Diwan Arun Nanda: An MBA in advertising

When I told my friends that I was joining Rediffusion Advertising, then a relatively unknown ad agency, straight out of IIMC, I was asked to examine my head. “A B Tech from IIT Madras and a top-ranking student in IIM Calcutta… and you decide to join advertising, you are truly mad” was the comment that was hurled at me.

These thoughts and more were passing through my head as I watched friends, relatives, industry colleagues pay their last respects to the mortal remains of Diwan Arun Nanda yesterday. Here was a man who changed many rules of Indian advertising.

In no other country in the world would you see as many ad agencies being started and run by MBAs from the premier B Schools. He and his partner Ajit Balakrishnan started this revolution. Not only were they both MBA from IIMA and IIMC respectfully, the first team they assembled were all from the top B Schools. Rediffusion was also probably one of the first ad agencies to visit top B Schools to hire MBA fresh from campus.

The success of Rediffusion paved the way for many more management graduates to start their own agencies. From Rediffusion’s own alumni there was Ashok Kurien (Ambience), Rajiv Agarwal (Nexus), Raghunath (Equity), Prasad Subramanian (Capital), Sandeep Kumar (Milestones) to name a few.

I also believe that looking at the success achieved by Rediffusion in the late 1970s and 1980s, we saw agencies like Advertising Avenues (started by Gautam Rakshit an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj), Madison (founder Sam Balsara also a Jamnalal Bajaj graduate) and more blossom. If I include specialist agencies I can think of Rage Digital (JRK Rao IIMC), 20:20Media (Sunil Agrawal IIMA) and more.

How did Diwan Arun Nanda contribute to this phenomenon? Till Diwan Arun Nanda (with Ajit Balakrishnan, I should add) entered the scene ad agencies were started by either creative stars or servicing veterans (who could pull big clients into their new agency). What Diwan Arun Nanda managed to achieve was build an agency from scratch, with no guaranteed business, with a team of top quality MBAs. But it did not end there. Diwan Arun Nanda was clear that it was the creative product that will set the agency apart, not just clever strategy. So, the emphasis on top quality creative, centrally controlled and monitored.

The result was great strategy thinking that got translated into cutting edge creative. Campaigns that became part of popular culture. Give me Red. Whenever You See Colour Think of Us. And more.

Diwan Arun Nanda was not just an advertising man. He was a lot more. A lover of horses and fine art. A master at managing client relationships, from Rajiv Gandhi to Ratan Tata. Often taking the side of the client in a meeting (he often sat on the same side as the client as the team presented from the other side of the table). A man of class.

The last few times  I interacted with him was almost five years ago when I served on the board of Rediff.com as an Independent Director. He was ailing but used to attend the board meetings asking some very perceptive questions. Behind those I could see the Arun Nanda who I interacted with as a young client servicing executive four decades ago, working on brands like Cadbury’s Appela, Red & White, Xerox, Thermax, Khatau, Calico and more.

There are not too many like him in the world of advertising today. And his absence will be sorely missed. RIP Arun.