Let's not be citizens of a world ruled by Archives and One Shows and Cannes.

The visiting card that Prathap Suthan proffers still introduces him as 'associate vice-president, Grey Worldwide (India)'. But that's only because of a technicality - his new designation of national creative director of Grey India comes into effect only from January 1, 2004. That, and the fact that his new cards are still to come in from the printers. Suthan, who admits to being a bit of a stranger even to colleagues outside Grey Delhi, joined the agency's Kolkata office back in 1996, after a longish and enriching stint at Mudra Communications and a disastrous one with a Gulf-based ad network - where his "naivety and sheer incompetence to anticipate viciousness" saw him lose much of his hard-earned money. Transferred to Grey Delhi in end-1996 to "get Delhi creative back on its feet", Suthan, in partnership with Ashutosh Khanna (senior vice-president), has transformed the Delhi operation into Grey's most successful office in India. It follows that with his recent promotion, the brief is to expand and replicate the 'Delhi model' across India. In this interview with N Shatrujeet ofagencyfaqs!, Suthan dwells on the challenge ahead…

Edited Excerpts

There's no written mandate, and no sword dangling over my head. That's the best thing about Grey, Grey India in particular. As an agency, we are driven by fierce enterprise, and the freedom to grow. I too am a believer in encouraging and fostering the free spirit. That's how I have grown, that's how Grey has grown, and that's the way we will grow. Just as always, the focus will be to exceed and excel.

However, if I have to spell out my responsibilities, the most important will be to continue improving our work, and invent and discover new ways of improving our craft. The next will be to make my offices even happier places. Because happy people create vibrant work. No office with unhappy people ever created wonderful work. The third key area of responsibility will be to ensure that while we make our brands dazzle, we also get metal to glitter.

Let's be very clear. I am no wizard with magic potions and secrets to doing good work. I am just a pilgrim of hard work and positive thinking. Creativity is in finding new ways, newer expressions and fresh ideas. My mandate is to find as many of those as possible.

Basically, it begins with one mission. I have always lived an insulated life and I don't know too many people in Grey offices outside of Delhi, and most of the clients beyond Delhi. So it's imperative that I get to meet them, and talk to them. And even more important is that they get to know me. I want to spend time with them, so that they know my perspectives. I want them to trust me. Without trust nothing happens because we are in the business of minds. It takes two slices of bread to make a decent sandwich. And trust is the cheese spread. Only when that important aspect is built, will I have room to influence thinking. To most of my clients and even people in my offices, I am almost a stranger. And strangers need a bit of time to be accepted. It takes even more to become family.

I have to build new bridges and strengthen existing ones. If I am going to inspire, I had bloody well better radiate that passion. While I haven't met too many of the junior creative teams, I have heard only good things about their talent. Yes, leadership has been vaunt in just one creative department (Mumbai), but that again, maybe, is a matter of finding a leader from within, and empowering him or her with the freedom to lead. My school of thinking is that most people have their strengths, and today it's up to me to encourage and enhance those strengths and those individuals. Other than that, there aren't too many pressing challenges.

From a craft point of view, nobody's talent is ever enough. We are all greedy to get better and there is always room beyond the benchmark. So, we will, as a team, push that. We have some fantastic people working for us at the senior level, and all of them are as committed to this eternal greed as I am.

Let me answer the question from a commonsensical point of view. There was a time that Trikaya Grey was the epitome of India's finest advertising, in terms of looks, ideas, art, execution etc. However, while the awards continued to flood, many clients started to look elsewhere for their awards - performance in the market and all that. And when that trend started happening, we had to turn around and refocus on to the soul of what advertising is all about: to sell with responsibility and to win new clients with relevance.

And Nirvik (Singh) did that with a vengeance. How does one win awards when there are no clients?

Then again, for the financial turnaround phase to continue, it had to be sustained. No point having a windfall year, and delivering a Swiss cheese balance sheet the next year. Thus returned Trikaya Grey, back as a force in advertising.

Sure enough, it was a grind that made us invest less in talent that delivered aesthetics. But then, that is over. Today we are richer intellectually and aesthetically. We are upping the quality standards. We have people who have grown with us, and grown better with time. We have also hired new people, and we are hiring more calibre. More than that, we are also investing in people with specific skill sets. The days ahead are the days for younger, bolder and braver people.

Thank heavens it's not the same. We wouldn't have survived. Have you forgotten all the rumours about how we were shutting shop? We gave it whatever we had to build the agency back to existence, and I say this with a lot of pride.

Sure enough, we miss those heady days of being at the top. And it's aching me that we didn't stay there. Not just for me, but for everyone who has the old genes. For us at Grey now, that's the past. And you can only learn from the past, and be inspired by the future. And believe me when I say this, anything can be achieved. All it takes is gumption and guts. It takes a bunch of guys to focus hard and even oceans will part. The best thing is that the sprints are already on. So there is no question in my mind that we cannot revive the glory days. We are on that track already. Ask the ones who got left behind. It isn't a question of what it will take anymore. It's a question of how soon, and how quick.

Take a look at the recent work for Samsung Washing Machines, Hyundai Accent, Terracan, IndiaShining, Eva, Anne French, Parle...

Yes and no. Yes, because there is really no other way.

No, because creative isn't just the territory of creative people. Neither does it have to win awards. Creative is only one part of communication. There are servicing and media and planning people who are as crucial to communication as creative is. Sometimes, a solution could come from media, or from someone in servicing. Creativity isn't only found in creative departments. To write a good brief, you have to be creative. To think up a media innovation, you have to be creative. To plan out a strategy, you have to be creative. To even make a compelling presentation, you are damned if you aren't creative. Look at how we have grown, and I don't think we grew by being non-creative or being uncreative.

Is the work touching people? Is it being talked about, being quoted? Is it creating a trend? Is it breakthrough work? Is it redefining the limits of the medium? Is it making us proud? Is it inspiring people?

Is the work strengthening a brand? Is it creating a category? Is it giving the client a good night's sleep? Are his or her sales targets getting over-achieved? Is it going to give him a promotion? Is it making new clients pick up the phone on us? And is it work that changed someone's life?

Let's understand one thing. Advertising doesn't end with winning awards. That's just one yardstick. You want my yardstick of true award-winning work? Have a festival, where the judges are housewives, children, and the ordinary people who live in the world. Let them decide what moved them. Let's not be citizens of a world ruled by Archives and One Shows and Cannes. That's too artificial for me.

What is scam advertising? Why are we fighting over semantics in a world we have created ourselves?

My role is not to encourage false work, but to foster real work of substance that belongs to a brand. My role is to bring out the best from my fine people. Be with them, to share their dreams and urge them to excel.

I will also fight for my people, if I am convinced about their work, and if it answers the brief. I will help them seek ideas. Maybe pull them out of their minds. When you have a combination of minds that breathe and live on conviction and trust, the product will lift itself. If it doesn't, it had better.

Well, let me put it this way. The office hasn't come down because of their departures. So that's a good sign in itself.

While we are now taking a look at some books and reels of some senior people, the other side of the story is that Iqbal Arab now has the opportunity to kick some ass. And I know he will. So will Preeti, Anisha and Vipin. Bangalore is rising faster, with Sanjay (Menon) leading the team along with Sangeeta. And Delhi continues to rock with Viral (Pandya), Shalini (Dam), Murugan (RS) and Anirban (Sen). Personally, the creative of Grey has never looked more equally distributed, nor has it ever been brighter.

I also think that today's younger people look at senior vacancies not as losses, but more as opportunities to get at the larger chunks of businesses. And some of them are already on that path in Mumbai. Overall, thanks to our much-noticed financial turnaround, the spin-off has been that we have the necessary monies to look at hiring more talent. So has our standing slipped? Or have departures made it climb?

think all advertising networks are passionate about their creative product. More so Grey, and from an Asia-Pacific point of view. I am part of the region that is doing some terrific creative work, coupled with equally terrific strategy. And even some new top-level hirings in our region are indicative of that.

As a culture, Grey isn't quite well known for creative around the world, but then, if you look at the brands that we handle and have handled across ages, it also goes to prove that winning awards isn't the only yardstick to measure the success of an agency and its work.

It is very, very important that the network supports and applauds great creative, especially when differences within products are narrowing, and not many radical product breakthroughs are happening. There is a fair amount of push and support that already exists within the regional network. While there are almost day-to-day inputs and thoughts that come from the network, the big ones in pushing the quality levels are the following.

There is a selection of the best TV work that comes out of the regions every quarter, which is driven by Eric Rosenkranz, who heads (Grey Global) Asia-Pacific. There are annual Creative Director Conferences that happen, consistent Annual Reviews and get-togethers at Regional Festivals, and Rising Star meets (regional workshops that bring together our best talent - servicing, media and creative). There are frequent visits by Jeff (Orr, regional creative director), who makes it a point to look through and spend a lot of time on the creative that we do out of India. Then, there are the HRD initiatives that come from Grey driven by Martha (Collard). With all of these already on, we can only see Grey investing more time and effort in encouraging us in India. However, what I feel is that we need to see some more specific workshops on specific fronts like films etc.

The one direction is forward. But in that one direction, there are many ways that we need to travel.

I want us to do new things. Brave things. Because now is the time to escape the tested routes. I want us to try and explore new dimensions, new thoughts and new ideas. In media and in new mediums. I want us to approach print in ways that we haven't yet tried. I want us to try new sounds and new silences. I want to us to experiment with film. I want us to redefine colour. I want us to make our own music. And dance.

I want us to laugh and fight and yell. I want pride, and happiness and thrill. I want many of us to walk up many podiums. And I want us to be among the top two Indian agencies. The sooner the better.