In this role, he is responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction to the IPG division. He aims to further strengthen HP’s leadership position in India by adding newer avenues and opportunities for the IPG division.
He joins HP with 20 years of experience in managing innovation and building sustainable businesses.

He has been on various senior leadership roles across varied technology portfolios. He brings strong expertise in managing complexity, creating different routes to markets, optimizing coverage, and most importantly leading high performing and motivated teams. He augments his background of managing hardware portfolios with three and half years of services experience.

Prior to joining HP, he was on a leadership role at IBM and was pivotal in building the new Lenovo organization when IBM divested from their PC business in 2005. During his years at IBM both in India and at Asia-Pacific level, Neeraj built an excellent reputation for developing, managing and sustaining successful business investments across various divisions. His significant assignment at IBM includes creating complex technology solutions for major clients across the region.

An engineer from College of Engineering at Guindy, Anna University. He is married with one child.

Mohit currently leads Belkin’s strategy and business for the Indian Sub continent, besides also being a key leader for the organization across Asia Pacific. His focus areas include enhancing visibility for the Belkin brand across market verticals and geographies, introducing customer centric product innovations to the market, increasing consumer touch & experience across product lines, establishing strong retail partner relationships, streamlining distribution & supply chain logistics and overall, increasing the company’s market share in the rapidly growing CE and IT market in India SC.

Mohit Anand joined Belkin in 2008 and ever since has been instrumental in ensuring that all operations of the company are well managed with the highest level of integrity. It is his vision that has moved Belkin from a start-up to the Market leader in Wireless networking space in India.

Mohit’s previous assignment was as Senior Vice President at Channel [V]. He played an important role in building the channel into the country’s most sought music channel for the urban youth. Mohit spearheaded Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division prior to his role at Channel [V]. At Microsoft, Mohit managed retail, media & entertainment partner relationships and also led the launch of Xbox360.

Acknowledged as one of the Top 50 young business leaders by Business India Magazine (2007), Mohit is also regarded as an Icon in the gaming industry, perhaps, since he is a game enthusiast himself! He holds a Bachelors degree in Science and a Post Graduate diploma in Systems Management.

Plantronics is a world leader in personal audio communications for professionals and consumers. Plantronics is used by every company in the Fortune 100 and is the headset of choice for air traffic control, 911dispatch and the New York Stock

He is responsible for strategy and business development functions for Plantronics. In his role as GM for New Ventures, Bhow is responsible for strategy, incubation, and execution of new
software and services initiatives, with a focus on mobile, tablet, and web solutions.

Prior to this role, Bhow led the development of Plantronics’ unified communications strategy and managed the UC solutions business. Bhow joined Plantronics in 2007 with 15 years of digital media software and services experience spanning mobile, web, video, home networking.

Bhow has held executive positions with companies such as Microsoft, Actiontec, and Telesystem, and deployed software/services/device solutions reaching tens of millions of users globally. As VP of Marketing and Product Management at Actiontec, Bhow built the leading Skype solutions business, grew roadband gateway business to over 4 million, and launched North America’s first FTTH home gateway.

Bhow was also Director of Product Strategy at Microsoft, where he led product initiatives for Microsoft’s digital TV, DVR, and video advertising business.

Bhow is a frequent speaker on issues around mobility, personal technology, and unified communications. Bhow holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of California at Berkeley.

He is been with the company for nine years and is responsible for India & SAARC region. He was been involved in setting up the complete operations for Plantronics in the region, including setting up back-office support and infrastructure and other all aspects like accounting, auditing and financial management.

His core responsibilities include supervising the day to day functioning, marketing and product management for Plantronics.

Prior to joining Plantronics, Bobby was the Sales Manager North & East Regions for Nokia India Pvt Limited. He has also worked with some of the leading brands like Walt Disney Consumer Products, Wipro Ltd. and Berger Paints.

Bobby completed his MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai after having done his Bachelor’s in Commerce from Sacred Heart College, Cochin.

Chandy comes with a rich experience of 25 years in the IT space. He carries with him the domain expertise in manufacturing and automobiles clubbed with the IT knowledge. A potent combination for an effective CIO

He has been the overall Business Lead for AsiaPacific, GM worldwide and EDS worldwide. In charge of $ 30 million of business and 400 consultants.

He is credited with implementing the first End to End SAP implementation at General Motors Japan. He has also led successful SAP implementations at Visteon Ford, LLoyd Steel, Sterlite, Kalyani Brakes, Pricol Pumps and Jurong Tech, Singapore.

His expertise lies in People management, Partnership Management,, Project Management and Client Relationship.

With 24 years in the company,  Seiji San has a rich experience across divisions and has worked with Canon Inc. for Laser beam printers, Inkjet printers and Imaging products. He has also been widely regarded for his contribution to Canon USA and Canon Europa.

Seiji San is a photography enthusiast himself and is passionate about cameras something that fits in so beautifully with his line of work.

In this video, I ask him why even attempt such an elaborate exercise. And his answers make sense. Ambadi is in the business of household apparels and aprons are their biggest export items. They mostly serve the overseas market and having a Guinness World Record to their name gives them a lot of credibility and brand recall. Its smart marketing.

Watch the video. It makes for an interesting conversation and has great marketing tips. We also shot lots of photographs from the Guinness World Record event.

Sir Martin Sorrell founded WPP, the World’s largest advertising and marketing services group in 1985 and has been Chief Executive throughout.

WPP companies, which include some of the most eminent agencies in the business, provide clients with advertising, media investment management, information, insight and consultancy, public relations and public affairs, branding and identity, healthcare communications, direct, interactive and internet marketing, and specialist communications services.

Collectively, WPP employs over 138,000 people in 2400 offices in 107 countries. The Group’s worldwide companies include JWT, Ogilvy Group, Y&R, Grey, Mindshare, Mediaedgecia, MediaCom, Kantar, Millward Brown, TNS, Wunderman, Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Landor, The Brand Union and WPP Digital. Clients include 354 of the Fortune Global 500, 60 of the NASDAQ 100 and 33 of the Fortune e50. In 2009, WPP had revenues of $13.6 Billion and billings of $59.4 Billion.

Sir Martin actively supports the advancement of international business schools – advising Harvard, IESE, the London Business School and the Indian School of Business. He has been an Ambassador for British Business, and has been publicly recognized with a number of awards including the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award. He received a knighthood in January 2000.

In this first part, Sir Martin talks about is initial journey as professional and how he entered entrepreneurship late in life and how he successfully scaled up his business through smart acquisitions.

We were initially planning to do a Skype conversation but at the last minute chose to speak on the phone which is why you will see him with his phone all the time.

This is a longish interview. The first part runs for about 20 minutes and is well worth the time. Incase you can’t wait for the next part, head over here to listen to the rest of the interview. I also recommend you read up about him in this Wikipedia page. Fascinating person who we should all seek inspiration from.

WPP companies, which include some of the most eminent agencies in the business, provide clients with advertising, media investment management, information, insight and consultancy, public relations and public affairs, branding and identity, healthcare communications, direct, interactive and internet marketing, and specialist communications services.

Collectively, WPP employs over 138,000 people in 2400 offices in 107 countries. The Group’s worldwide companies include JWT, Ogilvy Group, Y&R, Grey, Mindshare, Mediaedgecia, MediaCom, Kantar, Millward Brown, TNS, Wunderman, Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Landor, The Brand Union and WPP Digital. Clients include 354 of the Fortune Global 500, 60 of the NASDAQ 100 and 33 of the Fortune e50. In 2009, WPP had revenues of $13.6 Billion and billings of $59.4 Billion.

Sir Martin actively supports the advancement of international business schools – advising Harvard, IESE, the London Business School and the Indian School of Business. He has been an Ambassador for British Business, and has been publicly recognized with a number of awards including the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award. He received a knighthood in January 2000.

Sir Martin contributes to many important organizations and charities. In 2006, he was appointed a non-executive director of Alpha Topco, the Formula1 company. In 2008, he was appointed by The English Football Association to the Board in the bid to stage the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He is on the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum International Business Council and a member of the Business Council in the US. He is a patron of the British Museum, a member of the corporate advisory group of the Tate Gallery, and on the international Advisory Board of The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Badri Seshadri graduated with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1991 and a Ph.D from Cornell University in 1996.

He co-founded Cricinfo, a cricket website along with several others, and was one of the founding Directors of Cricinfo Ltd. in 1996, when it was incorporated as a company. Badri managed Cricinfo in India during 1996-99, functioned as Chief Operations Officer in UK in 1999-2000, worked as Director Commercial in India in 2001 and as Managing Director of the India operations and Chief Technology Officer between 2002-04. During 2004-05 he managed the mobile strategy for Cricinfo.

Badri is the Managing Director of New Horizon Media Private Limited. He maintains blogs in Tamil and English. He has contributed articles to Tamil magazines and ezines on Information Technology issues.

Badri Seshadri graduated with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1991 and a Ph.D from Cornell University in 1996.

He co-founded Cricinfo, a cricket website along with several others, and was one of the founding Directors of Cricinfo Ltd. in 1996, when it was incorporated as a company. Badri managed Cricinfo in India during 1996-99, functioned as Chief Operations Officer in UK in 1999-2000, worked as Director Commercial in India in 2001 and as Managing Director of the India operations and Chief Technology Officer between 2002-04. During 2004-05 he managed the mobile strategy for Cricinfo.

Badri is the Managing Director of New Horizon Media Private Limited. He maintains blogs in Tamil and English. He has contributed articles to Tamil magazines and ezines on Information Technology issues.

Dr.Pawan Agrawal has completed his Ph.D thesis on the title, ‘A study of Logistics and Supply Chain Management of Dabbawala in Mumbai’. He has traveled worldwide spreading awareness about the Mumbai Dabbawalas. He has delivered lectures in Paris, Netherlands, US, UK and at management institutions all over India.

The Mumbai Dabbawallas are international figures now thanks to Forbes Global. The Forbes story details the efficiency which with they deliver the tiffins of their customers. Around 5000 dabbawallas deliver 175,000 lunches everyday and take the empty tiffin back. They make one mistake in 2 months. This means there is one error on every 16 million transactions. This is thus a six sigma performance (a term used in quality assurance if the percentage of correctness is 99.999999) – the performance which has made companies like Motorola and GE world famous for their quality.

Lets listen to him more about this esteemed organization. Here’s Part 1, click here.

The Mumbai Dabbawallas are international figures now thanks to Forbes Global. The Forbes story details the efficiency which with they deliver the tiffins of their customers. Around 5000 dabbawallas deliver 175,000 lunches everyday and take the empty tiffin back. They make one mistake in 2 months. This means there is one error on every 16 million transactions. This is thus a six sigma performance (a term used in quality assurance if the percentage of correctness is 99.999999) – the performance which has made companies like Motorola and GE world famous for their quality.

Lets listen to him more about this esteemed organization. Here’s Part 1. If you want to watch Part 2, click here .

In less than 3 years his company Corp-Corp.com has reached over 6,000 US companies and generates 40,000 job postings every month.

Before founding Corp-Corp.com, Prabakaran worked extensively in leading online portal, financial services, healthcare and telecommunication industries building mission-critical data mining applications.

Praba hails from a small village near Tirunelveli in Tamilnadu, India. Through sheer hardwork, he has climbed to the position of CEO of a leading IT recruitment firm. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Washington DC, USA.

Close to 13.5 million underprivileged children in India are out of school and into child labour in order to earn a single meal in a day. (Source:www.worldbank.org.in)

The surest way to break out of the cycle of poverty is through education. Education can significantly improve the quality of life of a family for generations to come. When the basic needs of a child, such as food are not met, education often becomes the last priority.

Akshaya Patra is helping underprivileged children by providing them with a healthy, balanced meal that they would otherwise have to work for. The meal is an incentive for them to continue their education. It helps reduce the dropout rate to an enormous extent and increases classroom attendance.

Their mission is to reach out to 5 million children by 2020.

Mr. Suhas Gopinath at the age of 16 was recognized as the world’s youngest entrepreneur in by CNBC and e-Business, Canada. With this at the age of 17 he was recognized as the World’s Youngest CEO by leading Medias across the globe including BBC, Washington Times, The Age, etc., including Limca Book of Records. He is also designated as the resource person for Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmadabad, and Advisory Board member at IIT Bombay Entrepreneurship Cell.

In the year 2005, he became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Rajyotsava Award conferred on him by the State Government of Karnataka. Along with his professional activities, he has also volunteered as the Brand ambassador of PeTA and also the Youth Ambassador for Indo-Pak Leadership Program organized by School of Leadership, Pakistan.

On December 2, 2007, The European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred “Young Achiever Award” to Mr. Suhas Gopinath at the EU Parliament, Brussels, and he was also invited to address the European Parliament and other Business dignitaries assembled in the EU Parliament. Mr. Suhas Gopinath was recently announced as one of the “Young Global Leaders” for 2008-2009 by the prestigious World Economic Forum and he became the youngest member ever in the World Economic Forum’s history. His co-members include US Governor Bobby Jindal, Hollywood Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Musician A.R.Rahman, Prince of Brunei, etc. As the Young Global Leader from India, he will be involved in development programs across the world including leadership program at the Harvard University. In July 2008, his detailed biography was featured in the renowned Current- Biography Book published in New York along with Hollywood Actor George Clooney, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Governor of New York David Paterson, and other eminent personalities.

Sometime this month, I’ll be interviewing Thota Tharani and I’m inviting you to join in this collaborative podcast. If you have any questions for him, please ask them in the comments section. I’ll pick up select questions and ask him on your behalf.

Here’s a little about the man.

Thota Tharani is an Indian Film Art Director and production designer. He is a recipient of the National Film Award for Best Art Direction. He is highly sought after in the South Indian film industry. He has won the award twice in 1989 and 1997. He has received the Padma Shri in 2001. Most recently, he is the art director of Sivaji: The Boss . He has been the art director for very well known India films from the ’50s till date.

Thota Tharani has been involved in the art of set design since he was just twelve when he helped his father. Be it the creation of a realistic set of the Dharavi Slums or the colourful transparent bus of Kaadhalan, Tharani succeeds in creating the right ambience and the right tone. His realistic sets for Nayakan are awe inspiring and the grandeur of the sets he created for Thiruda Thiruda or Mudalvan add to the flavour of the films.

Most recently, he was the art director of Sivaji: The Boss and Dasavatharam.

He has completed more than 100 feature films as a Set Designer and Art Director. His expertise in magnificent and larger than life sets has been well appreciated and awarded. With all his name and fame he still believes in designing on paper and is also very particular about designing on inch graph paper so that all the designs are on scale and can be easily erected.

Just prior to this position, Farley was group vice president, global marketing and Canada, Mexico and South America. He had added responsibility for Ford’s operations in Canada, Mexico and South America in September 2009.

Farley joined Ford in November 2007. Since joining the company, he has led Ford’s drive to connect even more closely with customers through integrated global marketing, advertising, digital communications, brand development and research. In addition to his global marketing role, he will lead the company’s global sales and service operations – the first time Ford has a single global leader for marketing, sales and service.

Farley’s achievements at Ford include improving overall operation fitness of the company’s marketing and sales operations, his work to globally align the brand, and integration of the global marketing and sales team. In addition, he was instrumental in positioning Ford’s operations in Canada, Mexico and South America for continued future growth.

Prior to joining Ford, Farley was group vice president and general manager of Lexus, responsible for all sales, marketing and customer satisfaction activities for Toyota’s luxury brand. Before leading Lexus, Farley served as group vice president of Toyota Division marketing and was responsible for all Toyota Division market planning, advertising, merchandising, sales promotion, incentives and Internet activities.

Farley joined Toyota in 1990 in the strategic planning department. He served in several product and marketing positions, including Lexus product planner, manager of Toyota truck product planning, manager of the Toyota truck series team marketing and national advertising manager. He also was general manager of product management for Toyota Europe.

One of Farley’s most noted accomplishments is his responsibility for the successful launch and rollout of Toyota’s new Scion brand. As Scion corporate manager, Farley focused on product development, sales planning, customer services, logistics and distribution. He later was promoted to vice president of Scion and was responsible for all Scion activities.

Farley attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he completed his MBA with a focus in finance. Farley and his wife, Lia, have three children.

Prior to this, Atul Bindal was President, Telemedia Services. In his previous roles, Atul has served as Executive Director South for the Mobility business, and before that as Group Chief Marketing Officer and Director Mobility.

Atul is a Mechanical Engineer from Delhi University, and a Post Graduate in Management from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Before moving to Bharti, Atul was Commercial Director, Asia Pacific with DHL at Singapore with executive responsibilities for Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Pricing and E Commerce for the US$1.5Bln region.

Previously, Atul served with AlliedSignal/Honeywell for almost seven years across India, Asia Pacific and USA in various operating and functional roles. He was VP & GM Asia, Middle East and Africa for the Power Systems Business when he left Honeywell. Earlier, Atul has worked in various leadership roles in Marketing, Sales and General Management with American Express, Lipton and Shell.

Mascarenas is responsible for delivering on Ford’s commitment to offer more new products, faster than ever before, by working to leverage greater sharing and reuse of common vehicle and parts designs globally. Mascarenas is also helping develop and implement a Global Ford Brand Engineering DNA.

He has played a lead role in the development and launch of key North America products including the 2008 F-Series Super Duty, 2007 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers, as well as the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ mid-size sedans.

Before he was elected a Vice President in 2004, Mascarenas was Executive Director of Product Development for medium and large front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive cars in North America.

Prior to moving to Dearborn, Mascarenas was Vehicle Line Director for the Ford Mondeo, which is the Ford brand’s flagship sedan in Europe, Asia and South America.

Mascarenas joined Ford in 1982. Over the course of assignments in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, he amassed extensive experience in product creation with assignments in Product Planning, Program Management, Body Engineering and Powertrain.

Mascarenas holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of London, King’s College in England. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and was elected an SAE Fellow in 2009. He served as General Chairperson for the 2010 SAE World Congress and chaired the 2010 SAE Convergence event.

A Chartered Accountant by profession, he brings varied experiences in creating & recreating systems, having worked in different capacities in Consultancy, Manufacturing & Service industries. In his 20 years of experience, he has worked with S.B. Billimoria, Eicher group, Lumax Group ,Bharti Airtel and IBM having carried out roles in Business Finance, Strategic Planning, Operations & Customer Service. Ramky spearheads our Real Estate residential projects.

Edsel B. Ford II is a member of the Board of Directors of Ford Motor Company. He was elected to the Board in 1988. As a consultant to Ford, Mr. Ford is active in company affairs and corporate dealer relations.

Mr. Ford began his career at Ford Motor Company in January 1974. He was named president and chief operating officer of Ford Motor Credit Company in May 1991 and elected a company vice president on December 9, 1993.

Mr. Ford is very active in several charitable organizations. He is the former Chairman of the National Advisory Board of The Salvation Army, Chairman of the Detroit 300 Conservancy and a board member of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the Skillman Foundation.

Mr. Ford was born on December 27, 1948, in Detroit. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Babson College in 1973 and completed the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School in 1981.

Mr. Ford is the great-grandson of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. His grandfather is Edsel B. Ford, company president from 1919 to 1943. His late father, Henry Ford II, was president of the company from 1945 to 1960 and chairman from 1960 to 1980

Scott has worked with senior-level executives at a wide range of companies, from start-ups to large multinational organizations. Scott is well known for providing advice and strategic counsel that address business issues. He has various significant experiences in Social media marketing, New media strategies, Integrated marketing and communications strategies, Creative ideation, Public speaking and Speechwriting.

Interesting links

http://www.scottmonty.com

http://twitter.com/scottmonty

http://facebook.com/scott.monty

http://www.bakerstreetblog.com

http://www.ihearofsherlock.com

http://www.nothingcouldbefinerdiner.com

Vivek has spent the last 10 yrs in the field of interactive marketing. He is the founder of Communicate 2 which launched itself as a full fledged interactive agency and has evolved into a search specialist organization. Vivek personally feels that the future of advertising lies in contextual advertising, and it will require a balance of technology and a large team of people to cater to the growing needs of the industry. He is focused on building Communicate 2 into a 1000 people search firm from the current strength of 80+ people organization.

As the chairman of SEMPO India, Vivek is primarily focused on spreading awareness about search marketing in emerging markets. He is a known speaker who is regularly invited to speak at venues such as Rotary Regional Conferences, Chambers of Commerce, and Management Colleges in India and abroad. His professional memberships include the Young Entrepreneurs Organization.

Ramkumar has more than 12 years of engineering and corporate development experience in varied positions at AMD. Ramkumar previously was a senior member of the Technology Development Group. Most recently, he was director of corporate development, responsible for initiatives in China, Brazil and Russia.

He holds a bachelors degree in chemical engineering from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, and a PhD in chemical engineering from Michigan State University and an MBA from Duke University.

Ramkumar Subramanian, VP, Sales & Marketing, AMD.
Ramkumar has more than 12 years of engineering and corporate development experience in varied positions at AMD. Ramkumar previously was a senior member of the Technology Development Group. Most recently, he was director of corporate development, responsible for initiatives in China, Brazil and Russia.
He holds a bachelors degree in chemical engineering from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, and a PhD in chemical engineering from Michigan State University and an MBA from Duke University.

Kris’ initial responsibilities at Infosys included management of design, development, implementation and support of information systems for clients in the consumer products industry in the U.S. Between 1987 and 1994, he headed the technical operations of KSA/Infosys (a joint venture between Infosys and KSA at Atlanta, U.S.) as Vice President (Technical). In 1994, Kris returned to India and was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the company.

Ram comes with a vast experience of over 13 years in media sales and marketing with both traditional and new media organizations like Indian Express, Microland, Encore Events, Jobsahead.com, Madison, Tribal DDB India and Yahoo India. Before launching networkplay.in, he was National Sales Head – Performance Accounts, for Yahoo! in India. He was responsible for driving close to 50% of Yahoo’s annual revenues across Performance Display (Graphical), Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) and Inside Sales Organization (ISO). He was also responsible for the implementation of Right Media in India.

Prior to that, as National Sales Director with Tribal DDB, he built the media business for the agency from ground zero having won many accounts to make it the number one agency with a capitalized billing of over 16 Million USD annually. Some of the accounts include Times Business Solutions (Timesjobs.com, Simplymarry.com, Magicbricks.com, and Yolist.com), Honda Siel Cars, Yatra.com, HCL, Volkswagen India, and Apollo DKV.

He has been nominated at several advertising / marketing award forums including Cannes for the Cyber Lion Award (2006) for the work done on Timesjobs.com in the direct marketing category.

An avid speaker at many industry forums, he has been the voice of the new generation internet media companies in the marketplace. Ram has also recently won the Star Youth Achiever Award for the year 2009

Ad:tech is the World’s #1 Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising Event. It has taken place in New York, Sydney, Melhourne, San Francisco, Singapore, London, Shanghai, Tokyo and Beijing. Now, for the first time, the event is coming to India on April 27 & 28 where where brands, agencies, publishers and service providers come together to share, network, learn and do business.

For more than ten years, ad:tech has provided media, marketing and technology professionals with the tools and techniques they need to succeed in a changing digital world. With 10 shows in 7 countries, ad:tech’s globally respected roster of speakers, workshops and exhibitors continues to make it the preferred resource and destination for digital marketers everywhere.

The event includes a full conference program featuring leading minds, globally respected international keynote presentations the most targeted exhibition floor showcasing industry leaders.

Ram comes with a vast experience of over 13 years in media sales and marketing with both traditional and new media organizations like Indian Express, Microland, Encore Events, Jobsahead.com, Madison, Tribal DDB India and Yahoo India. Before launching networkplay.in, he was National Sales Head – Performance Accounts, for Yahoo! in India. He was responsible for driving close to 50% of Yahoo’s annual revenues across Performance Display (Graphical), Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) and Inside Sales Organization (ISO). He was also responsible for the implementation of Right Media in India.

Prior to that, as National Sales Director with Tribal DDB, he built the media business for the agency from ground zero having won many accounts to make it the number one agency with a capitalized billing of over 16 Million USD annually. Some of the accounts include Times Business Solutions (Timesjobs.com, Simplymarry.com, Magicbricks.com, and Yolist.com), Honda Siel Cars, Yatra.com, HCL, Volkswagen India, and Apollo DKV.

He has been nominated at several advertising / marketing award forums including Cannes for the Cyber Lion Award (2006) for the work done on Timesjobs.com in the direct marketing category.

An avid speaker at many industry forums, he has been the voice of the new generation internet media companies in the marketplace. Ram has also recently won the Star Youth Achiever Award for the year 2009

Hari’s focus is to help LinkedIn better serve its membership and customers on a local basis. Consistent with LinkedIn’s mission, he aims to connect all of India’s professionals to make them more successful and productive. Hari has a strong entrepreneurial experience in building businesses and companies in India and abroad. He has worked in leadership positions in companies such as Yahoo!, Cisco Systems, Fox Interactive Media, Travel guru, and also co-founded stylkist.com. He brings diverse business experience having led functions in Corporate Planning,  Strategic Alliances, Marketing & Product Management and has been associated with the internet industry for over 10 years. His previous stint before joining LinkedIn was as Country Head for MySpace India.

His primary focus is on leadership development with a responsibility to breed Intrapreneurs by imparting skills in all functional areas. He moved in to this position from his earlier role as President and Chief Mentor of the Centre for Leadership Intrapreneurship and Management Excellence (CLIME), a consultancy organization involved in leadership process interventions for top management in Multinational corporations in India, Singapore and the US.

I met up with him to pick up nuggets of wisdom on Leadership Branding.

Of course, the teachers were wrong. At 16, after he lost all his vision, Iqbal’s uncle took him to Oregon, USA, where he enrolled in a special needs school with special educators.

With over 22 years of experience leading global corporations in the IT/BPO industry, Mohan brings on board a valuable and unique amalgamation of cultures, diversity and globalization.

Prior to joining Collabera, Mohan held leadership positions at iGATE Global Solutions as a Member of the Board and Chief Delivery Officer and was instrumental in transforming the organization to a high value integrated business and technology solutions provider. Prior to iGATE, he was Senior Vice President at Infosys Technologies responsible for Customer Delivery for the North America region and horizontal services globally. As a member of the Management Council he was also responsible for driving many of their global transformational initiatives. Mohan started his career with Cap Gemini America and spent over 12 years working with AT&T in New Jersey, USA.

Mohan has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Bangalore University.

Seturaman Mahalingam or “Maha”, as he is better known, started his professional career with Tata Consultancy Services in 1970. In his 40-year career with TCS, Maha has been involved in myriad aspects of the Company’s operations and growth, before being appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company in February 2003 and as Executive Director in August 2007.

A chartered accountant by qualification, Maha began his career as an IT consultant and thereafter played a major role in marketing TCS services across the globe, developing processes and creating large software development centers for the Company.

As an early starter in the Indian IT industry, Maha has played a key role in helping TCS become a $6.3 billion global company with over 160,000 employees.

Prior to becoming the Chief Financial Officer in February 2003, Maha has managed many of the key functions in TCS including Marketing, Operations, Education and Training as well as Human Resources. He managed the company’s operations in London and New York in the early days of TCS’ global journey.

Maha was conferred the ‘CFO of the Year’ award 2006 announced by International Market Assessment (IMA). Maha was also the winner of CNBC TV18’s Best Performing CFO Award in the Technology Sector for 2007.

Born in February 1948, Maha is married with two children and lives in Mumbai.

During that time, he not only developed a profound practical understanding and appreciation for many of the world’s cultures, but figured out a way to do business in these countries by implementing world class business skills and procedures perfected in one country, and integrating them into a different country, while paying close attention to existing local cultural differences.

The idea of dotSUB was born in early 2004 after viewing the film “Fahrenheit 911.” Michael realized that if one documentary film in English ‘might’ have an impact on a very close US Presidential election, what would happen if all independent and documentary films, television programming and video from all cultures could be made available in all languages – what a powerful impact on the world that would be!

The goal was to create a tool that was as simple to use as the Google search bar, with no downloads, that could engage the power, methodologies and thinking of open source, wikipedia, social networking, creative commons and web2.0 user involvement to substantially remove language and cost as a barrier to cross-cultural communication using video.

It took three years to create the patent pending tool and process, and now dotSUB is integrating its functionality with businesses and organizations in all fields – for anyone using video as an internal or external communication tool. dotSUB is creating the ability and global network to re-purpose this content into all of the world’s languages at a cost approaching an order of magnitude less than using traditional tools and methods.

During its beta launch, dotSUB has entered in partnerships with TED, Pangea Day, PopTech, ICANN, Brightcove, SDI Media. it is playing a leading role in putting the issue of language on the radar screen of corporations and organizations of all types and sizes, and has begun to make a profound difference in reducing language as a barrier to cross cultural communications.

Picture Courtesy : JD Lasica

Mahindra was a co-promoter of Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd., which in 2003 was converted into a bank. Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the foremost private sector banks today. Also Tech Mahindra, a IT part of the M&M group is one of the fastest growing in the industry. Tech Mahindra has recently acquired Satyam Computer Services Ltd. and renamed it Mahindra Satyam.

Under Anand Mahindra, the company launched India’s best loved SUV, the Scorpio, which today has gone global.

He has recently been ranked amongst the most influential men & women in Mumbai by DNA.

I bumped into him at the Chennai airport and pulled him aside for a quick, impromptu interview. There was a Xone shop, the wireless headphones for which he is a brand ambassador. It was inside the airport and we snuck ourselves in for this interview.

His work blends classical drumming styles — he studied with Carnatic master S.P. Balasubramaniam — with jazz and world beats to create a propulsive sound that pulls in many instruments and traditions.

As a child, he says, he drummed on pots and pans in the kitchen, and that exuberance seems never to have left him.

He’s an enthusiastic ambassador for the drum around India and the globe, and a frequent collaborator. A few notable match-ups: Youssou N’Dour, tabla player Zakir Hussain, flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia, percussionist Elvin Jones, and A.R. Rahman, composer of Bombay Dreams.

Kalpana is the Chairperson of the award-winning program, Indian Women’s Leadership Council (IWLC). This program’s concern is not restricted for women to just take on higher managerial posts but also technical jobs thereby enhancing their technical, professional and personal development. And Margabandhu believes diversity can only enhance an organisation. With more women and minorities in its management ranks, she says, the company has sharply increased the amount of business it has done with a number of small and mid-sized minority and women-owned companies in the US.

She leads Adapters, WPG (WebSphere Partner Gateway), WDI (WebSphere Data Interchange) and AIM (Application Integration Management) development in India.

Raja has also held senior marketing positions in two telco’s: Airtel and Tata Tele Services. Raja was responsible for the roll out of Airtel services in 2 circles : Tamilnadu and Kerala. At Tata Tele, Raja was responsible for rolling out services in Karnataka for Mobile and Landline services. Raja also has FMCG Marketing experience having worked for Unilever in the Middle East and Reckitt Benckiser in India

In 2010, he was named to his current position adding hardware and systems to his responsibilities. In this capacity, he is responsible for directing approximately 100,000 employees spanning development, manufacturing, sales, marketing and support professions.
IBM’s product business contributes $40B of IBM’s revenue. IBM’s industry-leading products provide critical business integration infrastructure that powers more than 100,000 enterprises around the world.

Kiruba Shankar speech “Social Media in Advertising” sponsored by The Hindu & Advertising Club Madras

This podcast interview was taken when he was the head of marketing at Nokia India. Since then, he has climbed the corporate ladder impressively.

In this podcast, Devinder talks about the challenges of marketing the huge array of phones.

The audio isn’t great and I’ll have to learn to ask shorter questions. If you can bear these, there’s something intersting for you.

Earlier he was Director at Nokia APAC (based in Singapore) and prior to that as Head of Global Technology Marketing at Nokia Technology Platforms at Finland and Nokia Mobile Phones at Hong Kong.

He was always a “automobile freak” right from his childhood and had passion towards pursuing his dream of starting his own garage and that is how Ignite was started. He owns a very innovative garage called IGNITE at ECR Road, Chennai which caters to all kinds of car services right from maruti to BMW.

After starting this garage, within a short span of time he made a mark in what he was doing and the emerging entrepreneur is here to stay for a long.

Its a very interesting interview with Raghav and he explains how his garage works. Take a look at it.

Hechler has accumulated nearly 25 years of experience in software development throughout his professional career at SAP, which began in 1984 in the financials area for SAP R/2 and for SAP R/3. In 1997, he was named head of public sector development. In 2001, Hechler was promoted to lead the public sector, defense & public security industries.

In 2003, his area of responsibility was again expanded as he became SVP for HCM, and public sector development and ERP operations. Since November 2005, Hechler is general manager of product area ERP. These duties were expanded even further in 2007 when he took on responsibility for the PTU Suite Core.

Hechler holds a master’s degree in information systems and economics from the University of Saarbrucken, Germany.

He entered the Indian Administrative Service in 1986 after teaching Political Science in Madras Christian College for five years.

He has held various positions within the government. Here are a few

- Commissioner, Madurai Corporation
- Collector, Vellore
- Director, Handlooms & Textiles
- Special Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department
- Chairman, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd

Ever since he joined Standard Chartered Bank in 1989, Akshaya has held several key technology roles in the Bank, including Head of Technology ( India ), Y2K Technology Programme Manager (Africa) and Regional Head of Information Systems ( Africa ). Akshaya has also spearheaded the Banks application outsourcing programme.

Akshaya brings with him several years of experience garnered from his career in the IT Industry. He was among the pioneer Indian software development professionals to be placed in USA, as early as 1980. He has worked in various capacities from Software Development & Export, Data Centre Management, Sales, Product Management and Marketing.

Akshaya holds a Bachelor of Technology (Civil Engineering) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a Post Graduate degree in Systems & Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India.

MARG Ltd was incorporated in 1994 and has completed projects in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc. The Company and/or its subsidiaries have offices in India, China and Singapore.The Company has designing, construction, development and operational capabilities in Marine Infrastructure, Dredging, Integrated Townships, IT Parks, Commercial and Residential Spaces. The Company has been certified for ISO 9001: 2008 certification for carrying out activities in planning and development of commercial, residential and turnkey projects.The company’s esteemed clientele include Scope International (Standard Chartered Bank), TATA Consultancy Services, BHEL, Enercon India, Slash Support Systems, L&T, Indian Railways and Elcot, among others.

MARG Ltd was incorporated in 1994 and has completed projects in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc. The Company and/or its subsidiaries have offices in India, China and Singapore.The Company has designing, construction, development and operational capabilities in Marine Infrastructure, Dredging, Integrated Townships, IT Parks, Commercial and Residential Spaces. The Company has been certified for ISO 9001: 2008 certification for carrying out activities in planning and development of commercial, residential and turnkey projects.The company’s esteemed clientele include Scope International (Standard Chartered Bank), TATA Consultancy Services, BHEL, Enercon India, Slash Support Systems, L&T, Indian Railways and Elcot, among others.

MARG Ltd was incorporated in 1994 and has completed projects in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc. The Company and/or its subsidiaries have offices in India, China and Singapore.The Company has designing, construction, development and operational capabilities in Marine Infrastructure, Dredging, Integrated Townships, IT Parks, Commercial and Residential Spaces. The Company has been certified for ISO 9001: 2008 certification for carrying out activities in planning and development of commercial, residential and turnkey projects.The company’s esteemed clientele include Scope International (Standard Chartered Bank), TATA Consultancy Services, BHEL, Enercon India, Slash Support Systems, L&T, Indian Railways and Elcot, among others.

MARG Ltd was incorporated in 1994 and has completed projects in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc. The Company and/or its subsidiaries have offices in India, China and Singapore.The Company has designing, construction, development and operational capabilities in Marine Infrastructure, Dredging, Integrated Townships, IT Parks, Commercial and Residential Spaces. The Company has been certified for ISO 9001: 2008 certification for carrying out activities in planning and development of commercial, residential and turnkey projects.The company’s esteemed clientele include Scope International (Standard Chartered Bank), TATA Consultancy Services, BHEL, Enercon India, Slash Support Systems, L&T, Indian Railways and Elcot, among others.

MARG Ltd was incorporated in 1994 and has completed projects in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc. The Company and/or its subsidiaries have offices in India, China and Singapore.The Company has designing, construction, development and operational capabilities in Marine Infrastructure, Dredging, Integrated Townships, IT Parks, Commercial and Residential Spaces. The Company has been certified for ISO 9001: 2008 certification for carrying out activities in planning and development of commercial, residential and turnkey projects.The company’s esteemed clientele include Scope International (Standard Chartered Bank), TATA Consultancy Services, BHEL, Enercon India, Slash Support Systems, L&T, Indian Railways and Elcot, among others.

Suman is a member of the Global Executive Committee of Euro RSCG. He has also been a member of Euro RSCG’s global planning council & Chairman of the Emerging Markets Planning Council. He led Euro RSCG’s studies on the Remixed Generation which has been done in India, China, Mexico & Brazil.

Suman cut his teeth working on Unilever brands. He has been closely involved in insightful communication strategy with Food and beverage, FMCG, Consumer durable, software, dot com and financial service brands. His interests are reading, tennis, trend spotting and training. Also making creative cocktails.

Suman Srivastava is an Economics graduate and an MBA from the Indian institute of Management at Ahmedabad.

Gaurav, in this podcast, shares his experiences of using Digital marketing techniques for few brands in the GM stable.

Prior to being Director of Marketing at GM India, he was head of Asia Pacific Operations at GM Singapore.

There are a couple of things that motivated me to do this podcast.

1) Amongst all financial dailies, I like Mint the best for its content, style and looks.

2) I liked how Mint attempted to integrate audio and video podcasts to regular print news coverage.

3) I heard Sukumar moderate a panel discussion at the IAMAI Markeing Conclave and he impressed me with his candor, wit and incisiveness.

I caught up with him right after his session finished and asked him his views on an integrated newsroom. If you are associated with any sort of media, this would make for an useful listening.

R.Sukumar is also a comic book freak and an amateur birder.

Listen in.

In her previous job, she held the high profile job as Chief Marketing Officer at Wipro Technologies.

Prior to that, she was Head of Worldwide Marketing at iGATE Global Solutions and Global Brand Manager at Infosys Technologies.

With over 15 years in services marketing, including a stint with Ogilvy & Mather Advertising where she handled a variety of brands, Jessie is considered an expert in brand globalization, and has been named one of the most influential business women in the Indian IT industry.

Jessie is a Computer Science engineer from NIT,Trichy and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

In her previous job, she held the high profile job as Chief Marketing Officer at Wipro Technologies.

Prior to that, she was Head of Worldwide Marketing at iGATE Global Solutions and Global Brand Manager at Infosys Technologies.

With over 15 years in services marketing, including a stint with Ogilvy & Mather Advertising where she handled a variety of brands, Jessie is considered an expert in brand globalization, and has been named one of the most influential business women in the Indian IT industry.

Jessie is a Computer Science engineer from NIT,Trichy and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

Prior to being the President, Training.com, Mohit was Director at Times Internet Limited (The Times of India Group). Earlier, he was Senior Vice President & General Manager at Contract Advertising.

Mohit’s specialties are Brand building, digital incubation, online content monetization and website usability.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team was established by the Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India in January 2004 with a specific mandate to respond to computer security incidents.

You can learn more about CERT-in at cert-in.org.in

He was earlier the Managing Director of Reuters.

I caught up with him at the IAMAI Marketing Conclave where we explains why news websites should go pay to survive. He takes the success story of how Wall Street Journal, which charges a subscription fee to access its online site.

Interesting discussion.

Rajesh got his first book published when he was thirteen and had six books published before sixteen. That was mostly fiction. Today his writing is focused on business and management.

You can read more about his books here rajeshsetty.com/​resources/​books/

In this episode, Rajesh talks about his books and what prompted him to write these books.

Rajesh got his first book published when he was thirteen and had six books published before sixteen. That was mostly fiction. Today his writing is focused on business and management.

You can read more about his books here rajeshsetty.com/​resources/​books/

In this episode, Rajesh talks about his books and what prompted him to write these books.

In 2007 he surveyed the essence of a winner and the results of which was made into a book ”A Winner’s DNA”. The following year Rasmus Ankersen released yet another bestseller ”Leader DNA”. The book received raving reviews and was highly debated in various papers and magazines.

Rasmus Ankersen is now teaching top sports people and national coaches in the mindset that creates winners and winning cultures. Further he is inspiring leaders and talents within the business world.

Praveen Sahai has full responsibility for Iomega’s operations in India and the SAARC region, including pre-sales, sales, marketing and partner support.

Prior to his current posting, Praveen was Head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs, India & SAARC for EMC, where he was responsible for spearheading strategic planning initiatives, including marketing strategy, and corporate brand building, as well as developing relationships with internal and external stakeholders in the region.

Praveen joined EMC with a distinguished career record, having held senior positions in various multinationals and Indian corporations. At Sun Microsystems, Praveen held the position of Product Marketing Manager for South Asia, responsible for developing marketing strategies for Sun’s data management group.

Prior to her global role, Harlow was Vice President of Marketing for North America. Among her many accomplishments, Harlow led Nokia’s North America marketing organization through the successful launch of a series of Nokia Experience Centers around North America and Nokia-branded theater venues in the United States. The Nokia Experience Centers are concept stores placed in metropolitan cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and New York which provide a retail venue where consumers can experience and learn about Nokia devices without the pressure of purchasing. The Nokia Theater venues are a collaboration between Nokia and AEG Live and are part of the ‘Nokia Unwired’ marketing platform, which brings live music to fans through concert tours and music-oriented TV programming. There are Nokia Theater locations in Dallas, Times Square New York and Los Angeles.

Harlow joined Nokia in 2003, after a successful 18 year career at Reebok and Procter and Gamble. Harlow earned a reputation for developing and implementing successful marketing organizations and strategies to achieve volume growth and market share goals. During her tenure as Reebok’s Vice President of Marketing for Western Europe, she served a dual role as the General Manager for Reebok France where she had full profit and loss responsibility as well as responsibility for all operations.

Harlow earned a B.S. degree in Psychology from Duke University and captained the Division 1 women’s basketball team.

Setty wrote and published his first book when he was thirteen and got five other books published before he was sixteen. Setty is the author of “Beyond Code” (Foreword by Tom Peters) published in late 2005 and also the author of “Upbeat: Cultivating the Right Attitude to Thrive in Tough Times” (Foreword by Russ Fradin, chairman and CEO of Hewitt Associates) published in May 2009.

Setty has been involved with social media since 2003 and maintains a blog called Life Beyond Code where he has published more than 1300 articles on Leadership, Entrepreneurship and simply Living a Life Beyond Code. Life Beyond Code was named as one of the “Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs in 2008” by HRWorld. Setty’s manifesto, (at ChangeThis.com) “25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself” is one of the Top 5 Downloaded Manifestos on the site. His eBook “Personal Branding for Technology Professionals” has been downloaded more than 160,000 times.

Setty has spoken to audiences in several countries both at conferences and within companies. His 90-minute program on how to increase leverage in your life, “The Fulcrum Effect,” is available on DVD.

Setty lives with his wife Kavitha and their son Sumukh in Silicon Valley. You can read more about him at rajeshsetty.com/​about/

Prior to his appointment, he was Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at the French Embassy in the USA, the leading market for French exports outside the European Union and the largest source of foreign direct investment in France, where 3,700 subsidiaries of American companies employ a total of 600,000 people.

Over the past decade, he has steered the TVS Group to success in the face of global competition. He has incubated over eight businesses, and has over 25 years of operational experience in India, along with a wide network of relationships across the world.