Business Mint- INDIA’S LEADING & MOST CREDIBLE MARKET RESEARCH ORGANIZATION annually conducts “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards”. The purpose behind the award is to acknowledge the outstanding contribution of a marketeer towards the brand or initiatives dedicated to improve patient outcome.

Under the banner of the awards, we got an opportunity to interact with Mr. Archis Joshi. Mr. Joshi with his lavish experience of 24 years and sharp acumen in the field of marketing, is catapulting the growth of Cardiology & Diabetology portfolio of Dr Reddy's Laboratories as a Commercial Head. A stalwart leader who is a torchbearer for a business front with more than 430 Cr, has given us an opportunity to interact with him. During a dialogue, Mr. Joshi, with his simplicity, has addressed our questions with his didactic words and gave pearls of success for aspiring leaders. For the benefit of all who want to be an acclaimed leader, we published the essence of the conversation here.

Q: 1 Leaders are born, not made…How would you respond to this famous quote?

Let me combine the medical science especially the therapy of evolution with the marketing fundamentals. As per evolution theory.. the mutations , which are the sudden and abrupt changes that happen in DNA are responsible for evolution... I would like to apply the same in the theory of Leadership evolution.  The leader who adopts, accepts and absorbs the necessary mutations becomes a more successful and sustainable leader. In fact, right from our national leader, we are able to see how simple, grounded people through learnings from their surroundings become a successful leader.

Q: 2 Many times I wonder, a person laden with lots of responsibilities like you, how do they plan their day? Can you shed some light on how you plan your day?

Yes! Planning is the most important part of the working day. I follow and also insist my team of senior leaders to follow a concept of ‘Planning Hour’ , which is practically not an hour but a dedicated time slot from 8:30 to 9:00 am. During this planning hour, no meeting invites or calls are to be accepted. The idea is, before you open your laptop or start a business call, the planning needs to be in place. Having a dedicated slot and prioritization based on its importance and urgency is helping me to plan better!

Q: 3 Being a marketer and a leader, you might be the best person to tell us about, what are the virtues/ qualities, which transform a person from a mere marketer to a leader?

A marketer starts his journey to leadership when he builds a result orientation attitude as a virtue. Once he or she becomes a result driven personality, then he or she starts to understand leadership, implementability and simplicity of the campaigns. This needs to be coupled with belief and strong acumen for data and documentation

Q: 4 “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”- when we have an excellent leader like you with us, we are keen to know what are those habits a leader should imbibe?

One thing we need to exercise is developing an “allergy” to mediocrity. Even if the answer to a question is simple yes or no, it has to be completely detail-oriented and dedicated. Not addressing issues with 100% attention is the main problem with excellence and leaders need to practice this in their daily professional life.

Q: 5 Many times in our professional life we face a dilemma between financial growth & intellectual growth, what do you suggest from your experience, the best way forward in such situations?

Intellectual decisions always come with long term implications. Financial decision, at times can be short term, but it is important too. It’s important to decide the long-term sustainable implications of each and every decision. There is no thumb rule for the decisions, but it depends on the subjective wisdom of the issue and moment at the hand.

Q: 6 For the young cadre of marketers who inspires to become successful leaders in their careers, what are the ‘Success Mantras’ you wish to convey to them?

There is no short cut to success.  All the young marketers must imbibe decision capability, simplicity of strategies and genuine connection with their people.

Q: 7 In this era of information technology & digitalization, how do you see the digital technologies in healthcare will help improve patient outcomes?

In the coming years, digital knowledge will be treated as basic literacy. Unless your thoughts are digitally simplified for the audience, it’s not going to work. So the message is simple.. adopt every advanced technology as soon as possible and keep on investing in digital skills.