Adgully Exclusive | There was never a struggle to stand out differently: Ajay Chacko, CEO, Forbes India

Forbes India recently celebrated its first anniversary in India; May 21, 2010, to be precise. The event was much of a fanfare and had icons like Aamir Khan, Arun Maira and Raghav Bahl unveil the magazine's first anniversary issue. Forbes India is a JV product of Network 18 and Forbes Media LLC. So what is it that has worked for Forbes in a market like India?

"I think what has worked best is Forbes India successfully inculcating Forbes' global attribute in our issues: Influence & Thought Leadership. It has also helped that Indian business and businessmen have really outshone their global peers in the light of the recent turbulence," Ajay Chacko, CEO, Forbes India said.

Ajay added, "In many ways, Forbes India has managed to be part of, as well as capture this larger 'acceleration trend' - There is definitely a greater realization that Indian corporations and entrepreneurs have become a force to reckon with in the global arena. And Forbes is the global barometer for measuring these trends. The number of Indians in the list of the world's most powerful and the richest increased dramatically. Forbes India, in the last one year has become the definitive platform for these Indians."

Such Indians are icons not only in the domestic market, but are global leaders and benchmark figures. Forbes India managed to stimulate not only the minds of readers, but also the prominent leaders the magazine featured.

Forbes has been different from other magazines in the fray. They have the biggest and the most proficient editorial team and the fact that Forbes itself is one of the biggest brands in the world of publications is a boost beyond measure. The aspects that enabled Forbes to gain a foothold in the Indian market are its marketing and distribution strategies. Also, the magazine's cover price as well as the advertising sales rates help in making it stand tall.

There was always a conscious decision to make Forbes India carve out a space for itself in an already populated industry.

"There was never a struggle to stand out differently. The fact that we launched at 3 times the cover price and then doubled our cover price within 6 months without losing numbers is a testimony to the fact that a good product will have a market. This belief was earlier re-inforced by studies conducted prior to the launch- many erstwhile readers felt that magazines are not being able to offer either news (which the Internet, TV and newspapers have delivered much better) or perspective (which requires a lot of primary effort and depth).

So it's really no coincidence that the output has not only got critical acclaim but has managed to bring back key influencers in business to be part of the magazine and the Forbes brand. We decided to stick to our knitting of being the drama critic of business and bring back depth into business journalism," Ajay said.

Forbes has worked on partnerships with premier brands and such partnerships have helped Forbes reach out to its elusive audience. The handshake of association with Network 18 has proved beneficial as well with CNBC-TV18, Moneycontrol.com and other platforms synergising well with Forbes India.

Ajay was upbeat and told us how the editorial team weaves the stories around crucial issues keeping Indian readers in mind. He also was proud of the way the team goes about investigating for stories. He said, "Forbes is globally the 'drama critic' of business and a champion of free market capitalism, entrepreneurship. In India, we have tried to retain these core values and use the Indian context and reader as our focus. This meant that we have married global content with Indian content using relevance as a filter. The tougher part though was to focus on 'perspective' and ensure that Forbes India does not become just another business news magazine!"

"I must say that our readers have really appreciated Indrajit and his team's approach of 'digging deeper' rather than casting the net wide. Our premise was that Indian audiences would like depth as much as width and variety. We would never compromise on depth for volume and that's perhaps the reason why we have such overwhelmingly positive reader feedback," Ajay added.

As we got up, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries before leaving, Ajay threw in one more statement about Forbes India will be coming out "the most definitive product in the lifestyle space" called Forbes Life India. Keep your eyes focussed on Forbes, for it promises to thrill with its plans.