My Story: I was grilled on everything but research and media

Raghav Subramanian quit as COO of Lintas Initiative Media last year, and partnered his LMG CEO Sudha Natrajan to set up their media consultancy as well as TMC, the only cafe/pub for the advertising and media fraternity. His family wanted him to become a CA but his love for consumer data and a chance meeting with PV Narayanamoorthy brought him to media for good

April 22, 2013

Raghav Subramanian

Growing up in the 70s in a lower middle class conservative Tambram family in Delhi was very different from what it is today. I went to a 'Madrasi school' in Delhi because my mom and aunts studied there and “it is our culture”. Tamil culture!

Rajoo Hirani was too young to make '3 Idiots' then, so our only options were engineering, medicine or CA. Since I took commerce in senior school, I had to go for CA. Yes, I did like numbers, but not in the garb of debit and credit. I silently protested by looking out for options and found numbers dressed in consumer data very attractive. One fine day I told my dad that Sarabhai Group wants to hire me. He was impressed and said OK. What I did not say is that it had nothing to do with accounting and the company was ORG (market research). Reconciliation happened after six months!

After spending close to five years in research, gunning down creative concepts, periodic health checks for brands, etc., I got curious about impacting brands through communication.

Friends told me to meet PV Narayanamoorthy, known to many as Moorthy or PVNM. No, not the Infosys champ, but the media doyen. Ogilvy was looking for a junior media planner, which meant coming a few ranks down.

Date with Moorthy was fixed at the old Ogilvy office in Allahabad Bank Building in Delhi's Connaught Place. Moorthy was as much respected as he was feared. At least I was briefed so. Shikha, his assistant, led me in. A tall, bearded, serious looking man with a heavy voice greeted me with a measured hello. In my mind I was already ready to look for the next agency.

The interview was very short – only 3 hours! I was grilled on everything but research and media. I was competing for eye contact with mine sweeper. Around the 175^th minute Moorthy was stuck with the last 3 squares of which 2 were mines. I realised my prayers were never sincere and hence not answered, and so I was asked to pick the next click. Suggesting Inky Pinky Ponky was not an option. The other cerebral option was probability theorem. Box picked, clicked, BLAST!! Now I knew the 1% chance was also gone.

Next thing I heard was “OK, thank you, Raghav, we will get back to you”. So I left with a heavy heart and a headache. Headache not from the three hours, but from Shikha's perfume – one would know if Shikha had come to work or not from the outer circle in CP!

A week later got a call from Shikha saying my offer letter was ready.

I have never looked back. Miss that breed of leaders who looked for talent not by only functional capabilities but also attitude and posture of work. Thank you, Moorthy.

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There are great untold stories in advertising. If you know of any ad professional who came into the profession by chance or because of unusual circumstances, do let us know so that we can profile him. Write to us at Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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