5 Years of ON PURPOSE

Somebody pinch me. I can’t believe we’ve got this far. In April 2017, Sashwati Banerjee at Sesame Workshop India had given us our first assignment to create a five-year strategic framework to address childhood obesity in India. By the time we registered ON PURPOSE as a partnership firm on July 14th - we had 3 clients, one full time team member and one freelance designer. A force to reckon with, already :)

Five years on, we’ve transitioned from a partnership firm to a Private Limited one. We’re also in our third year of living and working through the pandemic. Proper grown-up stuff.

There has never been a more critical need for communications to drive social change

Even before the pandemic, the world needed an ambitious focus to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The last few years of the global pandemic have severely disrupted collective efforts to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and create a prosperous world. Essential health services are inadequate, millions have lost jobs, childhood development opportunities have been interrupted or have disappeared and inequality has worsened. The climate crisis hasn’t improved much, despite the most anticipated Conference of Parties (COP 26) which saw increased commitment to incremental change, but nowhere near the level required to meet the goals set out by the Paris Agreement in 2015, for 2030. In 2022, we’re at the half-way mark. We’ll need even more focus and ambition in the next few years to avert a climate catastrophe.  

 We’re scaling to address this and more

Or at least, to do our bit. In five years, we’ve built a team of 52 full-timers and work with another 10-12 specialists on demand (a hat tip to our growing gig economy) across Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. Our top 3 clients include a UN body that is creating a movement around youth skilling, a coalition of philanthropies committed to enabling a just energy transition, and a multilateral organisation working on a range of climate issues. More than we ever dreamed off in 2017.

Here are five lessons we’ve learnt in the last five years of building an organisation:

1.      Stand for something: Focusing on social change is a choice. It means we say no a lot more than we say yes. The trade-off lies in sacrificing short term income and profit for a longer-term vision of using communications for good. And the universe, and markets, have responded. Despite a slow start, we’ve grown our revenues 92% over last year and delivered an average growth of 91% year-on-year, for the last five years. We’re building a sustainable business in communications by focusing on work that aligns with our values.

 2.      Social change must begin at home: We’re proud of the work we do with clients in climate action, public health, education, and gender. These are organisations that are committed to addressing social and economic inequities. We’re inspired by the passion and commitment of its leaders and the people we get to work with. We’re prouder still of our own effort to build our workplace as a vehicle of social change. Our policies for a safe and inclusive workplace include 6 days of paid ‘period chutti’, 3 months of parental leave for all non-birthing parents, sponsored professional development training assistance and a work-from-home allowance (yes, our team members get more money to work from home) since March 2020. In April 2022, we also completed a 12-month exercise in addressing the gender pay-gap through corrections in salaries. We want ON PURPOSE to be the change we want to see.

 3.      Ask for help:  As a solo-Founder, I’m privileged to have worked with our two Founding team members, Srishti and Dhun for the last five years. But we rely more on our passion and enthusiasm than the experience of having built an organisation before. Thankfully, I’ve also had the good fortune of having access to gracious ex-bosses (Meera Krishnan), experienced agency Founders (Nandita Lakshmanan and Kunal Kishore) and industry mentors (Moushumi Dutt and Shravani Dang) who have answered my call, listened, and shared richly from their experience. More recently, I’ve also benefitted from access to a leadership coach (Kanwaldeep Singh) and am excited to re-group with ex-super boss, David Gallagher, who’s joined us as a Strategic Advisor to help us grow in capability and scale. We’ll take all the help we can get.

 4.      Change is good: It’s hard letting go. Of a team member with high potential, a client struggling with funding, or professional relationships that have outlived their utility. In some cases, we’ve learnt to force the active decision, in others, we’ve let things drag on further than we should have. In most cases, when a party has decided to move on, we’ve learnt, it’s best to do so quickly, rather than kick the can further along the road. The ensuing gap clears the air and makes space for something new and re-energising.

5.      Work hard and say thank you: I’m borrowing this phrase from ex-colleague and business idol, Mike Copland, ex-Founder and Chairman of (Brodeur) Pleon in the UK. At his farewell, instead of a long speech, these were his exact parting words. I’m trying to get better at this (especially the brevity, since this is turning into a long post), but sorry, in five years, we’ve accumulated quite a list of people to say thank you to. 

1.      The people we get to work with every day

I got lucky. Srishti, Dhun and I started out together. With each passing year, we’ve gotten to know each other better, warts and all. We may not have realised it, but this experience is transforming us, our careers, and our future.

• Sneha, Shibani, Deepika, Divya, Ruam, Sudha and Madhav – our senior team across the 3 metros. Thank you. Our unity and collaboration is helping build this organisation on our values of courage, compassion and curiosity.
• Bhavika, Chandrasekar, Apurva, Aastha, Usha, Yavanika, Mahima, Juhi, Aditya, Shruti, Saurav, Shahina and Ayushi – thank you. We know the heavy lift you do every day in delivering on demanding client briefs.
• Ameet, Tania, Garima, Harman, Ekagra, Nidhi, Prateek, Venkatesh, Gaurav, Ayush, Hoshner, Pooja, Nilofar, Jaipriya, Manisha, Noorul, Aryan, Yashvi, Jinal, Abiali, Anjali, Tanu, Dewanshu, Faizee, Niharika and Mahalaxmi – thank you. For all your hard work and commitment that is taking us forward.
• Sarwar, Shiwangi, Kashish and Ashish – thank you for the sheer volume of work you help us get through, for ensuring we’ve never once had to delay a salary payment and for shaping our culture, despite me.
• Sid, Shalini Raghaviah, Supriya Jain, Supriya Balasundaram, Gourav Sahai, Sanika Diwanji, Mohsin, Gaurav Bhagowati, Gaurav Bhatt, Akanksha Kohli, Shruthi Chandrasekaran – thank you for being talented and supportive partners. We know we rarely have a decent timeline to offer.
• And thank you to a few others who’ve been integral to our journey – Shalini, John, Uttirna, Prachita, Atreyee, Diksha, Riti, Mayank, Mira, Nithin, Pankhuri, Jananni, Trigya, Piyush, Rajat, Naveen, Archana, Shyam, Shruti, Aaruni, Sonali, Dewanshi, Aishwarya, Samvit, Vivaan, Joy, Harsh, Anand, Charitha, Sejal, Sikha, Priya, Karan, Esha, Shriya, Chinnu, Miriam, Neha, Nimay, Harsh, Harshit, Purnima, Jasneet and Lovely. Thank you. We couldn’t have done this without you. 

2.      Our families and friends

Building an organisation requires an unreasonable amount of time and energy. Each of us has had to call upon our reserves of resilience and strength that can only come from support from our families. In my case, my wife Pinky – who often sits next to me, with Maya, our four-legged child, when she knows I’m drawing upon all her strength to get me through the day. My parents, who listen to me every time I call, my sister and family in Shanghai, my business partner – Mr. Nath and my in-laws in Bangalore – thank you for always being there for us. I’m sure each of us has their own stories of support, comfort, and strength from family. Thank you to all of you (and a special high-five to those who engage with ALL our social media!)

3.      Our clients: Thank you for your trust. Today, we’re building our capabilities in policy communications, behavioural sciences, stronger visual storytelling and more strategic media and stakeholder engagement. Thank you YuWaah (UNICEF), Smart Power India (Rockefeller Foundation), GIZ, Micelio, Bernard Van Leer Foundation, Clean Air Fund, Solis Health, Asian Development Bank, KPMG, Ernst & Young, World Wildlife Fund, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Beetel, Antara, Vana, CHATT (Airbnb, Make My Trip, Oyo and Ease My Trip), Fernandez Foundation, Indivillage, Veddis Foundation, Securonix, Varonis, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Dasra, Active Buildings, xQ, Nasscom Foundation and others. We’re here for you.

 4.      The industry and community support: whether its industry publications or the wider community – Prmoment.in, Reputation Today, Campaign India, IMPACT, Ad Gully, Exchange4Media, ET Brand Equity, SCORE, Fulcrum, Provoke Media or the PRCAI – thank you for being so welcoming and supportive of us and our mission. We’re grateful for the industry and individual recognition we’ve received in the last five years including:

• PR Team of the Year - Campaign India, 2021, 2020 & 2019
• Fastest Growing & Rising Consultancy of the Year, IPRCCA, 2021 & 2020
• Agency of the Year, Rising - ET Brand Equity, Kaleido Awards, 2021 & 2020
• Diversity Campaign Winner - Women Leading Change, Campaign India 2022
• Best Organisation for Women's Empowerment - Women Achievers Summit, 2021
• Top 5 (Small) Best Consultancies to Work With across Asia-Pacific, Provoke Media, 2020 & 2019
• PR Consultancy of the Year (Small) & Emerging Consultancy of the Year, Fulcrum Awards, 2021, 2020 & 2018

If you’ve read all the way here, thank you. This has been my fifth year writing this blog. If you really want to, you can read previous editions, starting here: Four years of (living) ON PURPOSE

If you’d like to know more about any aspect of what we do and how we can work together, feel free to drop us a line or say hello here. Linkedin is good for all of this.

Or feel free to check out more of our 5th Year Anniversary celebrations #OPin5thGear on our social media handles, here:

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