“We should be willing to get down, and get our hands dirty”: Ashok Venkatramani
Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS, enthralled the distinguished gathering at the exchange4media Conclave 2009 that was held in Delhi on June 5 with his keen insight on what are the lessons one should learn from recession. Sounding optimistic he said, “One has to attack unwanted costs and look at alternative revenue streams.”
In the Special Address at the exchange4media Conclave 2009 in Delhi on June 5, Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS, explained the key symptoms of recession. He stated, “If the customers become more conscious and the sales begin to slide, there is a problem. Secondly, if it is becoming a buyers’ share and the shareholders’ share is getting affected in the bargain, then it is an alarming situation. Also, if the established ways of work are getting challenging – then we are facing recession.”
Setting the tone of the session with these points, Venkatramani added, “In the given situation, one has to look at survival tactics. To my mind, the attitude of organisations has to be positive. One should be willing to dirty their hands while doing the right thing. One should focus on ‘need to do’ and ‘not nice to do’ and finally, the heads should be in work and business, and not the hearts.”
Specifying some of the important steps that an organisation needs to look at, he said, “We need to get a fix on the cost structure and attack all unwanted costs. One needs to focus more on content and also look at alternate revenue streams. Every organisation should conserve cash, seek barter and cut credits. These values should help in changing things.”
Further emphasising these points, he elaborated, “The organisations at this point have to define their core preposition, differentiate their content and focus more on brand building. The industry has huge egos, but at this point in time, when the world is facing a tough time one should not let these egos come in the way of business. The only way to tackle such a situation is to take it head-on and break all barriers.”
Venkatramani’s special session was followed by a Q&A session. One of the questions was five things that Venkatramani would want to change about the news broadcast industry, to which he said, “I think every broadcaster would welcome change in terms of trade between media buying agencies and us. Distribution system needs to be changed. Technology needs to be upgraded, there is no serious training that is offered by an organisation and we need to put that in place.”
The Q&A session saw many more questions ranging from paid content to shared news and conserving cash. Venkatramani batted the answers well, and it was well received by the audiences too. Venkatramani who has spent all of his career helping build brands and buying media brought in a perspective from a brand owner and brought a fresh perspective of business person who was not prejudiced by the media industry and someone who would like to bring established business benchmarks to media industry.
