How Atiya Zaidi Became BBDO Pakistan’s CEO and CCO
Atiya Zaidi is the CEO and CCO of BBDO Pakistan, the most award-winning agency in the country. The only creative woman to ever head a global agency in Pakistan.
She has over 20 years of experience in the advertising industry working on an array of local and international brands.
She is the first Pakistani woman to be selected for Cannes Lions See It Be It programme, D&AD’s and Google’s ‘Rare’ programme and the Pitch magazines’ ‘100 Superwomen’ list, and winner of the only Glass Lion for Pakistan. Besides serving as a juror on many global shows, she also wrote a feature film which is available on Netflix.
Most recently she has been announced as the See It Be It programme’s Mentor-At-Large at Cannes 2025.
LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?
Atiya> I became ECD in 2014 and as the head of the creative department and working closely with the MD, this was a wakeup call that the consequences of my words and actions are far bigger than they used to be previously.
I remember that once in my haste to reply to a client’s email I wrote that we would ponder upon his suggestion and the client got extremely angry at the choice of the word “ponder”. I had to go meet the client to clarify that I didn’t mean that we will appraise his idea in a worried manner, but we will appraise it carefully.
Just one example of the power of words uttered by those who are viewed to be in power.
LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?
Atiya> I knew which type of leader I didn’t want to be more than the type of leader I wanted to be. The leader that threw her people under the bus, insecure of her own position or ability or constantly thinking what others will think of her. This type of leadership was a no-go area for me.
I have been blessed to find great bosses who taught me to lead with faith rather than with fear. I always aim to be kind, patient and empathetic yet there are times when kindness is taken as a sign of weakness and empathy is exploited by others.
The amount of strength needed to take the high road leaves one short of breath and energy and that is a watch out for all leaders. You don’t have to set yourself on fire to keep others warm is a lesson that needs constant refreshers.
LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?
Atiya> I am a nerd, and I read a lot. Learning, relearning and unlearning have been extremely important to me for as long as I can remember.
The biggest lesson in leadership came to me from the book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie.
Some things in the book are now outdated as it was written in the 1960s but the key take away which was an eye opener was the fact that everyone needs attention and genuine appreciation. Not flattery but genuine interest. This helped me tremendously in being an effective leader.
The second moment was in Cannes Lions’ See It Be It, when I was the first Pakistani woman to be selected for the programme. Madonna Badger was our mentor-at-large, and she said that you only control an area of three feet around you. That is all that you control, not people or circumstance but only your own reactions.
LBB> Did you know you always wanted to take on a leadership role? If so how did you work towards it and if not, when did you start realising that you had it in you?
Atiya> I was a class monitor in school and as a middle child, creating my own circle of influence came naturally.
As a junior creative I couldn’t wait to be in a leadership position so I can say yes to brave creative ideas which tended to die within the agency and never made it to client presentations. When the top leadership are not creative people this is frequently the case.
Their intentions while good for the business and happiness of the clients led to safe work being produced. I always wanted to lead so that I don’t push for my ideas but blossom the ideas for others and show my faith in them.
As a leader the utmost and foremost thing you must do is to stand behind your people. The glory belongs to them, and the failure belongs to the leader.
LBB> When it comes to 'leadership' as a skill, how much do you think is a natural part of personality, how much can be taught and learned?
Atiya> It is a skill like any other skill and can be taught but authenticity is key. You cannot fake being a good leader if you are not a good person. While I strongly believe that there is no such thing as a 100% good or bad person, how you show up for anything is how you show up for everything.
Learn to work on your own insecurities, get to know yourself better to become a better leader. The life of your teams and clients will be so much easier when they know how to work best with you, what are your triggers, which things you will let slide and which you will not tolerate.
Until you are clear about yourself, others will keep guessing what the leader would like. I see this as a constant pattern of frustration in client organisations as well. Marketing teams don’t know what the final decision maker wants and hence needless work in the wrong directions is created where energy, time and creativity are wasted.
LBB> What are the aspects of leadership that you find most personally challenging? And how do you work through them?
Atiya> Keeping everyone in the team happy is the most challenging aspect.
With rising cost of living and a shrinking business pie delivering on business success that leads to career success for the team is the toughest tight rope to walk.
LBB> Have you ever felt like you've failed whilst in charge? How did you address the issue and what did you learn from it?
Atiya> So many times. As I wrote earlier that the consequences are bigger for anyone in a bigger role in the organisation. Everything you say and do is put under the microscope and people read between the lines when there was no ulterior meaning inferred between the lines. I learnt that failure is part of success.
Our business is like a constant exercise of putting on a fitted sheet on a mattress that is bigger in size. You tuck in three corners snuggly, and the fourth one pops out. Rather than looking at failure as an outlier, I normalised it as a part of the process.
It still hurts to fail though.
LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be as transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?
Atiya> What is being said and who is saying it can be two different things at times. We must always be careful and considerate but not at the expense of integrity. Don’t ever lie but at times you will have to speak a half truth. Those times should be far and few between and must justify that the truth will do more damage than any good.
Be realistic, don’t ever pretend that you have all the answers or that you are god’s gift to this industry.
LBB> As you developed your leadership skills did you have a mentor, if so who were/are they and what have you learned? And on the flip side, do you mentor any aspiring leaders and how do you approach that relationship?
Atiya> I had the blessings of many mentors in my career. Adnan Faruqi was my MD when I became ECD. I learnt how to give your team psychological security from him.
Anwar Rammal was the owner at an agency where I was a partner and group creative director, he taught me patience and humility, Madonna Badger taught me so many life and career lessons in one week of See It Be It and finally Farahnaz Haider was my ECD when I was an associate creative director, she taught me project management, having faith in your teams and not micro managing them and how to stand your ground with grace.
LBB> As a leader, what are some of the ways in which you’ve prioritised diversity and inclusion within your workforce?
Atiya> I wish I had an amazing success story to quote here but diversity works differently in Pakistan than in the rest of the world. Our divides are not ethnic, gender or racial. They are more about socio economic classes. Most agencies want to hire people who exude a certain kind of a rich persona. This I have tried to break.
Creativity doesn’t need to wear designer clothes; capability doesn’t need to have a grammar school accent. Our gender equality numbers are still horrible as compared to the rest of the world but as a leader I push the agenda for working moms, getting an earful by the parents of other female team members when they have to work late, or fighting the case of letting the women work remotely when they get married and move to another city is my way of preserving diversity.
LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with increases in remote and hybrid working patterns?
Atiya> Our company is not an adult day care centre is my mantra. We do not have attendance systems or constant supervision of team members. We don’t hire people to then do their job for them.
This culture of trust being a two-way street has shown amazing results in boomerang employees, financial growth and raising the bar for creativity.
LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?
Atiya> Like we feed our bodies every day, we should feed our minds. I set goals for learning like everything else. In this quest I listen to management podcasts, read both fiction and non-fiction books, and I do analysis of what happened every week and how I could have handled it better.
Hindsight is a magical thing, and this hindsight told me that I needed a career coach to improve myself. My coach is a blessing.
