Adgully Exclusive | We're ready for the big leap: Allied's Balakrishna

Allied Media has emerged as one India's most feted advertising agencies. Adgully spoke to the man responsible for steering the agency to great successes, its vice-president, PM Balakrishna. His story offers stirring inspiration, particularly because he has seen the media industry from various vantages.

"I have been in the media industry for almost 18 years," Balakrishna told Adgully in an exclusive interview. "I started my career with the Times of India group, in the sales-and-marketing response team, where I spent my formative years. After that, when the TV and cable revolution swept through India, I joined the Hinduja group and was a part of the core team that launched and set up channels. We launched In Mumbai and CVO." Then came a brief stint with Adhikari Brothers, as the vice-president, Balakrishna said. "After that I joined Zee, following which I ventured into entrepreneurship, starting my own advertising agency and was handling turnkey clients like Chandrika Soaps, Aptech, Tata Consultancy, to name a few," he said. "Finally, I joined Allied with Shripad Kulkarni three years ago, as the business head. And it has been a great journey. We are extremely proud that over the past two years, we have become the 4th most admired agency in the country. Percept Media as a brand is getting recognised in the market place."

Despite the ascent of his company, Balakrishna is not complacent; he is already planning his next move. "Going forward, we really see ourselves as becoming the leaders in India in providing 360 media solutions," he said.

Balakrishna's decision to return to a job in spite of his successful foray as an entrepreneur intrigued Adgully; so we asked him to explain his thinking. "Well, quite frankly, small agencies are going to face rough weather because the AOR business has gone through a complete makeover in terms of size and scale," he said. "Smaller agencies, especially like mine, would have found it difficult to manage bottom lines. It was becoming increasingly difficult to handle credit-risk exposure and the scale was an issue too. You know, during my selling days, I don't think pay packages were as large as they are now. I did not see my business growing unless I took big risks." Once Balakrishna recognised that smaller agencies were going to be marginalized, he began looking for a good opportunity. "And when Shripad approached me, I joined him," Balakrishna said. "As far as media is concerned, I see smaller agencies struggling; fees have come down, commissions have been reduced, and the people cost is high."

It appears that Balakrishna's ability to adapt quickly to changing conditions stood him in good stead. We put that assessment for his comment, and he agreed with us. "In fact, I would not call it the ability to merely adapt to change," he said. "I think I am very adaptable to new experiences and I like challenges. I have always faced challenges and have tried to rebuild myself according to them. That ability is in my DNA." Balakrishna said he believed that changes were positive. "Change is what exposes your real skill and attitude," he said. "I have seen that throughout my career and enjoyed the experiences. I have never had a moment of regret."

Indeed, Balakrishna is proud of the career transitions he has negotiated with assurance. "First, I moved from a career to business, where I was completely on my own," he said. "There was no backup as I come from a middle-class background. To manage my business successfully¦I thought that was one great challenge. Then making the transition again to a professional career¦mind you, such changes require great maturity and the ability to change the mindset."

Given his rich experience, Balakrishna's perspective on the way the media industry has changed will be of enormous value to his peers. So Adgully asked him to reflect on the industry's evolution.

"At the beginning of my career, when I was marketing and selling media brands, the strategy was to identify the right consumer," he said. "Because if you did not address the right consumer for your brand, you got marginalised as far as pricing and rates were concerned. And now, I feel that people are a big challenge; they need to be groomed, roles have to be very clearly identified. The whole approach now is very dynamic."

Finally, Adgully asked what preoccupied Balakrishna as a human being. "I run a foundation, the Future Sports Foundation, with my partner Robert. I am its chairman," he said. "Ours is a nonprofit foundation which we started three years ago and we work with poor children. We organise an event called the Future Sports Olympics, which is only for children. Currently, we have 3000 children participating from Mumbai alone. And it's my wish to make it an important sporting event in the country."