On 5th September 2022, Adfactors PR completed 25 years of leadership in the Indian communications domain and co-incidentally, I complete nine successful years at my alma mater.
I have done all kinds of jobs in my 25+ years of working life, starting as a newspaper vendor to a loader; to a waiter; to a call centre representative; to a sales representative, selling industrial products to newspaper & magazine ads to all financial products, reporter/sub-editor; corporate communications manager; marketing communications head and now as a PR consultancy leader.
One thing that remained constant through these diverse experiences except for the current one was the principle of never sticking to one job for a long time. My time frame used to be between a minimum of one and a maximum of three years. My earlier stint with Adfactors was also for three years and so was my marketing communications job at Tata Housing. I rejoined Adfactors PR with the same rule in my mind, but I had to break this rule in my second and current stint.
As I look back, I could list down a few of the many reasons
- I was never in the comfort zone, with new clients each month, new team members joining the growing team to new challenges each day on the servicing front, each day I had a new challenge and learning waiting for me. I could never say, now I know most of it and should try my hands at something else, learning never seems to pause.
- The degree of freedom on how I needed to build my team and what kind of clients I and my team wanted to work on is spectacular.
- This company has been investing in the growth of the employees by investing a good percentage of profits in L&D at every level. Being an Adfactorite, I got to participate in some brilliant long and short-duration new-age training programs at institutions such as Harvard Business School, MICA, IIM Kolkata, ISB and many more customized workshops. If there could be any bottlenecks to learning and growth, it could be me and my schedules only, opportunities have always been plenty.
- The company is blessed with great leadership, who acknowledge good work consciously and recognise people for their work, which is now part of the culture. Each employee feels valued and respected. I have seen multiple examples where the company chose to stand by its employees and has had to let the client go. When employees witness this kind of psychological safety, one does not need to push them towards excellence.
- Apart from that, there are other perks such as a fitness centre, games, subsidised food etc. I have personally witnessed two downturns including covid and each time, the management right at the beginning announced that there won’t be even a single retrenchment, The consultancy hired more each time and grew double the size.
Having said that, working here might not suit everyone because this place is highly competitive and process oriented. You are expected to improve and grow at each level, just several years will not push you up the ladder. A very unconventional and indigenous way of monitoring service levels for each client. A senior-level team monitors servicing standards on multiple parameters.
Monthly R&R programs at each level further increase the competitiveness, this place is not for someone looking for an easy-going, slow-moving career.
Within this one can find magical camaraderie among team members, it’s more like a community that is conscious about the role it plays in building India’s largest asset in the communications domain and keeping it fiercely independent.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher. This article is part of a SILVER JUBILEE series by Adfactors PR commemorating their 25th year in the business of Public Relations.
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