MxMIndia

Tag: Kartik Sharma

  • This mandate will cover the entire media end-to-end solutions for TV, Print, Digital, Radio, Cinema etc

    Maxus to handle media mandate of Infiniti Retail

    By A Correspondent

     

    Global communications consultancy firm Maxus has bagged the mandate for Infiniti Retail (Croma), a subsidiary company of Tata Sons dealing solely in electronic retail products. Maxus has taken over the mandate with effect from April 1st 2016.

     

    This mandate will cover the entire media end-to-end solutions for TV, Print, Digital, Radio, Cinema etc. Maxus will also be managing the Social Assets of brand Croma and driving their Social strategy.

     

    Kartik Sharma, Managing Director- Maxus South Asia said: “Maxus has had the opportunity to partner with multiple entities from the TATA GROUP. We are therefore very pleased to now be a partner to Croma as well. Croma has been a pioneer in the Electronic retail space and continues to thrive in an evolving competitive environment. We see our strong strategic and digital capabilities being a real asset to the Croma team and look to working closely with them to drive their business priorities. The larger goal will be to navigate the brand in this increasingly challenging media and marketing landscape to ensure that Croma continues to win.”

     

    Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Partner- Maxus India said: “Working with a TATA brand is always an exciting proposition and this partnership with Croma is a big win for Maxus. Given the vision and brand strategy articulated by the Croma marketing team, we are really looking forward to partnering them on this journey.”

     

    Ritesh Ghosal CMO Infiniti Retail said, “Maxus’ integrated digital approach covering content, social and bought media swung the pitch in our minds. With our increasing focus on digital media, we were looking for a partner willing to learn the new Omni-channel marketing game along with us and Maxus with its experienced team and strong digital understanding put their hand up.”

     

  • Vidur Patney appointed as National Director Experiential Marketing & Pooja Verma as Head of Maxus ESP

    Maxus makes key senior appointments

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus announced key appointments across its two specialist units. Vidur Patney joins in as the National Director Experiential Marketing and Pooja Verma as Head of Maxus ESP respectively.

     

    Vidur joins Maxus from Globox Media Private Limited. As a founder in a start-up of an Experiential Marketing company, he was responsible for the day to day running of the firm along with everything that went into building the business and developing new clients as well as executing projects. Some of his key achievements at Globox include, managing all TVS Racing initiatives for the last 2 years at the BIC, MMSC and the KMS racing tracks and conducting over 70 Apache Pro Performance Stunt Shows across India etc.

     

    In a career spanning eighteen years, Vidur has worked with leading agencies these being Dentsu Communications Private Limited, Encompass Events Private Limited, and 212 Traders etc. He has handled important and significant clients in all his earlier stints and brings to the table a proven ability to manage key account relationships and large-scale projects.

     

    For nearly a decade and a half, Pooja has been involved in building engagement as a part of content strategy through communication, branding, marketing and citizenship initiatives. She has worked for leading multi-nationals including Disney, BASF and Make-A-Wish Foundation. In her last role Pooja was Director of Marketing and Communication for Make-A-Wish based in Singapore. She also consulted independently for brands in India and overseas for their content marketing and multi-platform content needs. In her free time, Pooja also offers her content and marketing communication expertise pro-bono to non-profits.

     

    Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said “The appointments of Vidur Patney and Pooja Verma reflect Maxus’ commitment to attracting the best and brightest talent to our agency. They both are reliable leaders with robust backgrounds in experiential marketing and content marketing respectively. Both of them will fit very well within our strongly established client-driven culture and marketing culture and we are sure they will achieve even higher success with Maxus.

     

    These appointments come in the wake of Maxus solidifying its position as an employer of choice and are a step towards becoming the leading marketing communication consultancy in the country.

     

  • After having lost the Agency of the Year title last year, the now 9-time winner wins big. Madison was second in the rankings

    It’s Mindshare on the Top again.

    A jubilant Mindshare team. Picture by Abhinav Kocharekar, Courtesy DNA

     

     

    When Ravi Rao, Leader, Mindshare South Asia spoke to MxMIndia on the eve of his departure to Dubai as Chief Client Officer – MENA in April, we asked him if he considered the agency’s loss at the Emvies last year, as a low during his stint. He said it was just a “momentary despair in the longest winning streak of Mindshare; we will continue to haunt others, year after year”. At the Emvies 2015 on Friday, Mindshare grabbed the title of Agency of the Year with five Gold, eight Silver and 17 Bronze metals. The now nine-time winner had its entire team in attendance, including COO Mindshare Asia Pacific Gowthaman Ragothaman and Prasanth (‘PK’) Kumar, who took over from Rao in March this year and had earlier said he was confident of winning the Agency of the Year crown this time. “There’s been lots of great work in the last year that Mindshare has done across clients, and a lot of effort into bringing in diversified and other business categories,” he had said. Friday’s win, however, left him cheering out loud for his team. “The voice is gone, but the action is full on,”  he said. (See Emvies points tally table here)

     

    Even though Maxus lost its last year’s glory to older sibling Mindshare, MD, Kartik Sharma was unfazed. “Whenever we’ve won or lost, our focus has always been our clients,” he said. “We’re very happy with the quality of work we’ve done. We’ve got quite a lot of clients in last two or three years and we continue to do some interesting work with them. He added: “Our focus has been more digital and analytics for the last couple of years. And today, if you saw the kind of awards that we’ve won, they had a layer of either of the two. But there’s always scope for improvement, and we’ll work on that.” Maxus was third in the pecking order of agencies, while Lodestar UM was at No. 4.

     

    Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, whose agency was the first runner-up for the title of Agency of the Year, also said he was happy with his agency’s performance which was their best so far at the Emvies. Madison took home six Gold, four Silver and nine Bronze metals.

     

    Meanwhile, Tata Sky was conferred with the Client of the Year award, with Procter & Gamble India the first runners-up and Marico, a close third.

     

    Emvies 2015 launched a new category too, Media Partner of the Year, which was conferred on partners across various media. While the award for TV was won by Pogo, The Times of India walked away with the award in the print category. In the cinema category, it was won by Rohit Shetty’s Film Production house, in radio it was Big FM, while Torrent Sites and Google Ecosystem received the award in the digital segment.

     

    This year’s edition was the 15th of the Emvies. And Punitha Arumugam, Chairperson of the Emvies’ Committee and a senior media specialist herself, said it was the best she had seen so far. “The highlight this year was the fact that we started the process of online entries,” she said. “Secondly, we started including media owners in the Emvies because earlier we had only media agencies; then moved to media agencies plus client, and now from client to media owners. It’s been very exciting for us.” Since she’s not a part of a media agency any more, we asked Arumugam to trend-spot and tell us what she thinks of the way the media business is going, given the Emvies showing this year. “What we see is that digital probably gets the highest number of entries, and also the highest growth in terms of the number of entries year-to-year,” she said. “You’re seeing a genuine shift to digital. Even in offline media entries, for example, you get to see a lot more digital as a part of the whole product.”

     

    Another change that has taken place over the years, according to her, is in the field of data analytics and research, as evidenced from the number of entries going up and the amount of focus that agencies are putting on this.

     

    Arumugam was bullish about the spends on digital increasing with time since all agencies are now incorporating digital in various ways and moving towards it, even if at a slow pace. “While clients may be spending 10-15 per cent [of their budget] on digital, when you walk into any office, 80 per cent of the conversation is about online. Hopefully, the budgets will follow the conversations very soon,” she said, as celebratory cheers, accompanied by the beating of dholaks, took over the venue to get the party going.

     

    A part of this report first appeared in dna of brands

     

  • The company is engaged in the manufacture of decorative laminate, decorative veneers, doors, wall clads, wooden flooring and MFC

    Maxus bags media duties for Greenlam Laminates

    By A Correspondent

     

    Global communications consultancy firm Maxus has been appointed to manage the media mandate for Greenlam Industries Limited.

     

    With over two decades of experience in the surface décor space, Greenlam has been the pioneers in introducing the international décor trend, in India and to the international markets. The company is engaged in the manufacture of decorative laminate, decorative veneers, doors, wall clads, wooden flooring and MFC (Melamine Faced Chip Board).

     

    Kartik Sharma

    Speaking about the win, Kartik Sharma- Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said, “We are in the process of evolving strategic long-term plans for the brand. We are delighted to have acquired the media mandate for Greenlam Laminates and are looking forward in achieving higher goals with this association. Using the right media mix, innovative strategies and technologies that we have at our disposal, we are sure to make this association a very successful one. It will be a great experience for the team working on the Greenlam Laminates business as is an exciting category!”

     

    Alex Joseph – Vice president – Marketing & communication Greenlam Industries was equally delighted about handing over the media duties to Maxus. He said, “We have partnered with Maxus as we believe they will bring value to our marketing efforts. We are sure this association will prove to be a rather fruitful one as a media agency, We expect Maxus to go beyond just the traditional way to build the brand “

     

  • Controversies and competing leagues notwithstanding, cricket is still the most lucrative sport for brands to invest in, writes Kartik Sharma, MD, Maxus South Asia

    Six reasons Cricket still Rules for Brands to Invest in

     

    By Kartik Sharma

     

    Multiple leagues, many controversies. But nothing seems to dent the popularity of cricket in the country. As fans throng the stadia and the TRPs go through the roof, clearly this is still the most lucrative sport for brands to invest in. Here are the reasons why:

     

    1. Popular by far: Cricket is the most popular sport in India and is an integral part of Indian sports culture. With the help of cricket, brands are able to reach out to a wide range of audiences. Consistently investing in cricket helps a brand build a strong bond with its target group. Despite the recent controversies surrounding cricket, the popularity of the sport has not diminished.

     

    2. Wide reach: Cricket is a powerful platform for brands to promote their new campaigns, and also for new brands trying to establish themselves in the market. The sport’s ability to generate extensive reach makes it an attractive option for brands, and thereby helps them in jump-starting awareness in a very short span of time

     

    3. Mainstream media option: Out of 365 days in a year, cricket is played for over 200 days (including one-day tournaments, test and T20 matches). With cricket becoming part of a multi-screen world — digital streaming, TV channel apps and such — the popularity, affinity and resonance with the sport is still on the rise. These days, marketers and agencies alike, evaluate cricket regularly as part of mainstream media options and it is no longer seen as a one-off event.

     

    4. Proven ROI: Return-on-investment studies conducted by our agency clearly proves that the power of cricket in impacting business goals for various categories is very high. It not only helps in growing business, but also helps brands which are investing in cricket in defending themselves from competitive brands and media activity which otherwise would have adversely impacted business goals.

     

    5. Media amplifier: The strength of cricket is its ability to act as a great media multiplier. Research has proven that conversations and recall for brands engaged on the cricketing platform is high. The uplift in key brand measures as a result of investing in cricket, is also significant. For new brands, it also helps to build and maintain brand salience for many weeks — even after the end of cricketing matches/tournaments.

     

    6. Integrations: Cricket gives opportunities to brands to integrate their messaging beyond plain sponsorships and logo placements. Brands which have strategically used both on-air and on-ground assets, tend to generate higher than normal returns on their media investment.

     

    Kartik Sharma is Managing Director of Maxus, South Asia. This article first appeared in ‘dna of brands’ dated August 3, 2015

     

  • This is the first time a sponsorship deal for the BCCI has been concluded by a media agency

    Maxus & GroupM ESP win BCCI cricket home series sponsorship rights for PayTM

    By A Correspondent

     

    Media agency Maxus, with GroupM ESP, has won the sponsorship rights for PayTM, for all home cricket series to be played from September 2015 to October 2019. The bids were opened by the BCCI in New Delhi yesterday and announced immediately. The deal is valued at Rs 203.28 crores for 84 matches for the four-year period.

    This is the first time a sponsorship deal for the BCCI has been concluded by a media agency.

     

    Kartik Sharma

    Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said, “We are extremely happy for partnering with PayTM, and helping them win the BCCI rights. Until now cricket has been dominated by other mature categories and this is the first time an e-commerce brand will be using the platform to connect and engage with its consumer base.”

     

    Shankar Nath, Senior VP commented: “We are delighted at becoming the Title Sponsor for all BCCI India cricket for the next four years. We firmly believe the partnership with cricket in India will help establish us even more as the dominant mobile commerce company in the country. As a growing brand which has big plans for a billion strong Indians there is no platform better than cricket in India.”

     

  • Maxus South has been growing rapidly and handles some of the most prestigious clients of the region

    Maxus appoints Anil Sathiraju as General Manager

    By A Correspondent

     

    Anil Sathiraju

    Global media & communication planning firm Maxus has further strengthened its top management appointing Anil Sathiraju as General Manager, Maxus South 2.

     

    Maxus South has been growing rapidly and handles some of the most prestigious clients of the region. Anil Sathiraju will report in to Sanchayeeta Verma- Managing Partner, Maxus South India & South Asia. With Anil coming on board, Maxus consolidates the senior management strength in the South, along with Kishankumar Shyamalan as GM South 1.

     

    Kartik Sharma

    Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said “Our South operations have been the trail blazers in many areas for Maxus and we are looking forward to scale new heights. Anil is an important and strategic addition keeping this in mind.”

     

    Commenting on the new appointment Sanchayeeta Verma- Managing Partner, South India & South Asia, Maxus said, “The media landscape is possibly at its most dynamic state today. It’s a time of rapid and big changes. Not only do we have to stay on top of this and ensure that we incorporate the new state of things in the way we do the communication planning for our brands, we also have to ensure executional excellence so that strategy translates to reality. On top of it in today’s uncertain economic conditions, our media monies have to result into tangible business results for our brands. All of this means, more engagement & more speed at the senior management level. This prompted us to create two distinct SBUs within Maxus South and bring in the best people to man them, i.e, Anil & Kishan. Anil typifies Maxus PACE and we are delighted to have him on board.”

     

    In his earlier role Anil was Associate VP & Head South, Mudra Max Pvt. Ltd. With over 19 years of experience he has handled many of the top clients in South India some of which are the TTK Prestige, Cycle Agarbathies, Tata Gold Plus, Eenadu Group, Ashok Leyland, Wipro Consumer Care, Sobha Developers, Wildcraft, Jyothy Laboratories, Beauty Cosmetics (now CavinKare).

     

  • The Maxus Delhi team will be managing the account under the aegis of Navin Khemka

    Maxus bags media AOR for Shopclues

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus has won the prestigious media planning duties for India’s first and largest managed marketplace, Shopclues.com. The Maxus Delhi team will be managing the account under the aegis of Navin Khemka , Managing Partner Maxus .This was won by maxus after a multi agency compettive pitch.

     

    On winning the worthy account Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia expressed, “It is indeed a prestigious win for us and we are thrilled to partner with the Shopclues team and to grow with them as their business scales newer heights. We are particularly excited to bring out the best business-oriented solutions for them.”

     

    Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer said “We are on a very rapid growth orbit and after careful evaluation we decided Maxus will be an ideal partner for driving this growth engine. We are excited to have Maxus on board and confident that their innovative strategic and creative inputs will create the right buzz that we as a brand need today. We expect a lot of superlative work on our brand. Congratulations to Maxus once again”

     

  • This makes it the 45th award for Power of 49 across local, regional and global forums

    Maxus wins big at Festival of Media

    By A Correspondent

     

    The award winning spree continues for global consultancy firm Maxus, as it has bagged a Silver award for the Utility/Public Service Award at a glittering ceremony at Festival of Media Asia Pacific concluded recently.

     

    Maxus, which has won business over Rs 400 crores in the the last one year, continues to gain recognition as the undisputed leader in their space. This also makes it their 45th award for the Power of 49 across local, regional and global forums.

     

    Maxus won the award for its much talked about campaign Power of 49- the media movement that brought about fresh and exciting rigour for the brand Tata Tea.

     

    Kartik Sharma

    Maxus South Asia Managing Director Kartik Sharma said, “Maxus has made strong and consisted efforts to become future ready and lean into change in a competitive ecosystem. This work is special as it really brings out the power of a great idea in a holistic and integrated manner and the wins are testimony to this. We are thankful to Tata Global Beverages in believeing in Maxus and giving us the complete freedom to bring this great idea to life. We are also thankful to all our media partners for their unconidtional support and making this campaign a roaring success. We are of course ecstatic about the win!”

     

  • A total of 49 matches and 14 participating nations will test their mettle at ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

    Maxus bags media mandate for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus has won the media investment mandate in India for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Australia and New Zealand. Maxus has previously handled four campaigns in India for the International Cricket Council (ICC), including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, ICC Champions Trophy England & Wales 2013 and ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014

     

    ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which will commence on February 14th, will conclude in Melbourne on March 29th, during which a total of 49 matches and 14 participating nations will test their mettle.

     

    Commenting on the win, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus said, “Cricket is one of the important sports in India and the frenzied excitement and popularity it has is unprecedented as compared to other sports. Maxus is extremely proud and excited to manage the media duties for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The World Cup is the pinnacle of one day cricket expected to draw tremendous excitement all over the world.”

     

  • For the Maxus India boss, 2014 was a huge high: 20+ new clients, Rs 300 crore+ business, many awards, including the biggest of them all – the Emvies

    Leaning into change with Kartik Sharma

     

    For the Maxus South Asia Managing Director, last year was a huge high for more reason than one: 20-plus new clients, Rs 300 crore+ business, many awards, including the biggest of them all – the Emvies. Pradyuman Maheshwari caught up with Kartik Sharma who completed a year at the helm earlier this month.

     

    Fond memories of 2014?

    Last year was fantastic in many ways. Apart from the role change for me personally, we got many new leaders into the system. Anand Chakravarthy, Navin Khemka, Monaz… a lot of internal teams got promoted. Business was fantastic! We earned about Rs 300 crore of new business, we had 20-plus new clients added to the roster.

     

    Vis-à-vis the rest of the industry?

    Different agencies have got new businesses. Twenty-plus is a big number for us. We haven’t had so many wins in a single year. We focused the beginning of 2014 on 3-4 key pillars – people strengthening, new business and product. Product, in terms of how we deliver client delight every single day.  A lot of emphasis on strengthening products. We launched Resolve which is a global proprietary planning tool and Moribus, our behavioral science unit.

     

    How was it stepping into Ajit Varghese’s shoes?

    Both internally and personally I don’t think anyone was trying to make any kind of comparison. Each leader has a different style of working. For not even a single moment when I stepped into the role, had I even thought of how Ajit would have done it or this is what I need to do. That puts artificial pressure on you. A directional understanding on what you want to do for Brand Maxus was very clear from Day1. Then you actually set out to do it in the best way possible, using your own way of working.

     

    If you were to compare your style of working with his, what would be one key differentiator and the one thing in common?

    Obviously, each of us come with a different perspective to business, Ajit has his own way of wearing his lens and looking at situations. I have my own lens and somewhere we complement each other. Even now, whenever there are challenges, we talk and try and solve a problem.

     

    The perception is that Ajit is very aggressive in his approach, even in the way Maxus has to be projected, whereas you are cool and calmer?

    That’s the way we are. The way we convey our thoughts is different. I’m equally aggressive when it needs to be. There’s an external side and there’s an internal side. It’s how you convey it. We express it in different ways for a common goal. I can’t change my style. This isn’t a surprise feedback. That’s the way I am.

     

    Ajit had you around. Do you have any one as your second-in-command?

    I have the entire Maxus team with me. I’m not just saying it for the sake of it. I have a very strong team, a very diverse set of management team members, which is actually helping me. We talk to each other on a daily basis. We understand all of them as people first. There’s a huge level of understanding and comfort, as individuals, as professionals, which actually helps us solve all problems.

     

    Having Anand from broadcast, Navin from another network makes it a melting pot of various cultures?

    We always wanted to have a very diverse set of people, not just agency people. That was a very conscious decision. They bring in freshness, different points of view, which is very critical at this stage of building a business.

     

    Last year, one of the biggest highs was the Emvies. In fact when dna interviewed Ajit when his elevation was announced and when we asked him if there was an unfinished agenda, he said it was winning the Emvies. Twenty-plus clients, Rs 300 cr-plus business, top talent… would you say coming out tops at the Emvies was the biggest high of the year?

    It’s one of the biggest highs. We’ve always wanted to win Emvies. It’s recognition coming from clients. It was very important for us. When a client or a larger universe, ecosystem says that you’ve done a good job, it helps us to see ourselves in a very objective way. Some of them are even competitors sitting and rating you. That was an important aspect for that. We’ve come very close to winning in the last four or five years but we missed by a whisker. We wanted to win, with a big margin, which happened! There was a lot of hard work at the back of it.

     

    How much of winning the Emvies is a joy more because you’ve beaten sibling Mindshare?

    I think more than beating, we’ve always wanted to win. Our goal is not just to beat Mindshare. It could be any agency for that matter. Mindshare is a great agency, we respect them.

     

    In your typical bouquet, how much of the work is full-service?

    It is increasing, if you’d asked me this a couple of years ago, it was little. Now, more and more have seen merit in doing it through us, I don’t recollect a number but it is definitely more than it was two to three years ago. At least about 10% plus.

     

    That’s a significant number! 10% of Maxus business is full-service. But, does it worry you that 10% of Ogilvy’s or any other agency’s business also could be full-service?

    We’re in a competitive world where the competition is not just creative agencies. We’re in an interesting space where everybody is competition in some way. Media owners, creative agencies, IT companies, there could also be a lot of boutique companies who could pay huge competitive consultants. The ecosystem is too large to worry about competition. That worry will never make you perform to your best. All you have to do is, run as fast as you can.

     

    Does the fact that programmatic buying and that you’re going to have number crunching outsourced, are these the things that are worrying signs for an agency like yours?

    No, we will be part of this in the next few years and we’re building skills in each of these areas. It’s not a major concern at this stage. It’s a major concern of the business. As the business is changing, the same question about creative, 8-10 years ago, nobody would’ve thought media agency and creative. We’ve seen the shift happening that media agency can also make creative. It’s more and more of getting ready and leaning into change.

     

    Leaning into change is the credo of Maxus. What are the leanings you are looking into for next year?

    Leaning into change is a philosophy, a guidepost for us to change ourselves and also the clients we work with, get ready to see and do things which have not been done before. An example of that is Moribus.  There is no previous benchmark of how a behavioral science unit should be. Even when we started creative as part of our offering in digital, there was no prior things saying these are things you can or cannot do. Each of those elements to me, is about leaning into change.

     

    What’s the target for this year?

    We would like to continue the momentum from 2014. We will be aggressive in our pitching. We don’t want to speculate a number. But, definitely, we want good business. Digital continues to be the focus and things like programmatic will gain more prominence in the next two years. You’ll also see a lot more focus coming in on content initiatives, Power of 49 was one stellar example, but we’re doing many more. A lot within the next 3-4 months will come on product also.

     

  • A quick Q&A with Kartik Sharma, Managing Director of Maxus South Asia, Kartik Sharma on the big Emvies win

    Jaldi 5 with Kartik Sharma: Emvies is the most coveted award in this part of the world for media agencies

    Alhough just seven months as Managing Director of Maxus South Asia, Kartik Sharma has been around with the GroupM agency since seven years. While there is a good roster of clients, the media agency business is very competitive and it’s in this scenario that winning the ‘Agency of the Year’ at Emvies 2014 means a lot for Team Maxus. Excerpts from an interview with Kartik Sharma…

     

    01. While Maxus has been doing well at the Emvies over the years, the Agency of the Year is a significant achievement. What does this win mean for the agency’s India office?

    Emvies is the most coveted award in this part of the world for media agencies, simply because it’s an award for not only innovation, but also effectiveness. Even a single award would suffice since it’s getting judged by best-in-class clients across various companies, In the last seven years, we’ve always had a dream to be the No 1. We have done exceedingly well at most other forums, but at the Emvies we have come a very close second, sometimes third. So that feeling of “You can do it, but it’s not coming” was always there. I think this means much to ourselves as a team and also to the clients who kept the belief that yes, Maxus can and has everything it takes to get the Agency of the Year award.

     

    02. The Power of 49 obviously worked for you?

    Yes, fantastic work done on the ‘Power of 49’. We sent in entries for 10 clients and are delighted that nine of them won an award at the Emvies. So, it’s also satisfying to see that the diverse nature of work the agency is putting across. Also, it’s not just innovation that we are doing well at, we have strengthened our research and analytics focus, our strategy focus…

     

    03. Does the push for winning awards put too much pressure on your team on a day-to-day basis?

    No way. We never do work to win awards. We do great work which eventually wins awards. So, our goal is always to excel. And if you set that goal then awards are just a by-product. We never go to Tata Tea saying that let’s do ‘Power of 49’ and we will win awards. We are there to solve a problem or a challenge, we did that and the great work ends in good results.

     

    04. How will you ensure that you win the top place next year too?

    I think, first is attitudinally, the passion to do great work is fundamental. So, that will continue. Second is that goal which I spoke about, if you put that goal as excellence in building clients, getting awards as a by-product is far more simpler. That’s something that will continue to work.

     

    05. And how is the rivalry with Mindshare?

    I won’t call it rivalry, I think it’s a healthy competition. I think they’re a great competitor to have. They are extremely professional, we really respect all the work they do. It’s good to have a competitor who will push you to do your best. And I think some of the manifestations that we got was also on the healthy competitor spirit. It’s not rivalry at all.