1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

a. In our industry, i.e. Public relations consulting, which is a strategic decision for every corporate house or even for start-ups, making them understand the power of right PR is sometimes so difficult. Many consider PR as a tool to get few media coverages or endorsement, while a strategic PR program can solve many business issues/challenges which traditional communications approach can’t solve. Hence, change in the orientation of clients and sometimes your own team mates becomes challenging.

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I always wanted to own and drive my own business, but could never venture out. Adfactors gave me that opportunity and platform to become my own entrepreneur and build & drive the business practice that caters to New Age Tech Companies and Start-ups. Resilience, focus and inner self-determination helped to reach at this level. I remember a couple of years ago I made a conscious decision to build Fintech PR practice and went about building a strong network in the industry. Today it has become one of the largest practices in the industry.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I generally start my day at 6 AM with Vipassana Meditation for an hour. This helps to remain calm, peaceful and focus throughout the day. And after that spend 45-60 min for running or cycling (a couple of days in week). And at around 8:45 AM I start my day with first catching up meeting with the senior leadership team to discuss business revenue growth and other key discussion and later on a larger part of the day's focus is on business growth and strategy planning for clients. Equally, I spend a lot of time on networking and reading industry developments. PR professionals are always required to be on their toes all the times to make sure clients are delighted and are in safe hands all the time. End my office hour with a team meeting and set the agenda for the next day/s. Evening is with my kids :)

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

This is a tough one as learning in part and parcel of life. What is most important to me in this world is ‘Caring and Sharing’ for everyone be it your client, your organisation, your colleagues, your family or most important your society.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Book by Robin Sharma - ‘The leader who had no title’, after reading this book I started taking charge of higher responsibilities and had a transformative journey in every aspect of life.

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

Three key factors that I always keep in mind:
• Align with the larger vision/goal of the company and build your own execution strategy for your SBU
• Focus on delivering value to each of your stakeholders be it clients, team members or industry partners. As this enables for ‘X’ factor growth for team and organisation
• Always keep self and team energy high and motivated, to achieve best of the results

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

While in any journey be it personal or professional, there are always multiple interesting antidotes, one such meaningful story that I remember almost four year ago when I took conscious step to build Fintech practice (industry was at its nascent stage) and at that point of time I had almost zilch knowledge and understanding of the category. However, somewhere I knew this was going to be a big play for India’s growth story. It was all about putting your intuition and knowledge along with consistency in approach and learning within the team helped us to become the face of the industry.