How I Built The Satyam Brand

A emblem guru said that it takes years of tough work to build a logo however just one moment of madness to kill it. The Satyam case is a stay instance of this adage.

Late July 1996 I were given a call on a Saturday morning from one in all the biggest head looking businesses within the u . S . Asking me whether I desired a alternate of activity. Their Hyderabad manager might now not inform me the name of the consumer organisation as he become afraid I could refuse the hazard on the telephone itself as the organization become small and relatively unknown as compared to the one I became running in.

However, I did visit meet him and I turned into as an alternative dissatisfied whilst he advised me the organisation's name though the organisation changed into Hyderabad based totally and I changed into within the same metropolis, too. He persuaded me to as a minimum meet the organization control. The equal afternoon I met Ramalinga Raju, Chairman, Satyam Computer Services. I had no clue what the company did as IT changed into not even in my radar being greater from the engineering and automotive enterprise. In reality, I even had a stray notion that they assembled gray market PCs.

The meeting with Raju lasted more than an hour and become very exceptional. He came throughout as a mild person and really well mannered. Very soon I got a suggestion of appointment from Satyam. My wife referred to 3 people in Bangalore in the IT area earlier than I typical it. Of route, the financial provide was very attractive,too

I joined Satyam as head of corporate communications on August sixteen.The subsequent day I were given a call from Economic Times asking me for a comment on a story that they had been strolling approximately a check bouncing case against Satyam. This  me as I had in no way experienced whatever like that inside the past. I simply mumbled that there was no truth in that tale.

About ten days later we had to print some invitation cards for inaugurating our spanking new generation centre. It amazed me whilst the printer requested me for one hundred% boost. He became the equal printer who used to give my in advance business enterprise thirty days credit with out questions. I began to worry whether or not I had made a chief mistakes of judgment in joining Satyam. I now remembered that some of my friends in Hyderabad expressed marvel once I instructed them that I was leaving a leading multi-country wide employer to enroll in Satyam.

Anyway, it turned into too past due to do whatever approximately it. And in 1996 driving a today's Maruti Suzuki Esteem around Hyderabad become a balm on a hurt ego. I placed all poor thoughts apart and decided I might carve a positive function for myself and do what turned into proper for the company.

The Company Negatives:

1) Nobody knew who ran the business enterprise, consisting of traders. This was unexpected as Raju changed into inside the workplace regularly from 9am to 9pm.

2) The public and investors still related the call Satyam with creation and textile spinning and not IT.

Three) The promoters, primarily based at the flavor of the season had entered all types of companies in the past and failed, which includes such numerous fields as aquaculture and shoe uppers.

4) Satyam became still perceived as a small Hyderabad primarily based business enterprise.

5) In the Dataquest rating of Indian IT corporations, Satyam stood a lowly thirteen.

6) Publications have been reluctant to interview Raju as he become now not actually drawing close with comments or along with his plans for the organisation. Further, his speakme fashion at that time changed into no longer very fluent. The face of the agency at that point turned into the pinnacle of income & marketing.

7) People perceived Satyam greater as a body buying organisation than a critical IT participant (this turned into honestly an unfair rate as at that time most Indian IT corporations have been in reality simply that).

The Company Positives:

1. The company made income

2. The client listing changed into pretty wonderful

3. Working atmosphere became pleasant

four. The urge to develop was there

five. Raju gave a whole lot of freedom to the senior group of workers (although this itself created fiefdoms)

My Negatives:

1. In my career till then I had never dealt with the editorial or information media. I changed into always in to advertising, advertising and income promoting.

2. PR was some thing sincerely new to me. In a way I had joined Satyam below fake pretences, due to the fact when Raju asked me at my interview whether I knew everybody inside the media the simplest name I ought to inform him was that of a great buddy who treated the marketing feature for the most important media group in AP.

3. When I joined Satyam I had never sent an electronic mail in my lifestyles nor knew something approximately something known as the net. IT become an alien difficulty to me. I become essentially a Mechanical Engineer.

The Beginning

I found that the Bangalore based advertising and PR organization managing the Satyam account became not surely contributing lots though they charged a high price. We sacked them and thru a professional selection technique appointed one of the pinnacle advertising organizations in the us of a to deal with our paid conversation commercial enterprise. The first collaboration attempt became to deliver out the company identity manual, referred to as the Satyam Covenant.This was to ensure that every one corporate branding attempt internationally might be cohesive.

Knowing that an advertising enterprise is normally no longer clued in to public relations, I decided to deal with the media myself as opposed to incurring further expenditure in hiring a PR corporation. My first effort was a disaster. I prepared a press launch for our annual result without a headline. The next day every e-book interpreted the effects in its own manner. It was instead embarrassing seeing some of the headlines early the next morning.

It changed into time to begin earning my earnings. I wrote out a quite respectable emblem method plan. On top of the list become something I titled "Brand constructing the CEO". I made a slide presentation to Raju defining numerous brand positioning attributes for his photo building.

1. Entrepreneur

2. Innovator

three. Technocrat

4. Leader

We debated all the positioning factors and I defined to him why every one was no longer right for him. His previous businesses were now not really a success so the first one was out. As he turned into now not technically qualified, the second and third factors might be hard to push through. The fourth one too would had been a much cry from fact. Luckily, Raju turned into not an egoist so he familiar my role as a Devil's recommend with a few amount of entertainment.

Finally, I showed him the critical slide. Through the months of interaction with Raju one notion that hit me changed into that he rarely were given in to the information of the jogging of an organization. All his statements had been a bit philosophical and holistic. He also tended to head off on a tangent on occasion. To supply him a branding that he could be comfortable wearing I recommended that he be placed as a Visionary.

"Raju is a visionary who has a global view of the enterprise and where Satyam could head inside the future. To make his imaginative and prescient a reality he hires the right people and empowers them to discover methods to take the organisation forward."

Raju at once normal this hypothesis. Subsequently, in all inner and external communique, I would create statements on his behalf that would fit the new logo positioning. For any media interviews he would talk holistically and one of the different senior managers would get in to the detailing.

I travelled to all the offices after that to satisfy the Business Heads and get 'masala' from them for any newsworthy tale that might be highlighted inside the media. I visited numerous media workplaces throughout the metros and got to understand the commercial enterprise correspondents. I discovered them all pretty professional and informed about the dawn enterprise. Many of them nevertheless continue to be my non-public friends after such a lot of years.

Every Monday I would launch a story to the media highlighting a few element of our business. The 1/3 paragraph of all of them would have a quote from Raju. I took a large chance with my task as I wrote and released these statements with out getting his prior approval. However, I knew his thought system well and additionally the kind of phrases he used frequently so there was not anything debatable about any announcement.

In truth as soon as Raju and I have been travelling collectively in his automobile to a function when a senior correspondent of a weekly news mag rang me and asked me which enterprise chief become Raju's function version. I covered the mouth piece of my telephone and requested Raju. He said Jack Welch. He changed into a bit bowled over while in the front of him I gave an in depth statement on why he admired Jack Welch of GE. The mag quoted Raju verbatim in the subsequent issue.

The turning factor got here while in late 1997 or early 1998 BusinessWorld magazine called me and desired to interview Raju for a tale on IT in India. The original idea become to have Narayanmurthy of Infosys, Premji of Wipro, Nadar of HCL and Raju on the duvet. I picked up the correspondent and photographer of BusinessWorld from Hyderabad airport and was using them to the Satyam Technology Center, approximately a forty five mins power. The photographer asked me whether or not there has been something thrilling approximately Raju which he may want to shoot. I told him that Raju become comparatively an understated individual however lately he had received a Mercedes- Benz vehicle as a birthday gift from the family. But I became no longer sure whether or not he could conform to pose with it.

After the interview the photographer asked Raju whether or not he should photograph him along side the car. Surprisingly, Raju agreed. The next difficulty of BusinessWorld had simplest Raju on the cover with a laptop on the bonnet of his Benz.

Raju and Satyam had arrived!

The Growth Years

By the second one half of of 1997, Satyam's media insurance had expanded manifold. We made lots of press releases and media would also call us for a quote for along with in any IT related article.

Communications professionals have a tendency to exercise session complex techniques on a way to handle press releases. They normally training session a twelve-month calendar of releases and try to space of memories on the fee of one launch a month. For instance, October will see the discharge of an article on Quality. December, on HR practices. And so on. In the start, to work on a agenda like that. The clarification given to me changed into that the media will become bored of receiving too many stories from the equal corporation. All rubbish.

Newspapers release each day. Magazines - weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Their very lifestyles relies upon on information insurance. I determined that anything I idea turned into worth of a press release I might go in advance and send it off. After all, if publications do not see it in shape then they wouldn't put up it any manner. Even if sixty-five percentage of my releases saw the light of day it would greater than suffice.

At the hazard of hurting some of my media friends, I ranked the guides where I desired to see Satyam featured regularly: Economic Times, Business Standard, Business Line, Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Hindu. Owing to nearby sentiments, the Hyderabad guides have been a essential cog in our media activity. News protected through all other publications was an advantage.

We made releases on nearly any activity of the agency. New consumer wins, office inaugurations, era innovation, senior control recruits, visits by using VIPs. Stories and pictures of the animals in our menagerie in our era middle.In fact; we made a music and dance about the boom inside the deer population at our center. Implying that they had been nicely fed and glad. All excellent human hobby testimonies that introduced to our emblem photo.

Then, of route have been the news releases about the awards. The 1999 E&Y award which changed into of direction a prestigious one. The different one became the World Economic Forum award (the largest humbug of all of them, in my view!). But all worth news tales that had to be exploited. What did all this price my employer. Zilch. You deal with reporters with appreciate and honesty; they may agree with you, too. Bad eggs could be not noted.

But all this did now not suggest that each one press insurance turned into fantastic. There had been  activities when causes needed to be given.

1. When a subsidiary, Satyam Enterprise Solutions merged with the figure corporation the proportion switch ratio of one:1 got here in to loads of criticism and there were rumors of a few underhand deal. The media became after me for a rationalization, which glaringly become beyond my scope to reply and I had to speak about the problem with Raju and the CFO. Unfortunately,the management determined to journey out the storm.

Strangely enough, at a later level after the Y2K business thinned out, it turned into the abilties constructed up by way of Satyam Enterprise Solutions that virtually took the organisation ahead, such as the cash spinning SAP enterprise.

2. When we started out to apply the web drastically one benchmark we had set became on how fast the results can be posted on our website. The finance department might provide us dummy figures which my branch's desktop publishing operator might put in a template and upload it on a check website. Once the authentic result was cleared through the Board, the reputable figures would accept to the operator for importing on the enterprise internet site. By a comedy of errors that precise 12 months a person inside the finance branch gave the legit figures which the operator by mistake uploaded at the live web site. He right now realized his mistake and blocked that page. But the harm was finished. Some of the wire services had been monitoring the web site and right now called me. I turned into clueless before everything but got the overall story later.

This have become a big media story with all sorts of reasons attributed to the control. It took months to overcome the poor impact. In fact whilst Raju and I had long gone to Singapore and Sydney some of the TV information channels there would ask him a query approximately that controversy for the duration of stay interviews. He used to get upset and later question me why I could not prevent the interviewer from asking such questions. Unfortunately, he did now not recognise that professional reporters do not usually ask what you need them to ask.

Apart from editorial releases whilst it came to paid advertising and marketing, I felt that the time changed into now not right for any wellknown media company campaign. However, we put extra creativity in our recruitment advertisements and used them for company emblem-constructing, too.

Internal Communication

Side by means of side with external communications it became critical that the company paid attention to internal communication throughout the boom years.

The motive:

1. Ensure that all personnel are saved informed approximately the activities of the employer.

2. Reassure the prevailing employees that they have not taken a terrible selection via becoming a member of the wrong organization

three. Use the existing personnel to inspire their friends and family to join Satyam.

One day in early 1997, I become strolling along the aisle near the CFO's cabin. On his secretary's table I saw a copy of the Memorandum of Association that showed that Satyam began operations on June 24, 1987. Something about that date kept whirring in my head over the following several days. While driving to work one morning it hit me that we were within the tenth 12 months of our existence. I discussed it with some colleagues. Thus was born an in depth internal communications application beneath the banner of "A Decade of Excellence".

We printed posters and stickers. The main activities were the inter-office competitions like Quiz and Dumb Charade, culminating in a gala leisure application in Hyderabad. At that time the organization electricity changed into nevertheless only round 5000.

One activity left me embarrassed. We made T-shirts for the winners of competitions. In my eagerness to get matters made at the bottom fee I placed an order with an unknown entity. Phone calls and emails have been plenty after that - one wash and the T-shirts had contracted to an embarrassingly short duration.

By 1998, I had an excellent crew working with me. I made it a factor to recruit younger business graduates with a western orientation as I become clear that the destiny might be in building a logo for foreign places markets. Luckily, IT is a human beings-centric industry and so no person questioned me on why I wanted greater staff for a assist department like corporate communications. I added reproduction writers and image artists, too.

By now, it became clean that net-related conversation become the way ahead. An net corporate website turned into a given. Raju instructed me that it was vital that as a worldwide organisation information dissemination throughout workplaces was very vital. Every employee of Satyam, anyplace within the global he or she turned into positioned must have get entry to to the same records in realtime as compared to someone in Hyderabad.

A couple of departments had been working on a corporate Intranet at that point. I managed to hijack it from them and assigned a group in my branch to handle it. We branded it SatyamWorld and made it the global internal verbal exchange platform for the enterprise. SatyamWorld later gained the celebrated CIO magazine award for being one of the pinnacle intranet web sites in the world.

I instructed my crew participants to suppose out of the box and they ought to come up with a brand new concept every day, but crazy it could sound. Most instances, all my ideas might come out early within the morning or even as driving to work. Somehow, I always felt that techies were a humorless lot and in Satyam humans might be a bit too serious. One day even as having breakfast I all of sudden idea of having a Smile Day. I briefed my team approximately my concept. Within an afternoon they came out with a marketing campaign. A week later, every employee getting into any of the campuses was given a small packet that contained objects with a grin emblem for use on their desktops, along with a small thingee that would be positioned for your thumb and be wagged at colleagues. We made a press release and The Hindu carried a huge field object at the activity and the way it helped team of workers morale.