Maybe it was the 40-year itch. Director of advertising agency Euro RSCG, Sanjeev Roy, 43, fell out of love with his job…and quit. And no, Bullzi, the placement company Roy now heads, wasn’t planned when he took the decision. In fact, it was the idea of starting home delivery of authentic Bengali cuisine that had caught the imagination of this gourmet. But when a restaurateur friend detailed the nitty-gritty of running a food venture, Roy backed out.
Fate forced its way when a friend asked him to find 400 trainers for a sales company. Roy engaged himself in the search but couldn’t recruit a single trainer. This failure set him thinking. Though the market had a number of topflight agencies, both domestic and international, dealing in human resource issues, there was still a gap between demand and supply. And he could step into this gap.
Most importantly, he realised that 20 years in advertising had given him just the right contacts and skill-set for the job. That was it. The thrill that had vanished during his last job resurfaced and Bullzi was born in 2005. He met human resource experts and read a lot on the subject. “It was like going back to school as I made it a point to finish each and every book I was advised to read,” he says. Having headed an office, Roy knew the requirements of every post in the advertising world.
As a first step, Roy contacted his friends in advertising on their employee requirements. He immediately got two. “It was so easy. I was quite gung-ho over the business,” he laughs. But the next six months drew a blank. All that could go wrong in the business did. “People did not join at the last moment, companies realised they had overestimated their staff requirement...a lot of mess was created,” he reminiscences. But he did not despair as the freedom to be the master of his time was exhilarating.Sanjeev Roy, 47 |
Post-graduate in Economics |
| First career: Advertising |
| Job profile: Responsible for business at Euro RSCG’s Delhi office |
| Salary: Rs 30 lakh a year |
| Second career: Placement services |
| Job profile: Senior management placements |
| Earning: Quite comfortable |
| Age at career switch: 43 years |
| Reason for job switch: Boredom at work |
| Transferable skills: Leadership, man management |
| Career outlook: "Look for job satisfaction" |
After succeeding in the advertising world, he expanded his placement ambit to include sectors such as retail, media and business process outsourcing.
Looking back, Roy has no regrets of quitting when he did. “You are either doing what you love or you are not, there is no inbetween. And I was not exactly loving my job. At the end of it all you should be happy with what you are doing,” he says emphatically. Not that it was an easy decision. Roy was switching careers at an age when friends and colleagues were busy consolidating theirs. However, he had his wife, Sangeeta, as his source of strength.
Eight years as director of multinational advertising agency meant that he was accustomed to a comfortable life. Earlier, it seemed that his savings and investments would tide him through three years; but when his first business idea flopped, Roy had to take some hard decisions. He sold his second car and moved to an accommodation with lower rent to buffer the cushion. “I knew what I was doing and had no qualms about making those adjustments,” he says. Several factors made the transition smooth for Roy. Even as an executive, he would think on his feet, take initiatives and enjoyed crisis management.
In 1996 when he moved from Trikaya Grey to Euro RSCG as head of its Kolkata centre, he set up the agency’s first office in the country. This not only tested Roy’s skills but also introduced him to the office of the future. His twin tasks being to get business and to ensure the highly talented staff stay put. It was also the time when he started putting his mentoring skills to practice.
In 1999, he moved to Delhi as a director to start Euro’s new division — Sales Machine — handling the dotcom clients. “The boom was exciting but the bust soon followed,” says Roy who went back to managing the day-to-day advertising operations. It was then that he realised that his work excited him lesser and lesser. He knew he had to take a decision before boredom took its toll.
In the past few years, Bullzi has succeeded in building a reputation as a quick, reliable and efficient placement company. And the owner is only too happy. The company’s balance sheet is looking healthy. And Roy is close to achieving what he wanted most—a balance between exciting work and family.
