MindShare India, China teams forge working alliances

"The objective is to get the two markets working closely on an operational basis," explained Ashutosh Srivistava, CEO of Group M, South Asia. "The challenges in the markets are pretty similar." Although there are sizeable differences in the maturity and structure of media in India and China, MindShare executives feel that each country has a lot to teach the other in terms of structure, services and client management. A team from MindShare China visited India last month with a reciprocal visit planned for October. MindShare China's CEO, Bessie Lee, said the visits marked the beginning of a more formal exchange of ideas. "We're not sure how regular this be, but every couple of years it will be worth exchanging learnings from both markets," she said. The two offices are also initiating a staff exchange programme. Sanjoy Chakra- bargy, who ran group buying for MindShare India, has been selected for a six-month secondment in China, although no decision has been reached on his Chinese counterpart. Lee said the trip to India had prompted her to speed up existing initiatives, such as partnering Fudon University to co-develop a consumer insights programme after seeing the success of a similar arrangement by MindShare in Bangalore, as well as introduce new ones, such as diversifying into new services. MindShare's non-core operations in India, such as specialist retail offer D'Mart, have been particularly successful, Lee noted, bringing in 15 per cent of revenues. By contrast, planning and buying accounts for about 95 per cent of China turnover. "In terms of entrepreneurial spirit, how they run their business, there's something that all markets can learn from, not just China," she said. Srivistava said he hoped to learn how China unifies its buying power for clients and handles its portfolio of local and international clients.