Thinking Big, Acting Thoughtfully: Lessons from Madan Bahal

When exchange4media asked me to write about Madan for his 70th birthday, I hesitated - I haven’t interacted with him closely - we’ve met just a handful of times, mostly in the last year.  Yet I realized some moments from our interactions are worth sharing, even though others know him far better.

One of the first times I really saw him differently was in early 2019, when Amazon opened an agency RFP. It was a complex, demanding mandate, and our RFP laid out the scale and intricacies across businesses. Madan was the only agency leader who asked if he could meet me because he had more questions. I remember being struck by his pointed and thoughtful questions to understand what the work would truly require. That diligence, I am sure, is a big part of Adfactors PR’s success.

What followed impressed me more. Days before submissions, he called to say they were grateful for the invite but were withdrawing as they didn't have the right teams and he didn’t want Adfactors to offer anything less than the best to Amazon. Walking away from one of the largest accounts, rather than over-promise and “figure it out later” -  a temptation many in our industry succumb to - earned my respect. (Adfactors did win Amazon's corporate PR account when it next came up for pitch a few years later.) In subsequent conversations, he spoke about investing in technology and expanding beyond traditional PR into areas like owned content – a clear sign he is often thinking ahead.

When I decided to move on from Amazon, he was among the first agency leaders I approached about consulting. Despite our limited interactions, he immediately agreed to meet, saying simply: you met me representing Amazon, I had to return the courtesy. As we discussed strategy training for his team, I saw his forward thinking - bringing in talent beyond conventional PR profiles (my cohort included lawyers, an ex-journalist, and someone with an investment banking background) and committing to deep, sustained learning rather than surface-level workshops.56

From the outside, I’ve watched with admiration how Adfactors has grown, and how Madan and Rajesh have raised the bar for what scale and ambition look like for agency leaders in India. But beyond that growth and success, what has stayed with me is his thoughtfulness, his willingness to listen, his commitment to investing in people and the Indian PR industry, and a rare combination of humility and what we at Amazon would call “Think Big.” 

Madan—I'm glad for our interactions and that you're helping take Indian PR to the next level.