About my stint in Starcom
I am the latest addition to the 'Starcom' family. I come here in the capacity of general manager - investment and new initiatives. That actually puts me incharge of three large responsibilities - of improving the already high standards of buying in Starcom; sourcing new business; and implementing the dream of initiating the first media agency to have a strategic interest in sports and the digital world. I look after Starcom Sports and Starcom Digital and look forward to giving you some surprises on those fronts.

It was Ravikiran, and the excitement of working for Starcom - a company I have always admired for it's difference in approach. This is what persuaded me back to advertising and buying.

Previous stints
My previous stints have been quite interesting and challenging. I did some small time jobs during my graduation including compering and assisting production for the local Doordarshan channel in my hometown Jaipur.

After my MBA, I stayed on in Mumbai and joined FCB-Ulka in 1995. Thanks to my (then) boss, Kalpana Rao, within six months of joining, I ended up handling planning for some 17 accounts over 11 clients, all by my own. I was too young to have someone working with me; probably responsible and enterprising enough to not need a day-to-day boss. Then, they transferred me to Delhi to handle the extremely media (planning and buying) sensitive Whirlpool and other accounts like HP, Tatafone, Tefal amongst others.

When I moved on to became a media director in Everest - Delhi, most people "pooh-poohed" the very reasoning behind making a person like me - with merely three and a half years of experience - a media director. I hope I proved them wrong. I handled blue chip accounts such as Honda, Panasonic, GPI successfully.

I also helped our agency in winning AOR accounts like GPI, Panasonic and expand revenue streams from old clients like Pan Parag and Eenadu. I also helped take care of key accounts like Parle, in Mumbai.

Just when I was getting limited by the size and vision of the company and its dependence on the elder brother Rediffusion, Rohit Adya - the then CEO of Vijay TV - recruited me as the head of sales. My first foray into television sales and later marketing was also the most enriching one.

It was unfortunate that I had to move from Vijay TV, as ownership changed hands. I forged some of my best professional friendships here.

BBC World was the next stop but I did not really spend sufficient time here. But for the first time in my life, I learnt how to behave like a small fish in the 'ocean'; and learnt in a true sense what the jargon, 'global', meant. My learnings of how systems can and do really work all came from here.

Biggest challenges

1. To not get affected by criticism.
2. To be able to "shut up" when I have nothing to add.
3. To be able to write a ''20 slide only'' presentation.
4. To make a mark with Starcom Digital and Starcom Sports.
5. To justify to my family as to why I left a 'safe' option like BBC.
6. Till date, the biggest challenge has always been to justify my responsibility vis-à-vis my age and experience.

Successes that gave me joy

1993 - Finishing college with a first class and getting selected in NMIMS when my dad was almost trying to fix me up in a clerical position in LIC of India.

1995 - Getting chosen by three companies and being shortlisted by another four in a single placement day. So what if it was day three!!

1997 - The only person to be double promoted in FCB-Ulka.

1997 - Convincing my then girlfriend to become my wife when I was spending 16 hours in office.

1998 - Became the youngest media director in the country.

1999 - Earned more new revenue in media than all my counterparts put together in servicing including the ''New Biz'' guys.

1999 - Convincing media baron Ramoji Rao to use yellow as a base colour in his campaign even when he associated it with yellow journalism.

2000 - Being probably the first media person to service three large accounts as a KRA and being involved in shooting and production of three ad films for Eenadu.

2001 - Busting the myth that good planners/buyers are not good sellers by registering a sales growth of more than 40 per cent in Vijay TV.

2002 - Being awarded marketing along with sales within six months of joining Vijay TV.

2002 - Signing the first pan-Asian deal for BBCW India and the first naming right on a programme.

2003 - Three of my clients went on to be amongst the top 20 spenders on BBC.

Failures - that I learn from
1. FCB Ulka thought I was too "cut and dry" to be put in client servicing.

2. In keeping the AORs within the Everest system rather than transfer them to Rediffusion, inspite of playing an important part in earning them.

3. My dream project - India's largest treasure hunt - earned a TRP of less than one when Vijay TV had put all its resources behind it. It was still a very successful initiative in revenue terms. But the final result somehow hurt my confidence tremendously.

4.To convince indiantelevision.com that I am not a rising 'star'.

The importance of network and technology
I thought BBC, my previous organisation, excelled at providing technology and was an ace at networking within the organisation. Starcom, I reckon, is also known to provide the best of knowledge pool, through shared learning.

One is encouraged to probe issues and generate ideas through 24-hour access to network sites and the net.

'Mission Control's is the Intranet site where all employees of Starcom Worldwide can and do share experiences, learning, case studies and non-classified client information. On this account, I have been lucky in my recent past.

The things that need to change in my domain of media planning and buying
Funny that what needs to change is not anything to do with technology, science or process. It is something very human and behavioural.

I sometimes laugh at the way it has become fashionable to talk of buying not being equal to bargaining. Most people still don't walk the talk. While everybody talks of the best buys and bargains they are able to ''squeeze'' out of media partners, they fail to understand the value that can be generated given the simple fact that in any single deal, individuals interact with individuals and not machines or companies.

The more you want to squeeze - the more the resistance; the more the initially quoted price; and the less the thinking on real value creation. Do we notice that it is often more difficult to fight open a tightly closed fist, than to offer a shakehand to do so?

Have you ever heard of a seller telling you that she is selling his product to you at anything but the cheapest rate for such a buy? How many times have we encouraged rather than 'squeezed' a seller to break a rule or think out of the hat for you.

In my experience as a seller, I have actually given the most to people to encouraged me or my guys to think as if their brand was my own and then place an offer. Squeezing helps, but not beyond the point.

Doesn't one relate to the old grandma story of the hen that laid golden eggs? You can squeeze the hen's throat once or can keep collecting the golden eggs.

I would love if media buyers could share a brief with the seller, give them an opportunity to put up a proposal and negotiate with a few of them who come close to understanding and responding to the brief.

People who think it is too time consuming a process should try and answer two questions:

1. What if their clients were to similarly treat them as a supplier and not a partner?
2. Doesn't it take more time to individually meet each seller to brief than to actually mail a brief and tell them to respond?

Amongst the various experiences I have collected being on both sides of the negotiating table, learning to appreciate the value the other one can bring to the table is the most cherishable.

Perception of TV as medium

Having worked on television as a planner, buyer and in marketing, acquisition and sales - I do have opinions on it. I do believe that TV is a natural extension of this century woman's (and man's) eyes and ears.

It is the only medium where a combined consumption in the family happens. The 'eat' in 'the family that eats together sticks together' can now be replaced with 'watches TV'. It not only defines the lowest cost to reach the masses in the country but the best way to do so, too. There are 'passion groups' Starcom has noted, which actually watch the same episode of a serial in the next day's repeat telecast, that they had watched in primetime on the previous day.

Naturally, it's reach and relevance in the Indian context is unparalleled. However, we ain't seen nothing yet! Television here, still operates in the context of huge number of eyeballs and we, as planners, buy them in truckloads. There would be a time when the difference between a general interest channel and the special interest channels won't be much.

Interactive TV would be the reality and everywhere and ten we would laugh at how TV in 2003 was. Can any other medium provide such dynamism? Nope..

Hobbies and passions

Hobbies include things that I don't get to do anymore - tennis and swimming in sport, creative writing and dramatics in art, catching up with old girlfriends and Rotaract activities in community services!!

Two passions - one to keep my wife happy (she is a high maintenance one!), and two - work, mutually exclusive sets!!