The inspiration behind astrum is my passion for science: Ashwani Singla

On the occasion of the 9th anniversary of astrum, India’s first science-based specialist Reputation Management advisory, we engaged in a candid conversation with Ashwani Singla, Founding & Managing Partner, astrum, Reputation Advisory. During the conversation, Ashwani recounted his roller-coaster journey of founding and establishing astrum as India’s premier ‘research-based strategic communications firm’. He shared his inspiration, the founding idea, challenges, and highlighted what sets astrum apart.

Ashwani reminisced and shared the core idea behind starting astrum. He explained, “The inspiration for astrum is my passion for using behavioural science to understand attitudes and beliefs; It is my belief that deep insights are the fountainheads for persuasive programmes. If you go back to the history of public relations which was the early 1900’s, the founding fathers of our profession used sociology and phycology extensively in their work. So, after my tenure at Genesis B-M in 2010, I spent a lot of time studying the use of research and science in shaping public opinion ethically. As Asia MD of Penn Schoen Berland (Now PSB Research) research-based work took centre stage and I met over 100 CXOs across the country in a year, advocating the use of research (behavioural science) into strategic corporate communications. My success was limited, however, post my work as the campaign strategist for the BJP during PM Modi’s historic 2014 Lok Sabha victory, where use of data science was also significantly credited for the defining success of the campaign, it all came together and many of the CXOs I met earlier or the new ones wanted to better understand how to apply the lessons on the campaign trail to shape their corporate communications. This was the turning point that led to the birth of astrum, my passion project of converging science and creativity to shape public opinion ethically. 

The name of the firm, “astrum”, was quite captivating and we were very intrigued to learn the idea behind it.

To this, Ashwani answered, “astrum derived from the word ‘astra’ which usually denotes the brightest star in a constellation of stars. Our focus is to make our clients shine brightest amongst their constellation, and in the process, we (astrum) will shine the brightest amongst ours. The logo is an apostrophes indicating ‘strategic communications’ as our core business.”

Ashwani has been a leading voice in the PR & Communications industry for close to three decades. He is an ardent advocate of Talent development, the application of Science and the adoption of Technology to raise the bar of performance and bring greater respect and recognition to public relations practitioners.

Furthermore, when asked about the transformation he has encountered in the last nine years after starting astrum, Ashwani emphasized that the pre-COVID world was very different from the post-COVID world, especially with the rapid adoption of technology driven by the pandemic and tectonic shift taking place with the introduction generative AI which brings both massive benefits and challenges in equal measure.

He opinions that their research is pointing to a change in materiality in the post COVID world and we are experiencing a ‘Great Reputation Reboot’. “Stakeholder expectations are changing dramatically and corporate conduct is under greater scrutiny than ever before. Companies will need to recalibrate their strategic communications and or run the risk of stakeholder rejection and regulatory ire,” he added.

Talking about leveraging science and technology, he depicted some significant moments from his journey and emphasized the distinction between application of science and the use of technology. 

"We apply ‘Social Science’ to improve your understanding of behaviour and combine that with the use of ‘Data Science’ to build strong evidence based perspectives and persuasive communication; whereas we have adopted technology & technology-driven platforms to drive effectiveness. For example, in the year 2000, I founded IMPACT RESEARCH & MEASUREMENT, India's first technology based media intelligence service, that helped clients make sense of news to deliver better communication outcomes. With Impact Measurement, we introduced the science of media measurement and used technology to deliver our service experience,” he elaborated.

Reputation is the most valuable asset of every brand or organization and astrum is one of the shining stars in its constellation.

Ashwani revealed that astrum’s superpower is its very sharp focus on the 4 R's and E- Research, Reputation, Risk, Regulation, and ESG.

“The ESG services is our latest offering and we have developed a unique framework names CADDY™ (reflecting Ashwani’s passion for Golf) and is staffed by Climate Economics and Sustainability experts from London School of Economics and other Ivy League institutes with hands on experience in advising clients about their ESG strategy,” he elaborated.

Furthermore, he also explained the idea behind building a multi-disciplinary team, “We bring together highly qualified multi-disciplinary talent that is blend of serious expertise and experience to solve reputation, risk and regulatory related challenges for our clients rather than sell a particular service. Among the team of 30-plus people, we encourage diversity of thinking but built on shared set values and beliefs and focussed on achieving the same goal,

While discussing what sets astrum apart from the other firms, Ashwani talked about the quality of his team of professionals, he says it is his team that sets astrum apart and in recognition of that he has put his money where his mouth is.  According to him, astrum is the first firm in the world wide industry to introduce a unique ‘gates’ based model of revenue share for every Associate in the firm.  He says, “we have no appraisal and no performance reviews. We only focus on continuous learning and skill enhancement.” He added, “To create the path for equity participation in the company, I plan to dilute up to 40 to 45 percent equity to firm’s leaders.”

Expressing the future of the PR & Comms industry, he shared, “I think for our industry to fulfil its potential the most significant investment will continue to be in talent development. Our talent pools are seeing diminishing returns. To improve this, the industry needs better and higher education institutes and greater investments in professional development. Talent has to be our most significant investment and only then can we attract top talent. We need multi-skilled practioners with 21^st century skills and mindset to become trusted advisors to the boardroom."