a key factor. Meanwhile some of my industry friends took the initiative and created agencies that set benchmarks. In 2015, I realized I had hit a glass ceiling. The choice was to become an entrepreneur once again or pick up another job. 15 years at Grey and my eventual decision gave me invaluable lessons.

You have to move on your plans when the time is right
People will give their best if you do the best for them
Fiscal stability is an absolute must for survival

I had been making my plans with Navin Karkera, my partner at 21N78E, once I decided to move on. He has been running a successful Agro/Rural market centric agency for nearly 25 years. From people policies to nurturing ambitions to having business plans that is equally adaptive to the philosophy of an agency; we discussed everything. There were many softer aspects that we considered and implemented from the day of our launch. Our past failures, my inertia on moving on ideas & the reasons behind those, policies that we were unfair, avoidable boardroom politics and many more. I think that’s where we as an agency have taken a giant leap.

25 percent of the agency is earmarked for employees
An incubation process that will ensure no idea dies a silent death
Systems, policies and processes for the long run

But all of it would still be incomplete if we didn’t have a business model which is uniquely ours. One big differentiator is a unit called “The Hub” for everyone to experiment with ideas & products. We failed with a few, but our experience helped us tide over it. As we speak there are few more in the works. One that is helping the entire agency have its own collaborative online workplace. It is now being readied for a formal product launch. Few more modules that will be standalone and can also be part of an overall suite are in the making. Some research, some whitepapers, some thought starters, some bit of a lot more; in sync with where the consumers are leaving brands no choice but to tail them. Few years back few industry colleagues were of the opinion that we are trying to do too many things and its risky. But we were sure about our decision to have a play in everything within the arc. However, the tried and tested workable models seems to be struggling. As we inch closer to 5 years of our existence, there are a quite a few learnings for us.

Being adaptive eliminates the problems that comes with forced adoption
Risks exists if you think it is risky
Success, failures, and ownership is a collective outcome

21N78E is a dream in an iterative mode with very clear objectives. We are staying the course, whatever may be the outcome. It is something that all of us believe in. We are doing our best to ensure that ambitions are nurtured, varied viewpoints are encouraged and figure smarter ways to handle the mundane. We are putting all our learnings into practice and stay relevant. Hopefully, that will help us deliver on three things that we set out to achieve and will remain a dream in perpetuity.