In his former avatar, Prof. Cedric Serpes was the Creative Chief for ad agencies like Grey and Lintas, in India and abroad. The Ad Guru-turned-academician shifted to Goa about 15 years back, and subsequently joined GIM to teach ‘Integrated Marketing Communication’.
“I currently teach 2 courses at GIM –‘Integrated Marketing Communication’, and ‘Creativity, Innovation and Design Thinking’. These courses involve significant levels of creativity and innovation. A lot of learning in the class in fact comes from practicing the theory and so I push a lot to combining the theory with the practical. For e.g. I teach Biomimicry, which is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies, for new concept design. Nature can teach us so much about innovation and invention.”
A Master of Science (MS) in Communications from the University of Louisiana, USA, Prof. Serpes was amongst the best in the batch of 1986.
“My MS was in attitude change strategies. So teaching persuasion tactics in brand communication is a logical extension of my academic training.”
Not too difficult a task, we presume, for someone who’s been the Creative Chief in some of the world’s leading ad agencies. About 10 years back, while still an ad professional, Cedric and his wife visited Goa. Both of them fell in love with an old Portuguese bungalow that overlooked the end of a stream. They bought the bungalow, shifted to Goa, bidding adieu to the corporate life. Ever since, they have devoted time to the pursuit of the finer things in life. This has resulted in a compilation of articles (Humor – A lighthearted view on life in general and Goan life in particular), a music album (English Ghazals), and an eclectic collection of poetry.
“I’m a musician. I’m a creative person. It is a neurosis. The only way I can rid myself of it is to keep writing songs, poems and articles.“Everything I write about has been researched. I cannot arrive at new truths if I do not read and research. I try and encourage students to "see". All innovation, creativity and new product concepts start with empathy. And all art is rooted in empathy. It’s again about questioning the status quo. We make rules and then we lock ourselves in. “We are not within a prison, the prison is within us.”
Apart from GIM, Prof. Serpes is a visiting faculty at Symbiosis and IIM Udaipur, and associates strongly with his students about to begin their remarkable journeys. He believes that a structured education like MBA is of utmost importance in learning the ropes.
“Discipline is important. It's good to know the rules. If you don't, how can you break them?” says Prof. Serpes. “When students write back and say they learned something profound in an out-of-class teaching, it moves me to tears.”
This pretty much sums up Prof. Cedric Serpes for you… a man who will always do what he loves to do at that moment. His mantra for the students –“become what you love. Never love what you become”!
