In Conversation with Anand Bhadkamkar
Here’s our recent chat with Anand Bhadkamkar, erstwhile COO & CFO Greater South, Dentsu Aegis Network India, on being promoted as the agency’s CEO. Additionally, Ashish Bhasin is now elevated to the Asia Pacific (APAC) Chief Executive position.
First of all, very many congratulations on being appointed as the new CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network India. How does it feel?
Thank you very much. I am truly honored and excited for this new challenge and look forward to this opportunity to help deliver on DAN’s vision for India and partner with Ashish as Chairman of India in my new role, in this exciting chapter of our journey.
How are you expecting this new career opportunity to unfold for you?
We have amazing brands, great talent and leadership in place and are uniquely placed in the market to deliver solutions to our clients with our One P&L approach. I have been working closely with our brand leaders and alongside our 3700 colleagues in India in my capacity as CFO and COO. I am delighted to work with and now lead this dynamic and innovative team to take DAN forward in these exciting, digitally transformational times in India.
What will your newly created role focus on? How different is it from your previous position at DAN?
I have been with the DAN and partnered with Ashish and business leaders for the past 11 years. While that was in the capacity of CFO, recently I was running the operations in India in my capacity as COO as well. Therefore, that has given me further understanding of the business and our landscape as well. Additionally, Ashish will be continuing as Chairman of India. He continues to be a great source of inspiration to all of us in the organization. That will ensure continuity in the immediate future as well for our partners, clients etc.
Ashish Bhasin, the stalwart that he is, has played a prominent role in making DAN what it is today. How do you intend to carry his legacy forward? What vision do you hold for DAN for its coming year?
Under Ashish’s leadership, we have grown into 3700 strong team in the market with 23 brands, providing solutions to client’s business problems. Our biggest strengths are our people, our One P&L model supported by our strong digital, creative and OOH capabilities. This has fueled our growth in the market and it sets up in the best position versus our competitors. The immediate focus for coming year is to continue this growth momentum and build on same. Further leverage our strong digital capabilities to bring the best in class integrated services to the clients and drive operational excellence in the business with automation and developing further tools for improving service delivery. Acquisitions was a part of our growth strategy to partner with best talent and bring in new capabilities in the network and we will be continuing our focus on acquisitions in market.
What initiatives do you plan to continue building DAN into the country’s most innovative, future-proofed market-leading network?
Focus will be to attract and retain best talent in the business, by providing further development opportunities across the network and develop future leaders for the business. We have an entrepreneurial and innovative culture in the organization and we believe we provide best opportunities to talent in business be it in media, digital or OOH. I want to inculcate that culture further and provide environment that excites the curious minded, those who are willing to push boundaries and enable them to excel & lead in their respective areas in the organization.
How close is DAN in becoming a creative superpower?
We already are a creative superpower. Creativity and Client centricity remains at the heart of DAN’s solutions to its clients. We have strong creative agencies in Taproot, Dentsu Impact, Dentsu One, Dentsu India and Happy Mcgarrybowen, ably supported by the talent in our digital agencies as well. Our agencies were the maximum awarded agencies at Campaign, Goafest and Cannes.
We have one of the best creative talent in the market led by Aggi. We already have giants like Aggi, Paddy, Soumitra, Titus, PG Aditya, Anish and we have added on strong creative firepower to our already strong creative leaders with Malvika and Mahendra. We have set up a Creative Council in DAN India, which consists of creative leaders from across agencies who guide and mentor the creative talent in the Agencies.
No other group can boast of strengthening their creative abilities as much as we have and making them digitally ahead. Our creative agencies are future proofed. Era of dinosaurish legacy creative agencies is over. Now, it’s about providing clients the best of all the skills that the task needs and our agencies are best placed to provide that because of our One P&L approach.
