MAM
Enormous Brands brings Soumitra Patnekar on board to lead planning vertical
NEW DELHI: Enormous Brands, an independent creative agency, has roped in former BBH director of strategy Soumitra Patnekar as the head of its planning vertical. In this role, Patnekar will be based out of the company’s Mumbai office and will develop brand strategies, communications strategies, and conduct market researches for the company’s clients.
Enormous Brands managing partner- Ashish Khazanchi said, “I'm delighted to bring Soumitra on board as a part of the management team in Enormous. His experience in personal care and in automobiles is extremely rich and we're looking forward to building on that. Apart from advertising, he's spent a fair amount of time in consulting and in studying the length and breadth of the country's consuming audiences His insights and experiences from there are invaluable as are his perspectives on building businesses.”
Patnekar said, "I am excited to lead the strategy function at Enormous Brands along with Ashish and Ajay. Today, more than ever, I feel that brands need to have a distinctive voice and a consistent footprint across the media and tech landscape. My aim is to help build real, authentic brands rooted in our ethos thereby helping clients achieve/get the right value for their products and services.”
Patnekar brings with him 15 years of brand planning & consulting experience across agencies (BBH, Grey, Contract) and consulting firms (Future brands & Sideways). He has led the strategy on Global Brands Like Audi, Axe, ABnBev & DPA (Diamond Producers association) & Indian majors like Marico & Ferrero India. His work on Axe, & Fiat Punto has won multiple effectiveness awards in International forums like APAC Effies & IAA (International Advertising Association).
Brands
Oracle layoffs affect up to 30,000 employees globally
Job cuts span US, India and more, staff cite abrupt emails, uncertainty.
MUMBAI: April began with an inbox shock and for thousands, it ended with an exit. Oracle has carried out a sweeping round of layoffs, impacting an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 employees across its global operations, even as the company continues to report strong business performance. The job cuts were communicated via emails sent early on April 1, affecting staff across multiple regions including the United States, India, Canada and parts of Latin America. The reduction spans a wide range of roles and functions, though the company has not disclosed specific criteria behind the decisions.
In the days following the layoffs, employees have taken to platforms such as LinkedIn to share their experiences, many describing the process as abrupt and unsettling. Several posts pointed to a lack of prior indication, with notifications arriving suddenly in early-morning messages.
A recurring concern has been the impact on long-tenured staff. Users reported that employees with decades of experience were among those let go, raising broader questions about job security even for seasoned professionals within large technology firms.
The layoffs have also sparked anxiety about the wider direction of the sector. As companies continue to invest heavily in automation and artificial intelligence, workforce recalibration is becoming more common often accompanied by uncertainty around future roles and skills.
For many affected employees, the immediate challenge lies in navigating career transitions in an increasingly competitive job market, with posts reflecting concerns about stability and next steps.
The development comes against a backdrop of strong financial performance at Oracle, which recently reported a 22 percent year-on-year increase in revenue, alongside continued growth in its cloud infrastructure business. The company has also been committing significant capital towards artificial intelligence and data centre expansion.
The contrast between growth and job cuts has added to the unease, underscoring a broader shift in how large technology firms balance expansion with efficiency sometimes at the cost of the very workforce that helped build that growth.
