Liliana Ragbir is only 25 years and is already general manager of Pepper Advertising Agency. Ragbir who is about to complete her MBA with Heriot-Watt University already has a vision of the direction she wants Pepper Advertising to go in. What is even more interesting is that she is the youngest employee of the 15-person company. She started off as a senior accounts executive at Pepper Advertising in 2007. Before Pepper Advertising, she was an intern at the Family Court where she worked in the judiciary department.
She started her work life with the on-the-job (OJT) programme in early 2007 with the Ministry of Social Development. By March 2007 she was made an offer by Pepper Advertising which she immediately grabbed. She quickly worked her way up and, by 2008, she was appointed the director of financial services. She continued her hard work and, by August of this year, she was appointed as general manager. She described the move up the corporate ladder as "challenging." "It has its challenges, earning the respect of my peers, but I've had a good coach in my boss Dennis Ramdeen, the managing director. I also lean on the experiences of the more experienced employees in the company. After all I am the youngest."
This she told the Business Guardian in an interview on Monday.
Describing her feelings on being general manager she said there are still many things she has to learn. "The move up the ladder has not been easy. Being in the advertising industry there are many deadlines and a lot of clients who want things done immediately." She also credited her upward move to the organisational structure of the company she works for. "We are a small company and it's a flat organisation in terms of the lines of control and authority. I was able to move up quickly. For example if I were working for a bigger organisation that move would not have come so easily."
Projects
Right now she is part of a leadership team in which she was delegated with the responsibility to create a standard HR policy for the company. "I'm liaising with an HR consultant and we are setting up an HR policy document, employee handbook and looking at proper HR processes in terms of re-engineering our applications for leave and that kind of thing. We are also looking at a performance management system." In the area of strategic development, she said they are formulating their goals and financial planning for the medium- and long-term future.
Advertising
Talking about the advertising industry, she believes that T&T is in transition between using online technology to advertise and the more traditional forms of advertising. Pepper Advertising, she says, covers traditional media and now online media. Some of the major areas in advertising are radio, TV and billboards. She added that they have launched their digital arm "Pepper-e" which is responsible for online advertising like Web site design and development, Google advertising, Facebook ads and maintenance and other social networks like Youtube and Twitter.
She said the current trend in the industry is that some companies offer traditional media while some offer exclusively online services. "We do both; in this way you gets an integrated campaign with us." She said some of the big brand names internationally would launch a campaign online only but she thinks T&T is far away from this stage. "Maybe we'll reach that level in five years time. If you look at Internet penetration in T&T they are not the level where we should be. We would reach there but it would take longer than the other Caribbean islands and internationally." She said Pepper Advertising is still a young company and there are different age groups where they draw on diverse ideas from to help them remain competitive in the industry.
"That's a big advantage for us we don't have only 'old school' people or the younger crowd. We draw from all backgrounds."
Future
She believes that she has a long way to go in the industry because she is still relatively new. "I still have along way to establish my name in the advertising industry. I'm still fairly new." She intends to stay with the company in the medium term and assist it in achieving its strategic objectives but is less certain about the long term. "If another opportunity arises internationally then I'll have to make a decision. It's Pepper Agency I'm with but, in the long term, I'll see how it goes."
