Do you remember the famous Flipkart ad where children acted like adults?  Do you remember the Seagrams 'Men will be men' ad?  

Listen to the man instrumental in both ads, Shaun Williams, in this week's episode of hippoBrain. He talks to Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain about what it takes to teach and train kids to act (especially act like adults), and the nuances around it.

"What makes you a 'creative' (guy)? A creative is not about having an idea. It's about 'having to have' an idea... Only the creative people in the room have the responsibility of having to have an idea. The others don't have that pressure," says Ramki or Ramakrishna Desiraju, the Founder of one of the largest Ad agencies in the country, Cartwheel Creative.

Listen to the Creative guru talk about what makes a 'creative', the challenges they face, how they inherently understand 'strategy' as the Ad planners know it, the pressure to come up with grand ideas that work, and interestingly--how does a 'creative' function as a CEO.

Don't miss out on part where he talks about the making of the Kotak ad featuring Ranveer Singh!

This week, we speak to Ruchira Chaudhary, Leadership Coach, Academic and Author of the book, Coaching the Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership. She speaks to Rajesh Jain and Jaimit Doshi about coaching managers into becoming good leaders at work; how organisations can nourish and encourage good managers and leaders, and more.

This week, we have the Guru of Loyalty & Direct Marketing, Ajay Row, talk to us about an important topic: "Do loyalty programs really work?" 

Listen to the guru narrate epic anecdotes from his experience on good loyalty programs and tips on how to build a program that works.

"Not an agency. We are an independent, integrated marketing services company that is digital first." That's how Sowmya Iyer, founder & CEO of DViO Digital would describe her company. In this episode of hippoBrain listen to her as she spills the beans on building DViO from scratch; how tough is it to be independent and survive in a cut-throat environment; how she bought DViO from the investors, and most importantly, the 'Zone to win' Framework. 

Interesting insights for business owners and executives!

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. 

Listen to Mahesh Vyas, MD & CEO of CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) talk about how to interpret the data in an effort to find meaning behind the numbers. 

Did you know that employment figures went up during demonetisation and went down during the pandemic? How would these reconcile without throwing up aspersions on the data sets? Why did this happen, how did this happen, which other data filled in the missing piece? Where are the missing 15% of Indian women who seem employed but are not? Why are women absent from the labour force in India? What can we do about it? How does one collect data across the country? How do you analyse it? What is the most important data to be seen when you see the health of the Indian economy? 

Listen to the master as he patiently explains, how a private firm, monitoring Indian economic data is critical to the functioning of the economy and its democracy; how rigour and honesty is critical to his job and how does one become a data storyteller. Because without a story, data is just a bunch of numbers. 

“Take it. Read it. Return it”

Imagine you were travelling on the Delhi Metro, and found a beautiful fresh new copy of a book you've been eyeing lying around. You take the book and find a cute note inside. And it says: “Take it. Read it. Return it”. Such joyous serendipity, right?

That's what our hippoBrain guest does with her mobile library. With over 5,000 books in circulation, Shruti Sharma, founder of Books on the Delhi Metro and her 'book fairies' have spread the joy of reading over the last 4 years. 

Listen to her story, her struggles and the learnings in this episode of hippoBrain. At one poignant point she says: “You cannot scrap an idea just because you cannot believe in people. You have to believe in people.”

In this episode of hippoBrain, listen to Nigel Morris, a doyen from the field of marketing and business strategy talk about the challenges that companies face in keeping up with times, especially in a digital era. 

We all know that there is an 'India' market and a 'Bharat' market, where the Ramu Kakas reside. 

One key differentiator between the two is that the Bharat market is dominated by a culture of service. Yet, internet as we know it is predominantly DIY - Do It Yourself. So how do you use digital and internet to service the Bharat market?  

We have answers in this latest episode of hippoBrain. Listen to Sachin Jaiswal & Shishir Modi, the CEO and CBO of Niki respectively as they talk to Rajesh Jain and Jaimit Doshi about 'Full stack Ramu Kaka'--their solution to servicing the Bharat market, and their learnings from the journey so far!  

Not an episode to miss!

Typically, you find an expert in the art of running a business. And another expert in the art of marketing for a business.

What if we tell you, we found you one individual with both expertises?

Listen to Gulrez Alam, Chief Investment and Strategy Officer of ArabyAds, speak to Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain about all things business, entrepreneurship, technology and marketing.

Don’t miss out on the little nuggets of wisdom and tips he shares throughout the conversation!