Three decades of reinvention: Abhinav K. Srivastava's journey in communications & PR

Few industries have experienced transformation as rapidly as communications. Having spent nearly three decades in the field, Abhinav K. Srivastava, CEO - Madison PR & Brandcom PR has witnessed this evolution first hand.

For nearly three decades, Srivastava has been navigating the ever-changing world of communications, building a career that spans marketing, advertising, public relations, public affairs, crisis management, and corporate reputation. He brings a wealth of experience gained from working across industries, advising leading brands, and witnessing the communications profession evolve through multiple waves of disruption. 

In this candid conversation, he deep dive into his nearly three-decade-long journey in communications, from his early days in marketing and advertising to building a successful career in public relations. He shares insights on the unique advantages of agency life, the evolution of the PR industry, and the major disruptions that have shaped communications over the years, from the telecom and internet revolutions to the pandemic and the rise of AI. He also discusses the growing importance of communications in the boardroom, the changing nature of crisis management, lessons from being part of one of India's early PR startups, and the skills future communicators will need to thrive, his vision for the future of the industry, and more.

Excerpts:

How did your professional journey begin, what drew you to public relations, and how has your career evolved over the years? 

My professional journey started almost three decades ago, even before I completed my MBA. In the early years, I worked across editorial and marketing-related roles, which gave me exposure to different industries and helped me understand how businesses communicate and build their presence.

After my MBA, I joined a leading cigarette brand as an Assistant Manager in marketing. It was a great learning experience and helped me understand how brands are built and managed. However, as the market changed and the recession hit, I started exploring other opportunities.

Like many young professionals at the time, I was keen on building a career in advertising. I joined J. Walter Thompson (JWT) (then Hindustan Thompson Associates) and later worked on brands such as CloseUp and Lux. While the experience was exciting, I slowly realised that advertising wasn't where I saw myself in the long run.

The turning point came when I joined Rediffusion. Because of the market situation, the opportunity available was in public relations rather than advertising. I decided to give it a try, and that decision changed the course of my career.

What drew me to PR was the variety it offered. Every day brought a new challenge, a new industry, and a new story to tell. I was fortunate to work with mentors who helped me understand that PR is much more than media relations. It is about building reputation, shaping narratives, and helping organisations communicate with their stakeholders effectively.

Over the years, I have worked across sectors such as telecom, corporate communications, technology, public affairs, and crisis management. My first love was telecom, and I had the opportunity to work with industry leaders such as Airtel and Sunil Bharti Mittal. Later, my stint with the UB Group gave me exposure to entirely different worlds, from lifestyle and sports to luxury brands, and taught me the importance of understanding every aspect of a client's business.

I have always believed in continuous learning. In the early years, I spent a lot of time outside work learning about industries, businesses, and the changing communications landscape. That curiosity helped me take on larger roles, lead teams, manage complex mandates, and eventually drive business growth.

After Rediffusion, I joined Comma Consulting, one of the most talked-about PR startups of its time. Since then, I have continued to grow through different roles and agencies, but one thing has remained constant—the excitement of learning, adapting, and helping brands build meaningful relationships with their audiences.

Having spent a significant part of your career in agencies, how would you define agency life? How is it different from corporate communications, and what advantages does it offer to professionals?

I believe both agency and corporate communications roles have their own unique advantages, and neither is better than the other. The choice depends on the kind of experience and career path an individual is looking for.

What agency life offers is tremendous variety. You could be working on a corporate reputation mandate one day, a healthcare or hygiene brand the next, and an automotive or consumer brand after that. This exposure allows you to understand different industries, business challenges, and communication approaches. It broadens your perspective and helps you become a more well-rounded communications professional.

In fact, I often recommend that anyone looking to build a career in communications should spend at least a few years in an agency environment. The pace is fast, the learning curve is steep, and you get the opportunity to work across multiple sectors and stakeholders. The experience helps build a strong foundation that stays with you throughout your career.

Corporate communications offers a different kind of learning. It allows you to go much deeper into a single brand or organisation. You become closely involved with various departments, understand the business in greater detail, and contribute to long-term strategic objectives. It gives you depth, whereas agency life gives you breadth.

I often describe it this way: agency life allows you to see communications from the outside, while corporate life lets you experience it from the inside. Both perspectives are valuable, but the exposure that agencies provide early in one's career can be incredibly beneficial.

Spending four to five years in an agency allows professionals to explore different industries and communication disciplines before they choose to specialise. Once you move into a specific domain, you naturally become an expert in that area. Agency life, however, gives you the opportunity to learn from many sectors, and that wider perspective becomes a significant advantage as your career progresses.

Having spent nearly three decades in the industry, you have witnessed PR evolve through multiple phases of transformation. What have been the most disruptive shifts you have observed, and how do you see the industry evolving from here?

Over the last three decades, I have had the opportunity to witness several transformative moments that have fundamentally changed not just the communications industry, but the way people interact with information and with each other.

The first major disruption was the rise of telecommunications. I started my career at a time when mobile phones were still a luxury and communication was far more limited. My experience with Airtel gave me a front-row seat to the telecom revolution. As mobile connectivity became accessible to the masses, it changed the way people communicated, consumed information, and engaged with brands. That shift laid the foundation for many of the changes that followed.

The second major disruption was the rise of the Internet, followed by social media on mobile devices. It reshaped human behaviour, democratized access to information, and created a world where communication became instant, borderless, and accessible to everyone. Earlier, knowledge about global markets, trends, or developments often came through people who had travelled or had access to specialised sources. The internet changed that overnight. People could explore, learn, and discover information independently, creating a more informed and connected world. For communications professionals, it opened up entirely new ways of engaging with audiences.

The third major disruption was the pandemic. It accelerated digital adoption at a pace few could have predicted. Virtual meetings, remote collaboration, and digital engagement became the norm almost overnight. It demonstrated that meaningful business conversations and relationships could continue without physical presence, fundamentally changing how organisations communicate internally and externally.

Today, we are witnessing the fourth and perhaps the most significant disruption so far - Artificial Intelligence. AI is beginning to reshape every aspect of communication, from data analysis and audience insights to automation and decision-making. It has the ability to process vast amounts of information, understand patterns, and provide recommendations at a scale that was previously unimaginable.

How do you see AI - as an enabler or replacement?

I see AI as an enabler rather than a replacement. Every technological shift has created concerns about jobs and relevance, but history has shown that those who adapt and learn to work alongside new technologies emerge stronger. The same applies to AI.

At Madison, we are already using AI across media, digital, and PR functions, particularly for analysis, reporting, and extracting insights from large volumes of data. These applications help teams work faster and make more informed decisions. However, areas such as strategic thinking, creativity, relationship-building, and nuanced communication still require human judgment and expertise.

Going forward, the industry will continue to evolve alongside technology. The professionals who succeed will be those who embrace these changes, understand how to leverage new tools, and continuously adapt their skills. Technology will keep transforming the communications landscape, but the ability to build trust, tell compelling stories, and understand people will remain at the heart of the profession.

Despite the growing importance of reputation, stakeholder trust, and crisis preparedness, communications still struggles to secure a seat in many boardrooms. In your view, what is preventing communications leaders from being seen as strategic advisors, and what must organisations do to elevate the function from a support role to a core business driver?

The situation is improving, but only a small percentage of organisations truly recognise communications as a strategic business function. Many still view it primarily as a tool for visibility or sales support, which limits its role and impact.

The organisations that give communications a seat at the table understand that reputation, crisis management, public affairs, and stakeholder trust are business-critical issues. In such companies, communications leaders are involved in shaping leadership narratives, managing corporate reputation, and navigating complex challenges that directly affect business outcomes.

I have seen this firsthand while working with organisations such as the Tata Group, where communications was closely integrated into discussions around leadership, trust, and long-term reputation building. These organisations understand that communications is not just about messaging; it is about protecting and strengthening business value.

The same applies during a crisis. While legal teams are important, crises cannot be managed through a legal lens alone. Every crisis has a reputational dimension, which is why communications professionals need to be involved from the outset.

At the same time, communicators must also evolve. To earn a place in the boardroom, they need to go beyond media relations and develop a deeper understanding of business, policy, risk, and stakeholder expectations.

Ultimately, organisations need to stop viewing communications as a support function. Advertising and performance marketing may drive awareness and sales, but communications builds trust, credibility, and reputation—assets that are increasingly critical to long-term business success.

You were among the founding team members of Comma Consulting, one of India's early PR startups. What inspired that move, and what did the experience teach you?

At that stage of my career, I had already spent several years in PR and, like many young professionals, I felt I had seen and understood a lot of the industry. Joining Comma Consulting gave me an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and help build something from the ground up.

I was not the founder, but I was part of the founding team and the first team member in Mumbai. In those early days, we were involved in everything—from setting up the office and hiring people to acquiring clients and building the business. It was a completely different experience from working in an established agency.

One of the most defining assignments during that period was working on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link project. It gave me invaluable exposure to large-scale infrastructure projects, government stakeholders, public scrutiny, and complex communication challenges. The experience taught me how government systems function, how multiple stakeholders need to be managed, and how critical communications can be during high-pressure situations.

More importantly, it laid the foundation for my expertise in crisis management. It taught me how to assess risks, navigate sensitive situations, and build communication strategies during challenging circumstances. Looking back, that experience gave me a much broader perspective on communications and shaped many of the skills I continue to use today.

Having managed crises across sectors for many years, how has crisis communication evolved, and what should communicators keep in mind today?

Crisis communication has evolved dramatically over the years. When I started, crises were often limited to specific issues such as product concerns, operational challenges, or isolated corporate incidents. The impact was usually contained and the response was largely media-driven.

The internet and social media changed that completely. Crises are no longer confined to a single geography or stakeholder group. A local issue can become a national conversation within hours, making crisis management far more complex and fast-paced.

Another major shift is the rise of informed and vocal consumers. Today, people are far more aware of their rights and expectations from brands. Whether it is healthcare, food and beverage, technology, or infrastructure, organisations are being held accountable in ways that were uncommon two decades ago.

While the nature of crises has changed, the core principles remain the same. Organisations must respond with honesty, clarity, and speed while protecting long-term corporate reputation. In some cases, businesses may even need to make difficult decisions, including distancing themselves from a product or brand issue, to safeguard the larger organisation.

I also believe that while the news cycle has become shorter, scrutiny has become more intense. Crises may fade from headlines faster, but they can spread much more rapidly and attract immediate public attention. That is why communications and legal teams must work closely together. Today, organisations are often facing not just legal scrutiny but also public and media scrutiny, making a coordinated response more important than ever.

What skills do you think will differentiate the next generation of communicators?

The most important skill for the next generation of communicators will be the ability to continuously learn and adapt. The communications industry has evolved dramatically during my career—from manually tracking media coverage and understanding how different publications and journalists operated, to today's AI-driven environment where insights and analysis are available almost instantly.

Every phase has required communicators to learn new tools, new technologies, and new ways of working. That will continue in the future. The professionals who succeed will be those who stay curious, embrace change, and understand how emerging technologies can be used to create value for clients and organisations.

At the same time, technology alone is not enough. I strongly believe communicators need to understand how things work behind the scenes. Whether it is the newsroom, digital platforms, content creation, consumer behaviour, or business operations, understanding the fundamentals gives you a significant advantage.

If you know the backend of how media, digital, and communications ecosystems function, you can provide better advice, make better decisions, and identify opportunities that others may miss. Clients are increasingly looking for professionals who can connect strategy with execution and explain not just what is happening, but why it is happening.

Ultimately, while tools and platforms will continue to evolve, a strong understanding of the fundamentals, combined with adaptability and a willingness to learn, will remain the qualities that set great communicators apart.

How do you see the future of the communications industry evolving, and what excites you most about it?

I am very optimistic about the future of communications, especially in India. While media industries in many parts of the world are shrinking, India continues to see growth in media consumption and audience engagement. That creates significant opportunities for communications professionals and ensures that the industry will remain relevant for years to come.

One of the biggest shifts I hope to see is the integration of public relations, public affairs, and public policy into a more unified strategic function. Globally, these disciplines often work together to shape reputation, influence stakeholders, and support business objectives. India is moving in that direction, but there is still considerable ground to cover.

Another important area is talent development. As the industry evolves, educational institutions and organisations need to ensure that young professionals are equipped with skills that reflect the realities of modern communications. The future communicator will need to understand not just media relations, but also policy, advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and emerging technologies.

I also believe organisations need to invest more seriously in reputation-building and public affairs. Communications should not be viewed as a tactical function but as a strategic business enabler that helps organisations build trust, navigate challenges, and create long-term value.

What excites me most is being part of that transformation. Throughout my career, I have enjoyed helping organisations evolve their communications capabilities, and I see a tremendous opportunity to shape the next phase of growth for the industry. The future will be driven by collaboration, continuous learning, and a broader understanding of the role communications can play in business and society.