MAM
Rahul Mehta joins Kaizzen as Chief Operating Officer
New Delhi, December 10, 2019 – Kaizzen, a leading Public Relations and Digital Media Agency, has strengthened its senior leadership team, with the appointment of Rahul Mehta as COO its India operations. Mehta will focus on driving business growth across practice areas, providing strategic senior counsel, consolidating existing client relationships and drive service expansion initiatives. He will work closely with Vineet Handa, Founder and CEO, Kaizzen. Mehta brings over 20 years of agency and corporate experience to the position.
Prior to joining Kaizzen; Mehta has served in senior business leadership roles for over a decade, and his previous assignment was as Sr. VP & General Manager with FleishmanHillard in New Delhi. During his tenure, he contributed to strong growth for the Delhi office, winning businesses from reputed Indian and international firms.
“Rahul is a highly respected and experienced communications professional and I welcome him to our India leadership team”, said Vineet Handa, Founder and CEO of Kaizzen PR. “His proven expertise to deliver result-oriented and innovative campaigns, and offer senior counsel across diverse sectors and practice areas will benefit our current and future clients. Kaizzen has always focused on providing exceptional client servicing, and strengthening of our core India leadership team will help us enter the next phase of growth for our India operations.”
“I am excited to join Kaizzen PR and work alongside Vineet to achieve strong business growth for Kaizzen”, said Mehta. “Our focus will be to drive a culture of excellence across all aspects of client servicing. We will aim to offer integrated, unique, innovative and highly focused campaign solutions to clients, to help them achieve their communication and business goals.”
Mehta brings strong expertise in corporate reputation management, crisis management, social media influencer campaigns, internal communications, executive training and brand marketing, which will help drive growth for Kaizzen’s India business. He also brings to the table, strong expertise in sectors such as consumer electronics, FMCG, auto, B2B, healthcare, telecom, and fashion and lifestyle.
Mehta previously worked at agencies such as Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick, Genesis Burson-Marsteller and Good Relations. A post-graduate from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies; Mehta is also a past winner of the Asia Pacific Leadership Award.
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
