The Job
My core focus is to establish Nuvama as the most valuable wealth management brand in India. While the group has a 25-year legacy, the Nuvama brand itself is just about three years old. This makes building trust and credibility across our diverse business spectrum – wealth management, asset management and capital markets absolutely paramount. My role involves driving a unified brand narrative through various interventions across the entire marketing funnel. This spans client acquisition strategies, communications, events, customer engagement, shaping our ESG charter, learning & development, employer branding, shaping public opinion to steering digital presence. Essentially, my team and I dip into everything that impacts and defines the brand.
The Weekdays
My mornings begin with a hot cup of chai and a whiteboard full of ideas. Imagine juggling flaming swords while riding a unicycle on a tightrope of budgetary constraints – that’s my everyday start. By noon, I am often persuading my compliance team that edgy does not mean illegal.
Afternoons are for team meetings and reviews – brainstorming campaigns, aligning with business heads, and collaborating across functions. On some days, you will also find me debating about fonts as though they were life-altering decisions. Evenings are for reflection, mostly analyzing what worked and what didn’t. Over time, I have realised that marketing is 20% strategy and 80% improv comedy.
The Weekend
I try to keep weekends sacred, though I rarely manage 100%. Mornings are reserved for intense badminton sessions, while much of the day is for my son, who is currently into football and tennis. Watching him play motivates me immensely.
The rest of the time, I am on driver duty for the family, clearing long-pending chores or experimenting in the kitchen. My MasterChef experiments score a 60-75% success rate.
Evenings are often spent with friends – drinks that begin at sane hours but often end with breakfast the next morning. If I am not on the field, I am watching a movie on the big screen, soaking the immersive experience of the theatre, as opposed to bingeing on Netflix or any other streaming platform. By Sunday evening, I am already gearing up for another week of boardrooms and banter.
The Toys
Humans have become slaves of mobile phones, and I am no exception to that. My day begins and ends with my phone, that’s where markets, communications and ideas converge. My MacBook rarely leaves my side, and I feel fully in control with my laptop bag in tow – complete with its diary, hard drive, an electronic kit and organiser.
For work, we rely on Teams analytics dashboards for campaign insights, and LinkedIn for both networking and brand storytelling. LinkedIn is my go-to platform. It has a healthy mix of content which is useful on both the personal and professional fronts.
We are also experimenting heavily with AI platforms for our creative and content needs. The way AI is reshaping customer engagement and optimizing campaign strategies fascinates me. For us, experimenting has become a way of life – deploying new tools and improving our ability to synthesize data, design, and dialogue.
Outside of work, I enjoy wearables for fitness tracking and apps that support mindfulness.
The Logos
I admire brands that seamlessly blend aspiration with authenticity – a trait today’s audience values above all. People forgive mistakes if they sense honesty.
Royal Enfield stands out for me; it has built an incredible aspirational lifestyle quotient while staying authentic to its rugged, old-school motorcycling ethos, even as it modernizes. Another brand that comes to my mind is BIRA 91 that built aspiration around being a “cool, urban beer,” yet authentic in celebrating Indian flavors, names and culture to connect with younger audiences. Internationally, I admire MUJI for making minimalism aspirational while staying true to its honest product philosophy. What draws me to all of these is their genuine approach.