Sumant Bhattacharya, VP, Lowe & IIM I MBA: Reverse Ageing – India’s Benjamin Button Moment

Sumant Bhattacharya, an MBA (EPGP Class of 2012) from IIM Indore and Vice President of Strategic Planning at Lowe, Lintas and Partners says young Indians are not just defining the cultural codes of their generation, but redefining the cultural identity of the entire nation.  

In his seminal book The Culture Code, Clotaire Rapaille says that if you try and crystallise American culture into a singular, defining mindset; if you try and personify American culture into an entity – it will be an “adolescent”.

The sum total of American cultural values mirrors the mindset of an adolescent. Through this metaphor, he encapsulates, brilliantly, America’s obsession with physical fitness, raw sex and junk food; its love for cars and loud music and its hatred for hierarchy, limits and moderation. That’s why, he says, America does not value the idea of holding back or thinking too much but puts a premium on execution and achievement.

India, by that line of argument, is a mature, older culture. We have always put a premium on restraint, contemplation and boundaries. We have celebrated detachment and compliance. We aren’t restless or perpetually agitated.

But that’s shifting. India’s cultural palette is under a massive transformation.

Indians have always put a premium on restraint, contemplation and boundaries. We have celebrated detachment and compliance. We aren’t restless or perpetually agitated. But that’s changing. 

The start-up culture is a short-hand for our newfound love for execution and doing. It also cues individualistic ambitions.

Friendship has emerged as the singular template for relationships where everyone is equal. Every son & father, daughter & mother, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law in today’s modern, upbeat India is professing to be a friend.

Set career paths and political ideologies are not as sacred as they were once upon a time. The idea of anchors is not fashionable any more when everyone wants to hang loose and be in an in-between state of lifestyle ideology. Exploration and experimentation – be it travel or food, are the biggest pulls today.

The start-up culture is a short-hand for our new-found love for execution and doing. It also cues individualistic ambitions.

Our fundamental cultural template, thus, is moving. From being a wise old man, we are becoming an adolescent again. We are reverse ageing.

And I think it has to do with the demographic tilt we have today. Although Rapaille’s study does not attribute a country’s cultural make-up to a dominant age cohort within that country – it is far, far, far more fundamental than that – I think in India’s case, it does have a part to play.

After all, nothing less than a huge force can shift something as fundamental as cultural thinking, and in our case, it’s probably attributable to the predominantly young population we have. They are huge in number; they have picked up and assimilated a value system from an open, borderless world; they have seen what works – and now, they are imposing their world-view.

How we manoeuvre this reverse ageing is something we all will find out. Let’s just keep our skates ready.

Sumant Bhattacharya is an erstwhile Advertising Creative Director who shifted to a Strategic Planning role after pursuing a One Year MBA at IIM Indore. He currently works as Vice President at Lowe, Lintas and Partners. He has guided and executed differentiated brand building initiatives for top-notch names in telecom, automobile, FMCG, consumer appliances, among others. He is a recipient of an Effie Gold in 2014 in the Experiential Marketing category and a Finalist award at AMES (Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy) in 2014. (Image courtesy youthkiawaaz)