The early years.
Trained in science, then in management — an MBA, a post-graduate diploma in Public Relations, modules in Brand Management and Digital Marketing from IIM Bangalore, and finally a PhD in Brand Management, Marketing Communication & Consumer Behaviour. The academic backbone has always run alongside the practice.
Shells Advertising.
In 1987 I founded Shells Advertising Inc. The brief was simple — central India deserved a creative agency that thought as ambitiously as anyone in Bombay. Three decades later Shells works with 150+ blue-chip brands across food, retail, education and industry — names like Haldiram's, Dinshaw's, Go Gas, Spacewood and Scindia School. In 2009 we became the first agency from the region to open a full-service branch overseas, in Dubai. Through it all, the philosophy hasn't changed — big ideas work better than big budgets.
A million-follower classroom.
A few years ago I started posting short marketing decodes — why Rolex sponsors tennis but not cricket, how Fevicol built India's most beloved campaign, the science behind a Pringles wafer. The audience grew fast: over a million followers across channels, 25 million views a month, and a conversation with Raj Shamani on his Figuring Out podcast that crossed 1.2 million views.
In the classroom and on the stage.
Fourteen times on the TEDx stage, and hundreds more at IITs, IIMs, CII, EO, TiECon, JITO and corporate annuals. Mentor at IIM Nagpur's incubation centre InFED. Board of Studies at MIT-ADT University (Pune), Tirpude Institute and Nagpur University. Faculty at IMT Nagpur; guest faculty at Manipal University, Dubai.
In Penguin's catalogue.
Penguin India recently signed me up for a book on marketing — distilling 39 years of practice and a million daily decodes into one volume.
Beyond the work.
A Rotarian since 1992 — President of the Rotary Club of Nagpur North in 2002; Team Leader for international exchanges to Sydney (2002), Ohio (2006) and Minneapolis (2016). Founder President of BNI Nagpur and Rotary Means Business Nagpur. Founder Chairman of the Marketing Forum at Vidarbha Industries Association. Past Chairman of Nagpur Round Table 83.
A qualified yoga instructor — for the past ten years my wife Shalini and I have run free yoga classes for the community. The companion book, Simple Yoga for a Healthy Life, is my way of giving back what the practice has given me.