Remembering V Ramani: Exponential's Rajesh Sule

Media veteran V Ramani’s sad demise is mourned by industry professionals. In the following excerpt, Rajesh Sule -  Country Manger, Revenue, Exponential talks about his rush with one of the greatest media minds whom the world of advertising will always remember.

 

Talking about his first interaction with Ramani, Rajesh says, “My first interaction with Ramani was in Ladakh. This dates back to 1989 when I was recruited at Lintas in the media department. I was supposed to report to someone who unfortunately met with an accident and thus I ended up reporting to Ramani.”

 

Recalling the experience, he exclaims, “One of the statements that Ramani threw at me that time was, ‘Lets see how long will you last.’ That is how our relationship started . Ramani was a tough taskmaster. The most interesting facet of him was that he always tried to get people thorough with their kind of jobs. That was the real essence of Ramani that I came across. It was a brief encounter with him there, which lasted for three months as he moved from Lintas to another place.”

 

“My next interaction with him was when Umesh Shrikhande approached me to join Contract Advertising in the year 1992. It was my second rush with Ramani. It was an interesting phase since Contract was in its high growth stages at that point of time. For us, everyday was a kind of a pitch day.  After meeting our regular clients in the day; we would discuss new pitches in the evenings. What was interesting was that Ramani gave us the freedom to work on pitches. To an extent, that he would also encourage us to go out and present on new pitches. That was the kind of confidence he gave people all along. We were like a team of navy seals. Ramani built a great team at Contract which had an amazing strike-rate both in terms of existing clients as well as new pitches”, says Rajesh.

 

 Reminiscing some of the striking qualities of the man, Rajesh said, “He would party hard and work harder. He would reach office everyday at 8:00 am in the morning. That was the kind of commitment he had. Ramani would not win on a popularity vote. The side of Ramani that people failed to discover was that he wanted people to be honed in to know their work right . When it came to thought process , he was very radical. For a guy who went onto build India’s first digital agency, he was at one point of time averse to computers. He would hate a computer. Today, when you look back, it is amazing to see how he adapted himself and built himself. That is one amazing part of him.”

 

Expressing his opinion on some of the many achievements of V Ramani, he said, “ V Ramani was one of the greatest innovators. He would encourage people to take risks to back up a good product. He would give leverage to people to go ahead and experiment. If you have the conviction in a good product, you should really go out and find ways and means to try it out is what he firmly believed.  He backed innovative ideas and Philips Top 10 was one such idea. He has changed landscapes in the media industry. He was one of the best media minds in the country. What was glad to see was that he was the first person to put together the first digital agency in India.” 

 

He adds, “Not many people have been exposed to the thinker in Ramani. He would be meticulous in terms of what he would put together. His thought process was very clear in terms of how he wanted to approach the problem. He was willing back to go to clients in terms of solutions and most of the times, the work would be done. He would say it is persistence that pays off. These are a few memories of Ramani that I cherish. It is sad to see the end of life at such an early stage that too of a person a who had such a brilliant mind. The man had an amazing foresight.”