deepa shah

Our guest on this episode is Deepa Shah, founder of Lab Eight and a senior leader with extensive experience working for high growth global businesses within technology, healthcare comms, market research/insights, and creative services. Deepa joins us on The Day One podcast to share what things in the industry she’d like to see banished to Room 101 forever. The main pet peeves Deepa describes are: a lack of representation and the term “BAME”, the term “back office” to describe everyone who is not working in the front of the house, and the term “growth strategy”. Deepa provides meaningful criticism during our conversation, and we hope you enjoy it.

Key Quotes:

• “I wasn’t really learning anything new or feeling challenged enough, and I’m quite ambitious. I think that’s what I’m most proud of when I look back is being able to take that risk and taking the leap. I feel if I didn’t do it, I’d be regretting it.” (6:30)
• “And talking to people in your existing network, as well. Say, ‘Hey, you know, here’s what I’m doing now’ because they also have connections and networks, as well, who they might talk to and say, ‘Deepa’s doing so and so.’” (8:31)
• “Anyone who is not white is an underrepresented group in the industry, and what we should be focusing on is not ‘Oh, they’re black. They’re Asian.’ It’s about why is this such a problem. How are we tackling it? What are we doing different?” (15:42)
• “It’s still being run by white men who have been in the industry for many, many years. And until they start retiring and leaving, it’s going to take time to change, but the issue we’ve got is there’s no real succession for change.” (18:42)
• “It doesn’t make us feel valued. We’re really not that important because we’re not out there getting client work or client revenue or anything: ‘Oh, I’m just the cost of the business.’ Actually, you need to spin it on its head. Without finance, like finance operations, their business would not be running very well.” (24:00)
• “You’re just planning for the next phase of growth in your business and what does that look like, right? Obviously, there will be some aspects that do end up shrinking, but as a business and as a business owner and as a founder and as a CEO, why would you not be growing your business or planning to grow it?” (30:27)
• “Can we throw covid into Room 101?” (33:00)
• “Because people will not put us in boxes – people like me. We won’t be put in this box. You know that’s the ones who decided to call us this term. And people would just see us as normal human beings who need some support in getting into the industry and staying in the industry and actually treat us like everyone else is being treated. The opportunities around getting promoted, getting to the top, career progression should be the same for every single person irrespective of what they look like and who they are.” (35:00)

Key Topics: 

• Deepa reflects on her accomplishments and what she would have thought of her success if someone shared her career successes with her younger self (3:09)
• It worked in her favor that she never pursued investment banking (4:22)
• Most proud of her risk taking in January, 2020 when she left holding co (5:09)
• Advice for people who are too nervous to take the risk is to do planning, talking to people, doing research (7:09)
• Deepa advises to take the risk on trying something new (11:59)
• Shares the meta approach to funny stories (12:57)
• Her first pick for Room 101 is the lack of representation term BAME “Black, Asian, Minority, or Ethnic” (14:07)
• Further expands on underrepresented groups (15:36)
• Reflects on why this issue is so severe in the insights industry (18:30)
• Deepa speaks to the trend of women leaving as a result of covid, as well as leaving to start their own thing (20:32)
• Doesn’t think things will change in the industry in her lifetime (21:55)
• Deepa’s second choice for Room 101 is the term “back office” (23:04)
• She describes how it makes her and her team feel when people use the term “back office” (24:00)
• Expands on the value of the finance team to a business (25:03)
• Talks about finance teams keeping things going (26:20)
• Deepa’s third pick for Room 101 is the term “growth strategy” (27:58)
• She discusses the ulterior motive behind using “growth strategy” (29:39)
• Speaks to how the “growth strategy” is being labeled (30:22)
• Adds a few other ideas for Room 101 (32:53)
• Deepa decides to throw BAME into Room 101 (34:51)
• She describes how life will be better without the term (35:00)

About – Deepa Shah:

Deepa Shah is a senior leader with extensive experience working for high growth global businesses within technology, healthcare comms, market research/insights, and creative services. Spending much of her career working as a CFO in agencies in the major holding groups, including Omnicom Group Inc., and Publicis Groupe, Deepa now works as a CFO consultant for ambitious independent agencies from start-ups to £10M+ turnover.

Relevant Links:

• Deepa Shah - LinkedIn.
• Lab Eight - https://www.lab-eight.com/
• Day One - https://www.dayonestrategy.com/
• Hannah Mann - LinkedIn

The Day One podcast is published by the Day One Strategy and produced by Zorbiant.

All rights reserved.