 So guarded by optimistic thoughts, we all have entered the new year with new challenges, new opportunities, and of course, the new virus variant. So continuing the eForum next gen series, today we have with us Ms. Akshara Lalvani, who is the founder of Communicates India and one of the elite members of eForum PR and Corp.com 40 under 40 list. So welcome, Akshara. It is a pleasure to have you with us. Pleasure to be here, Nafisa. Thank you for having me. So let me start this interaction with how has the new year been for you and how has the celebration along the new year been for you? I think the new year started fairly well. I'd say very well. I think everyone's fairly optimistic about 2021. And everyone's fingers are very crossed because 2020 was, I wouldn't say bad, I'd use the word challenging. I mean, it really pushed limits. And I think we have great expectations of 2021. Let's hope it delivers on that. And we all are hoping for this year to be at least better than the year that has gone by. So Akshara, how has been your experience and your feeling of being in this elite list? I think first of all, I think it's always, it's really good because I've always known Exchange for Media to one, be consistent. A lot of people start things, but they don't see it through. And I think it's always great motivation. It's always good to be recognized specifically in a year that has been challenging. So thank you. I think Dr. Bhattra, the entire team at Exchange for Media, I think I only have the warmest wishes and gratitude. And we wish you all the very best for the years to come. So Akshara, you have been an entrepreneur since a long time and you started really early. When I was reading your LinkedIn profile and put those to you, you started really early. And you have been an inspiration for all the young girls and the PR professionals who want to pursue a career in this field. So how challenging as an entrepreneur has been this journey for you if you can sum up this for us? So I think, this is a very cliched, a very holistic perspective, but you can't appreciate good days unless you go through challenging times, right? So an entrepreneur's journey is pretty much the same, right? So we've had challenges, but we've had, I mean, we've come out of it stronger. I think for me, the most important thing, yes, profit is very important. Being a successful entrepreneur is important. I mean, that's what keeps the lights on, right? But for me, what a really core purpose of my existence is and of being an entrepreneur is to inspire the younger generation. They've come into a scenario where the world is changing, right? If you look at 2020, I mean, even established professionals have been thrown off guard. So forget about the newcomers, right? So I honestly think it's extremely important and I'm very, very passionate about inspiring young minds, especially younger women. I am extremely gender neutral, but I do think that it is extremely important for women to be financially independent. I think it's important for women to break the molds of what conceptions of a typical woman are or in a patriarchal society. But yeah, and I'm happy that in the last 10 years, God willing, we've been able to make a difference and inspire a lot of young minds, both men and women, and I hope we continue to do so. Awesome, so Akshaya, it's really not wrong supporting our type and supporting women there and kudos to you for this. So we have seen a lot of changes occurring in the market and the prevailing market has gone through tremendous changes and we have evolved with new marketing and communication interventions. So what are the key skills that you want to talk about that has reshaved this industry during the specific 10 months that have gone by? I think a lot and I think that the change has just begun, right? I mean, it's the tip of the iceberg as they say, right? One is this whole concept of digitization, right? There's a lot of traditional media and of course they have their role to play but that transition has happened much, much faster, right? So I think it's actually an advantage to be a fairly, I would say fairly experienced but young team because we haven't had to really, we've had to evolve but we've also been raised in the digital age, right? So it's only catapulted that growth. A lot of people have seen the transition of classic media relations which used to be very, very important to much more strategic functions like content, understanding the entire marketing ecosystem which is digital, which is strategy, which is reputation management, which is content, which is crisis management. So of course there've been a lot of learnings. I actually feel like it's probably a time where a partner in the public relations space can really be a partner because I think the entire corporate communications industry, especially clients, teams have gotten leaner, right? And for that they can't do everything that they could do earlier. So they're expecting a whole lot more support than just execution, right? Now either you can adapt to that and do really well and be a partner or if you don't, there's very little room to kind of do mediocre work and why not, right? Why do we wanna be an industry that puts out anything mediocre? And I think that's what it's become a combination of relationships and performance, moving out of your comfort zone, far more strategic. And I think it's going to continue. I mean, this is what I see now. It could be a lot more 18 months down the line. Okay, so rightly said Akshara, we also believe business objectives of clients or corporates have come in alliance with the PR objectives. And this is a major change that we have noticed in this industry. And the change is of course for good. So Akshara, you talked about digitization and technology taking over most of the things now. So how enabled are we or the comms professionals right now regarding the technological evolution that we're going through and what major changes or adaptations has communicated India as a firm gone through to adapt technology in a better way. I think a lot of things. I can't comment on the entire COPCOM industry because that would be very unfair. But what I have seen is a lot of people who I met even a few years ago, like two or three years ago were actually talking about it. I think the people who adopted it very early on before the pandemic hit and so I'm making investments in that have probably come out much stronger, right? Of course, like I said is one of the advantages of me having started younger is that team has been incubated in that period where the inflection point of technology versus traditional were anyway pivoting, right? So we are blessed that we are not completely thrown off guard, okay? But we have made investments and we continue to do investments. We have a lot of digital tools we've invested in. We've invested a lot into content. You know, I think just CRM systems, integrations to enhance productivity, efficiency is of course there and we continue to do that. Like online reputation management, people have spoken about influencer marketing and there was this whole uptake on influencer marketing and then influencer marketing had its own challenges because people were like now sublook everybody calls everybody an influencer, right? Now who is ready for who? So every industry, even though it has an adoption curve many a times could reach a point where it has its own challenges and it starts going downward and it again goes upward, right? And I think that pivot structure and even efficiencies in influencer marketing choosing the right influencers, you know making sure you have clarity on the engagement ratios because there was so much conversation about bots buying likes and that industry also had a change. So that is going through an evolution. It's a trend, but it's again evolving, right? So there's a lot going on and there's a lot we're investing on all of those fronts. Okay, so you discuss about influencer marketing and believe us, Akshara there is a lot of investment and changes that is happening in this area. So if I ask you two matrices or three matrices do you use, you know, to hire an influencer or use an influencer for your clients? So what would those three matrices be? Firstly, I think relevance. I think that's the most important. That's only for influencer marketing. I think that's for anything you do in the mark form space the relevance, right? Is this person really relevant for me? Like if I'm in the premium space does this person get premium, right? Second of all, it's all age old conventions, you know like quality over quantity doesn't mean if I have let's say 500,000 followers that it's the best option for me as an influencer. I could totally go for a luxury influencer which has 50,000 followers and far more niche and it may help me getting a better ROI better brand awareness, better brand fitment, right? So I mean these, you asked me for two. So I mean, these are two which I think, you know, eternally something we should use, you know and then of course you have your dashboards, your benchmarks, your content, you know originality, creativity and content, right? Because the last thing you want to do is do a completely jaded campaign which everybody knows is a plug, right? So how authentic is it? You know, how interesting is this influencer and their respective teams to create that differentiation in the market, right? And yeah, I mean, I'd say that I mean there's a whole lot more but if I had to quickly summarize it it would probably be this. Awesome. So moving on Akshara, I would like to ask, you know clients and agency have gone through, you know tell a lot of changes during these months, you know it has reshaved itself. So what changes have you observed or, you know gone through the clients or what changes have clients behaviors gone through through these months so that you have seen, you know an altered approach from the client towards the PR agencies or according to their objectives or maybe their needs and demands might have changed. So how has the client and the agency relationship changed during these past few months? I think, okay, so without sounding I'm gonna try and put this in the most correct manner possible, right? So relationships are still something that is very, very important in our industry, right? That comfort level that relationship, right? But I think what this pandemic has proved is relationships are important but performance is even more, right? And I absolutely love that because I do think it is a survival of the fittest. I do think that good work itself leads to good relationships, right? And that's further thing. I think this pandemic has, I would say strengthen that bond because if you are able to hand hold that client in this difficult period they're no longer a client and they're not gonna treat you like a client. They're a partner. But if you can't do that, you know then I don't think, I think it's self-explanatory where this conversation is going, right? But yeah, so I think it's been tested to become, make it stronger but it's going to be black or white. Either you're gonna come out stronger as a very, very stronghold or you're just gonna drop off. It's a bit of an extremist view but it's an honest view. Honest view and we totally appreciate this view and I think it has been a symbiotic relationship between clients and agencies, right? Both have supported to decide over these difficult times. So Akshara, let us make this conversation a bit light and I'd like to discuss on what has been your life in during these work from home scenarios and staying at home, working and managing your personal life from home. How has been the entire experience for you? How has been the experience? Okay, so I think it's gone through like these phases, right? Like how you have like a trough and peak and all of those. It's, I think it's been like that. Like April, I think everyone was a bit startled like what's Thetas, right? And then you kind of got used to it, right? Then you got used to working from home. Initially it was a bit difficult. Then you got used to it. Then you again went through a period. I mean, that's just human nature, right? But what I think is, I think it's shown us what can be possible if we all put our minds to things, right? We don't have to go for meetings two hours away where we had to go for meetings or reviews. Everything is possible online. I think it also builds a relationship between your team and your clients even more because they can't really see day-to-day what's happening with you. If there's a trust formed, right? And then it's all output oriented, right? So I think it's been very, very interesting. Of course it's been challenging, but it's been interesting. And I think there are definitely some positives to come out of this pandemic. I think a lot of people have been able to spend time more time with their family even though it's been challenging. I think we've become more grateful, you know for a lot of things we took great, you know, later. I remember there was a point where people were like, oh God, why can't we have like a mid-week holiday and why don't we come to office? And now I hear people saying, listen, when can we go back to office? You know, I miss office, right? So on a lighter note, I mean, it's extremely interesting, you know, challenging and interesting at the same time. Even you told me as an individual. Yeah, I can truly resonate with what you're saying because now I truly want to return back to office, have that metro struggles and go but you know, these things will take time. So leadership, you know, has played a very important role, you know, to keep the team together, to keep them motivated and all of that thing. So how, you know, how has your journey been during these 10 months, I'll be really precise, during these 10 months as a leader and how did you motivate your team to not lose hope and work hard because the times have been really tough for the industry to be specific. Yeah, I think this is a true test of leadership. Like I said, is like, you know, during good times, I mean, leadership is important, don't get me wrong but I think you're in challenging times. Leadership is even more important and it's even more tested, right? So I think one is as a leader, I think I'm sure and I mean, there's so many people in the copcom industry, so many entrepreneurs, so many people, we've had to take hard decisions, right? It's not easy to take hard decisions, right? So that's one, live with those hard decisions, right? Third of all, you become like a lion protecting your cubs, right? Because that's your team, right? Because you have to lead by example, you have to be at the front of it all, right? And you have to reinstate that faith in them and that faith cannot come by, I would say only words, it has to come with action, right? I can say it's amazing, we're gonna come out stronger and then again keep saying that every month. But the point is, are you walking the talk, right? Is your team being able to see what you're saying? Is it actually being implemented, you know? Yeah, and I always have said this, right? A leader can't please everybody, you know? And this is a time where it's actually the most tested, right? Because you're pushing limits of people, you're motivating, but you're being sensitive to the environment. But you're also making them resilient. So I think this is probably the biggest test of leadership that I have seen in my career. But I just think it makes you stronger. And we are all enjoying this phase, right? Yeah. So if I ask you two things that you would give a thumbs up that we continue in this 2021 for the PR and comments industry and two trends that you will give a thumbs down that might become mundane in the times to come. So what would those two trends be? Two thumbs up and two thumbs down. Okay, wow. I haven't been able to delve too much on it. Thumbs ups would be data insights. Okay. Thumbs up would be on digitization and virtual meetings. And thereby enhancing productivity. I think that's awesome, right? Like you do not need everybody to sit out of your head office or come to office, travel, I think everybody knows the traffic in the metros, right? So mega thumbs up for that. Thumbs down for a little bit of team bonding. A little bit, like a little bit physical touch and that little face to face time. I'm gonna say a little bit down because I miss seeing my team as often as I would. And I'm sure they miss their lunch breaks together and they miss their brainstorming sessions together. So thumbs down for that. Thumbs down for just experience, right? It's a just experience, right? This is all about relationships and merits. So it is, I think it's giving the rise to new leaders is going to challenge traditional age-old leaders. Thumbs up or thumbs down, but I'm just kind of like, okay. Okay, that was really interesting, Akshara. So if I ask you, how did Akshara turn a challenge into an opportunity? So what would that answer be? A challenge into an opportunity, I think every day. I think literally every day, right? I mean, just from the perspective of motivating your team, like a lot of people had COVID, a lot of their families were not keeping well and then just being there for them was actually challenging because sometimes you don't get into a very personal space with your team members, largely professionally oriented, but this kind of blurred the lines, right? And sometimes blurring the lines can be challenging, but it can also be a great positive, right? And I think that's the thing, right? How do you merge personal and professional without jeopardizing either of? So all of that, I think clients, I think there's so many. I mean, I'm sure you'll have so many interesting people on these sessions and they'll have so much to share because I think everyone has had so many challenges which they've turned into opportunities, right? Any specific incident that you would want to talk about maybe related to some of your clients or maybe a campaign which you found was really difficult to crack something on these lines? I think I had mentioned this earlier, right? I think that taking a challenge was the fact that there was a healthcare company who reached out to us and I don't know if I told you this, but they had basically come up with a COVID test and they said, this is amazing and it's great and it's indoors. And at that time, everyone was hungry for business, right? Everybody was like, we want to take accounts and at that time, we had to take it up as a challenge saying, okay, what if this doesn't have the evidence? What if it's not FDA approved? What if it's not got validity? And we weren't convinced, so we actually had to say no. When we spoke to the team, the team said, listen, we're not sure about this and if we get this wrong it's going to impact a lot of people negatively like the consumer. Yes, it will help us in income wise, but that's not the only look when you're building a brand, right? And turned out that product was actually not genuine. It was not approved and later on we realized that, I don't know which agency took it out but there was a serious repercussion of that. So sometimes trading with caution, I think that was one business development opportunity I think which was, you know, we were like, did we do the right thing by putting it down or it turned out to be positive. So that was one that came to my mind. The second time was on the other front was one of our teams actually, a lot of them, I would say 60% of them all got COVID positive at the same time. So you know what happens is that your client kind of has their servicing team crumble, right? And how do you build that up and train them up very, very quickly in implementation because let's say that team has spent X number of months or years on the client mandate and this is probably the most challenging time for the client and for the team, right? And that's where 60% of the team literally went out of action for two months. And I'm sure people have gone through this as well but you know, we had to, we had to one keep the client happy, second way to take care of our team. Yes, and I think you have blissfully failed through these challenging times and we congratulate you for this. Look Chhara, we're moving towards the end of this interaction. I'd like to play a short rapid fire on with you where I will use a term and you have to speak the first word that comes in your mind. Okay. Okay, I don't want to be at this but let's do this. I am also not prepared, that's a rapid fire for me also. Any time that would come and you have to speak the first word that hits you, right? Shall we start? Okay, let's do this. Okay, so the first word should be content. Pivotal. Influencers. Hoham. Data. Data. Critical. 2020. Mixed bag. Mixed bag. Mixed bag. Huh? What? Mixed bag. I think the expressions, folk, everything, what do you want to speak, Isaac? Yeah. And technology. Game changing. Cons industry. Crucial. P.R. and Gopal, 40 under 40 list. Amazing. I think this was really fun, Akshara to play this rapid fire with you. So coming towards the end of this very insightful and interesting video interaction, I would like to ask you or request you for a message to the budding entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs and your colleagues or your peer professionals, what message you want to send out to them through our channel? The obstacle is the way. People who need to understand that message, you will understand it, but basically don't give up. Entrepreneurs are going to be challenged, but I promise you there's light at the end of the tunnel. There could be darkness, but we're going to all come out of it really strong. Yeah. So hang in there guys, we're all in it together. We all are in this together and we will sail through this together. Thank you so much Akshara for this time and this interesting and insightful interaction. Thank you so much again. And congratulations. Thank you, Nafisa was absolutely delightful and thank you the exchange for media team for doing this and much appreciated to everyone. All the best. Take care. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye.