I turned 50 while I was working with Ogilvy and didn’t really believe or agree with the concept of retirement. It’s a British business culture designed for labor. In our culture however, people well over 80 continue to work in their family businesses. After leaving Ogilvy I didn’t want to join another agency, I had already worked in the best. So, at 50 I told myself, let me step out from here, start something of my own and be active in my own way. It’s been over two decades that I have been on my own now. During my time with Ogilvy, I had come to be known for one thing; that is to be able to find apt solutions for difficult/ complicated client issues. So, when I finally decided to quit Ogilvy, I was already trained in major skills, had 25 years of expertise and experience in a prestigious organization and a solid track record under my belt. IDEAS- RS is Ideas- R. Sridhar. That’s where IDEAS- RS originated from.

[pb_blockquote component_description=”Blockquote”]Leader believes in his follower and get the good things done from them[/pb_blockquote]

I take care of the client work and my wife takes care of the finance part of the company. We started out by conducting workshops for our clients to help them find ideas to solve their problems. It’s like running thorough diagnostics to identify and define the correct problem. We essentially help them find a solution by using our Creative Thinking Tool Kit. For instance: We were working with an NGO whose head was worried that people weren’t donating enough in their organization as there were many other NGOs with other causes and people were inclined to donate toward them more. It was an issue of donor’s loyalty. Or so she thought. So during the workshop, I asked people to ask her questions around her problems and had her answer them to the best of her capacity and thinking. All of which was getting recorded/captured on the screen. At the end of the session, we had some 23 different questions, one of which turned out to be most pertinent to her problem. “How to ensure that your current donors keep donating you regularly?”. And that question identified the real issue. It wasn’t about loyalty after all. Had we not gone through the Q&A session, we would have gone astray working on the wrong issue.

My wife and I were clear since the beginning that IDEAS-RS would be a small outfit. Our only child lives in the US and doesn’t want to move back. Hence, we will continue the way we are. I’m not chasing numbers like last year- I had this many clients or this much profit or let’s make it double this year. We are having fun and with God’s grace, we have built a good reputation in the market in the last 20 years. People know what I stand for. My reputation from back at Ogilvy and now as IDEAS- RS has been working well for us and that’s all we want.

If anyone wants to grow in this industry they can as there is a great need in the market. Every industry that is growing has a competition. Customers have choices and thus, there is tremendous competition.

[pb_blockquote component_description=”Blockquote”]Today consumer/ customer is educated and get to know more from the outside world than the inside world. So, you have a very adventurous market present[/pb_blockquote]

In this industry, the most important quality is your listening skills. When you are with a client you are listening to their issues.  The client may not to want to tell you openly about the issues they are facing. Sometimes they might just give you a hint saying their business isn’t the same anymore, or such. Then I would frame a question in a manner that they’d feel comfortable speaking up and address the main issue without feeling insecure or inhibited in any way. Earning the client’s trust is the most important point in our mechanics of work.

Leadership

There are people who are self-motivated. And then there are some who are good at adapting to others’ and doing the right thing. They are leaders. For e.g. Gandhi. There were/are many people who even though hadn’t met him, but understood his ideals/ notions and followed his footsteps. All our national leaders stood for something. They believed in their ideals and pursued them and people believed in them and followed.  Leadership is not about ordering others, it’s about people following them at their own will.  It is about setting an example and achieving important things that impact others. There are many kinds of leaders. Some can stand in front of people and motivate them. And some can stand behind them and get the work done from them.

[pb_blockquote component_description=”Blockquote”]Leadership is all about I’m there with you in good and bad circumstances[/pb_blockquote]

When a newborn child is learning to walk his parents stand behind the child and help them walk. It’s the trust of the child as well parents. So, leadership is all about I’m there with you in good times and bad times. That’s a leader is in my point of view.

Branding the business

Every brand needs to do business. There is no brand that can do no business. It goes hand – in –hand. There are corporate brands like TATA, Reliance, and TVS in the south and they all run businesses. The brand is a conceptual thing, but the results are tangible. What is the purpose of a business?

The purpose of a business is to find, get, keep and develop customers.

To keep the business running we need customers, no business can exist without a customer. When you say that you need someone to keep doing that, I need the customer to believe in my brand and have trust in my product. That’s how brands were born in the early days. So that’s what we do in product branding nowadays. Branding is all about trust and loyalty. Being a brand means that you have reached a great point in your business or career. People buy things to get jobs done. But they also want to feel good about what they bought. Sometimes it is important for them to know what others think of them. They say, factories make products; people buy brands. So, we don’t just buy any shoes – we buy Bata. We don’t buy any pair jeans; we buy Levis.

The brands drive businesses into a competitive market. They influence consumer choice.

[pb_blockquote component_description=”Blockquote”]Being a brand means that you have reached a great point in his business career and gives you a superior feeling in the market[/pb_blockquote]