Tête-à-Tête with Mr. Navroze Dhondy

Jagran Lakecity University hosted a remarkable branding-oriented session in its Igniting Minds Lecture Series on the 12th of October, 2020 from 04:00 PM on its virtual platform. The esteemed the speaker was none other than Mr. Navroze Dhondy, Founder and MD, Creatigies Communication. There was a lot of buzz around vis-à-vis the session to be conducted. It was
moderated by Prof. Diwakar Shukla, Dean, Faculty of Journalism and Creative Studies, and
Head—JLU Advancement and International Relations.


      It was interesting to note that although it was a part of a lecture series, no fragment of it felt like
one. In the words of the speaker himself, it was like a chapter of his own life. He also laid
emphasis on how the session was a rather practical one since he brought about the anecdotes
from his personal experiences. As the session progressed, he went on to talk about “the flavor
of the month: IPL”.



It majorly encapsulated the branding and sponsorship aspects of business where Mr. Dhondy
quoted incidences from his business career. The major takeaway was the set of advertisements
that he carefully handpicked and examined, which covered the think-outside-the-box angle of it.
He also brought forth the fact that this was all a major success back in the day when social media
was still not as prevalent as it is today. Furthermore, he brought to everyone’s attention to a wide
variety of case studies to help the audience learn directly from original sources as well as
experiences. He moved ahead enlightening the audience with the importance of media visibility,
which has grown with the passage of time. One of the highlights was the way he encouraged
everyone to be socially and morally responsible.

Later on, Prof. Shukla quoted Carl Jung and asked a question drawing on the same lines (it is
important for brands to have a personality, why?), followed by an enlightening discussion. He
also carefully noted that the speaker’s brand and event alignment has worked wonders for him
(thereby signifying its importance). He also commented on the very fact that how important it is
to be a good risk-taker. He took inspiration from some marvelous brands like Orbit, Boomer, Zomato, Muthoot, HTC, Quikr, etc. The speaker seemed like a large-hearted man where he was fine with his ideas being used widely and said, “ Imitation is a form of flattery”.

          Mr. Dhondy, while answering one of the questions, remarked, “Brands become people”. Also, he
exclaimed how “less is more” is still a thing that has worked well for him over the years. He
highlighted how much it matters that you tell a story worth telling. Not just that, he urged
everyone to be the first in everything and be initiative-takers and not crack deals but form
relationships or partnerships for that matter. Talking of money, he hinted at treating someone
else’s money as your own and how saying no is equally as important as saying yes.


He successfully managed to draw a stark contrast between TV and Radio as forms of the media,
where Radio, he said, “is the theatre of the mind” and TV is just “what you see”.
The session concluded with a set of significant questions asked by members of the faculty and
student community. Suffice to say that our dear resource person was also thoroughly entertained by the whole session.

To watch the full session: https://www.facebook.com/jlubhopal/videos/340133837220045