Ok, what the heck is Paul Writer Strategic Advisory?!

My belief - reinforced by my recent attendance at TED India - is that India has an amazing amount of innovation. Often the product of a constraint driven economy, we come up with fabulous ideas. But, as per Peter Drucker, innovation is just one face of the coin, with the other being marketing. This is where we sometimes lag - due to a combination of resource constraints, lack of marketing infrastructure, absence of common marketing knowledge. More so in B2B services/hi-tech which is a relatively new space in India.

My book, No Money Marketing, is an attempt to provide common marketing knowledge particularly to those working on challenger brands. Going by initial feedback (and sales) it seems to be helping entrepreneurs and young marketers.

Now the time has come for the next step. After 4 1/2 years in Wipro and over a decade (since 1998!) in IT services, I’ve decided to leave my rather cool job as CMO and try to do more in building India’s infrastructure in the B2B marketing space. Am launching a firm called Paul Writer Strategic Advisory, and broadly, intend to focus on three areas:

1. Strategic Advisory & Marketing Management: Provide positioning advice, go-to-marketing strategy and marketing program management & execution for challenger firms
2. Marketing Crashers: Crash courses and collaborative learning opportunities for those who want a marketing primer on topics such as Positioning, Executive Branding, Social Media etc
3. Networking: Construct a networking platform for B2B marketers

And for those curious about the name, “Writer” was (and still is) a term used to refer to the manager of a tea or coffee estate. A trusted executive and steward of the estate-owner’s wealth, this person was in charge of operations including maintaining accounts, managing the estate, and taking the crops to market. I intend to become the trusted advisor to those who value brands, and thus function as their “Writer”. And there’s a personal connect - my grandfather was a “Writer” around a century ago.

I’ll be with Wipro till Jan 8, when I step off into the great unknown. What I want to do continues to evolve, and feedback is most welcome. Wish me luck!