Zee Telefilms senior vice president, network marketing, Sita Laxmi Narayan Swamy, in a candid conversation with Indian Television.com's Nidhi Jain.

Top Leadership Mantras

Be good at your work and committed. Integrity and a never say die attitude is a must as well. Being caught up in the circle of whether I am a man or a woman, we tend to spread prejudices that don't exist, and start creating barriers which are not there. I would say to any woman as I did at LSE, that as a woman you have to first learn to dream and then believe in those dreams. Once you do that, it is very easy to overcome obstacles. These glass ceilings do exist the world over. 11 percent of the Fortune 500 companies constitute women entrepreneurs who are millionaires today.

Do Looks Count

Personally I believe that one should not go by precedence. A woman has to learn to be her own example. I may be petite. There is no mistaking the fact that I enjoy being feminine, enjoy my looks and what I wear. The truth of the matter is that the world and especially in the corporate domain, they look at you first and later check what you do. But that would only happen the first time round. Once you earn their respect, it really doesn't matter. There is still a chance for biases. I can't pretend that it doesn't exist. The idea should be for every capable woman to say that "I am a shining light" and not use gender as an excuse but rather as a motto to reshape.

A Method to the Madness

Firstly, I believe that there should be a method to the madness. Some amount of chaos is good because we live in a very dynamic world. A decade ago things were different.

Today change is a constant. It may be a clich? but we have to reinvent ourselves as individuals, organizations and brands. That is the only way to make sure consumer loyalty is maintained.

Take a look at the biggest brands we have today - whether it's the technology brands like Google, Myspace or Vertu; not only are they generating revenue but they also make sure that consumers keep coming back for more. Brands which have unwiring attachments and engagement with consumers are dynamic brands. The consumer is living in a dynamic world and the market is dynamic as well. As a result we need to have dynamic organizations which are a challenge. It maybe chaotic, but if we set a basic system in place firmly and have a brand parameter, not just as an old fashioned word but as a live example, it is possible. Words can be reinvented with passing time. Essential cores though do not change; brands with value and virtue can redefine product performance .So every madness has a method. It may sound erratic but if madness and chaos don't exist, there is a big danger that my world will become stagnant. Also, the feeling that you are in the thick of all the action gives me a huge high.

Inspiration to succeed

A question with a kick? I will not lie, since I am a blunt person, that I was very fortunate to have a woman as my first boss. She is no longer in advertising though. She made sure that I started out as a very strong personality. I think that a woman boss who is good at her work has a very fine mind and has no gender compunctions. Again, there is no such thing as nice or bad boss. That I think is a standard amateur definition. I think there are bosses that you can learn from and bosses that don't teach you anything. I am willing to deal with them no matter what. But I would rather deal with people who are themselves rather than people who pretend.

I have no problems with people who are difficult, though as long as they are who they are and earn respect through their work and can bring something to the organization. My boss was very good at her job, she influenced the part of a leader in me. She was my mentor in that respect.

All my men bosses that I worked with respected women when it came to work. They expected the world of me, they gave me the world of trust. Both men and women I worked with have shaped me.

The other parts of my life like painting fortunately, have not had to take a backseat either. I never had a compartmentalised life. The fortunate part is when you work in advertising /media/entertainment field you are surrounded by creative people. So far it's been very encouraging.

A Way of Life

Work has always been a huge part of my life. I am aware of the fact that I go to work every morning and it consumes a lot of my life. But it also ensures we develop bonds beyond work. In terms of work I believe to get the basic hygiene out, system functioning (laughs?). We need to focus on time for adding value. I am not a happy shiny person in a sense that I can't crack jokes in 10 minutes. Though I always have a song in my heart, wake up listening to songs and take time out to listen to my inner voice. I believe that this lifetime is a gift and failures and depression will be constantly encountered here. To me it's always about having another chance. If you believe that every failure or shortcoming has a gift for you in hand, you won't look back. Courage can be given to people when you don't forget the bad times. According to my dad, who was an army man, one must take defeat as a badge of honor because it will give you courage to go forward.

Likewise when I paint there is no depression.

The Changing rules of work

With the changing rules of work, perhaps it's very scary thing for work and organizations themselves. We are moving from the age of information to the age of ideas. Today, at the age of information and outsourcing, if we have great ideas we don't need 100 people, just a couple of people who believe in that idea. Its not the era of talking, it's the era of doing. It's important to believe in your dreams. Talent management becomes important. Rules are changing quickly, there are no fixed ones. It's the age of instinct, bravery and courage.

Ensuring the team delivers

You need to have a set of bright individuals to begin with. I grew up the ranks to become a leader. It is to be remembered that a team is not a wall with whitewash. Allow people to play to their strengths. Don't expect everything to be the same. This should be recognized to get incremental growth and happy individuals. Do encourage studies and get scholarships. Challenges will keep them constantly excited to outperform themselves.

Lessons Learnt

Now I have worked for 20 years, there have been lots of lessons learnt along the way. But the most important one - Being a woman, I can say gender doesn't really matter in the long run.

Business is fun

Every day is full of surprises. There is no script we are playing to, there are no rehearsals. Today, media is constantly changing, you can't over intellectualize, meet success and failure in the eye, don't brush it away.

A product of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management and the London School of Economics, Sita Laxmi Narayan Swamy, Senior vice president, network marketing, Zee Telefilms Ltd always lived life on her own terms. A multifaceted personality with keen interests in a variety of domains like art, painting, reading and writing, this lady is a pleasure to talk to. Her enthusiasm, zest for life and never-say-die attitude is contagious.

My tryst with books
Her tryst with books began when, tired of moving from one town to another due to her father's transferable army job, she went and complained to him that just when she was beginning to settle down in one place and make new friends... it was time to move and pick up the pieces of her life all over again. As a six-year-old, she went and cried to him, "This is not fair papa. Every two years we have to move and I spend so much time making friends, only to leave them behind. That's when her father picked up a book, handed it to her and said, "From today, this is going to be your best friend."

"I think I took him rather literally (thankfully)," she says.

And the rest as they say is history. Books have become an integral part of Zee Telefilms senior vice president network marketing Sita Laxmi Narayan Swami's life and she boasts of a mammoth collection... a passion which has been lovingly nurtured over the years.

As a child, when she was grounded by her parents for any mischief, they realised that barring her from meals or playing with friends didn't mean a thing to Sita. However, it didn't take them long to find her Achilles' heel --- "No books for you," her mother then began saying! And that worked!!!

"I really feel that books are a great way to travel to places that you've never been to. They are a great way to listen to points of views of people you may never meet. Books also help a person who wants to keep learning - not just management fundas - but about human nature and life. They really elevate and liberate you and actually make you evolve. For me, life would be a lot less enriching without books," she says with obvious passion.

Being in the media a common complaint heard is - "I don't get the time to read!" But for Sita that doesn't hold true... more so because she makes the time to read! "I don't have to push myself to do it. I want to find the time to read. So I can easily trade a Saturday night outing for a book," she says.

My favourite books

There are three books that have shaped her into the person she is today. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry. "It's about a little Prince who comes to Earth from a different planet. It's a story about him recounting his space-travelling experiences to a pilot he meets in the Sahara. It is also slightly metaphysical and spiritual as well in the sense that while he is talking about very real experiences, you keep reflecting and feeling that what was being said was so true about human beings as well," says Sita.

One line from the book that Sita has kept in her heart and lived by is - "'You can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye". "It's very beautiful and profound but it's true. What is obvious is sometimes not as important as you think and one needs to take out time and the energy to look beyond the obvious even at a day-to-day level," says Sita.

The other book I really like is Mister God, This Is Anna written by Fynn. "It's a beautiful book about this little girl from the street who has miraculously entered this big household. It revolves around her thoughts and philosophies and how it changes their lives."

The third one, a best seller that almost everyone has read, is The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo. "Having said that, I have also read a lot of Paulo Cohelo's lesser known books like Veronica Decides To Die and By The River Piedra, I Sat Down And Cried," she says.

"When growing up, you tend to read books like The Fountainhead and it does leave an impact on you," she adds.
 

Fancy books on Physics too

"I also tend to read a lot of books on Physics and science because I like to read a lot about time and space," she says. Books by Stephen Hawkins like A Brief History of Time and also some on philosophy like The Gift of Now by Susan Squellati Florence have also caught her fancy.

"I've also enjoyed reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche," she says.

Love for Literature and poetry

She also harbours a special love for literature and dotes on books by W Somerset Maugham, DH Lawrence and shorts stories by O Henry.

"Now this may come as a surprise and a lot of people don't know this but I also read a lot of poetry. My favourite poet is TS Elliot. Of course, in India authors like Vikram Seth, Amrita Pritam and Gluzar," says Sita.

"I could go on and on for more than three hours on this and I'm sure by the end of it I'll end up recommending some books to you!" she laughs.
 

Management books

"I don't like the term management books because it makes them sound boring but of the books I really liked are Life After The 30 Second Spot by Joseph Jaffe. I love Tom Peters especially his latest book Re-imagine! and I loved Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner," she says.

Another book Sita enjoyed reading was Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands by Kevin Roberts and Business is Unusual by Anita Roddick, where the author talks about why she started Body Shop. "These books also go into corporate social responsibility. Of course you are creating products for the consumer and hoping to reap revenues out of it, but it delves into how you need to give back to the world, what you have got from it."

Her interest in books is surely a varied one. "In fact, when I go to a bookshop, the book calls out to me. I'm not much for reading reviews before buying the book. So most often I've read a book long before it has been declared a bestseller," she says.

Weekly itch to buy books
Sita frequently visits book stores since she feels the urge to buy books almost every week. "Every room in my house is filled with books. There isn't a nook or corner left in my house where books are not there since I possess many thousands of them," she says.

So if you want to catch Sita over the weekend, hit the bookstores and not some fancy club!

By Hetal Adesara