The ITC Customer Care Team:

Another team I am very-very proud of, Headed by Rhituraj, they are the backbone of Club Wills. Veeru (second from left) an me have spent countles nights to decipher.....and get some intelligent insights out of data........Every time I called and uttered the word "DATA". I knew the response ......Aaj to night lagni hain. Like Gopa, Rhituraj managed the entire operation flawlessly. From a situation wher in I used to go there on a daily basis and reply to each n every mail......to a situation wherin I go there once in two weeks.

Thx Guys and do carry on the good work.

The Moment of Truth:

My last speech at RMG Connect on 13th September 06'.Well I just started the proceedings, but Gopa stole the show with a brilliant la'Oscar acceptance speech......Bravo! Good going, you will have to do lot of talking (?!!). And thanks for all the kind words you said about me. Cheers! n Thx for being my "WALL"during my stint at RMG....

Well, the fever didn't infect us but my highpoint with Avaya was the advantage series which was kickstarted by Mr. Amit Sinha at the cafeteria in Feb 05' It saw a burst of almost a mailer a wk. The first 6 monts saw some great & prolific creative work from Ajay+Madhu....cool dudes of RMG Connect Delhi. Purnima was the accelerator behind these creative....But missed the CEO FORUM, which I really wanted to do.

The changing face of Fashion - Wills Lifestyle

Wills Lifestyle is almost part of my DNA, right from the time when there was one store at South Ex and Krishnan was a single man army doing everything to 40 stores, 30,000 Club Wills members, 1.5 Lac people buying every year.......I have been trhrough it all.

First with Lowe, where we did the user interface deisign for their website and touch screen kiosk (placed at their stores) .

For last 2 yrs, I have been doing all their CRM activities, direct mailers, store promotions etc. But what I enjoyed (and learnt most)was planning for the new club came. I had to first understand the data before I could try andthe data bit, imagine going thru tons and tons of data and try to see who is shopping what, see a pattern emerge, make assumptions......it was crazy but probably the most stimulating experience in my career. I ordered books from the US, went thru websites, white papers .......spoke to few people in retail......so much so that I still feel like delivering a baby.

Thanx also to the team at ITC - Samit n Rohit - I always felt that I was part of their team and not an outsider.

Learning :

Don't order books from US, if u havn't gone thru it in detail, u will waste lot of money without getting what you thought you will get :-))

Data is the heart and soul of any company, get into it and you will be part of their business (I know very basic stuff in CRM.....have u tried doing it ???)

Don't give up on net, from Einstein to Picasso to Ogilvy..............you will find them all there to give you advice.

That' probably one of the best pics. This was taken at Mumbai, when we had gone for the RMG Launch in APRIL 05. That's the Sun setting in Marine Drive. One of my favourite place's where I had spent most of my formative years in advertising....munching (singh - that's groundnut in Mumbaia hindi) and having a philosophical discussions with my colleagues in Lintas

My favourite client

Self, originally uploaded by bidyutn.

That's the Oracle Headquarter at Redmond. Probably, my best client till date and the best customer experience / appreciation........Somesh & Atik always felt that we (meaning direct marketing)contributed hugely to the success of marketing n sales in india. So, we made that extra effort & walk the extra mile......

Thanks to the team at RMG (Sandeep, Jai, Shailender, Sunil.....not to forget Sunirmal da who came out with some jazzy ideas to be given as give-aways),we did some fantastic creative work here,

Some unforgettable incidents:
- Oracle Open World -- On 30th December 31st, we went for the yrly bash (and obviously got partially drunk :-)).....but the entire team sandeep, me, kariba, pushpanjali (she was not drunk.....she doesn't drink u see) managed to reach office...me and sandy went to the dhaba infront of genpact got some parathas for the team......had dinner...and then worked thru the night....to finish the Program Guide.

The last Supper

The first of the series of send off parties post my departure from RMG. Leaving behind an orgz is not easy, for me it's almost like a relationship which was coming to an end. Like any other relationship it was not an easy one to end.

We had a good time, an important insight was that more than the past everybody was more concerned of the present and future. As I always say (and this is one of my favourite quote" What seems to be the end.......is the start of something new".

Some images to cherish....don't go by the haze....that's the special effect created by Gopa ......and it was also our state of mind..........Cheers