Brands
Brands bid farewell to MS Dhoni for making India proud
NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricket team captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, bid adieu to international cricket on 15 August. He made the declaration through his Instagram post where he wrote, “Thanks. Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. From 19.29 hrs consider me as Retired.”
Popularly known as captain cool and also one of the most successful cricket captains of India, he has led the team in many astonishing victories. Under his regime, India won three ICC trophies including the 2011 cricket world cup.
The unexpected announcement left many people shocked and netizens poured in their tributes for Dhoni and saluted the legendary cricketer. In just a few hours, social media was abuzz with his name and #DhoniRetires was trending on top.
The style of retirement was also very unique from the cricketer. Dhoni posted a video which highlighted some of the best moment he has experienced in his lifetime during the course of the game. It also featured other Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul David and Virat Kohli.
Dhoni was not only the world’s highest-paid cricketer but a popular choice in the advertising world as well. Over the years, he has worked with an array of brands. In his astonishing career, he worked with multiple brands like Cars24, Mastercard, Netmeds, Dreams11, redBus, Snickers, Indigo Paints and many more. With Pepsi, MS Dhoni had the longest association of 11 years; it started in 2005 and campaigns like ‘Oh yes Abhi’ and ‘Change the game’ garnered a lot of attention.
Recently, he was featured in CARS24 360 degree marketing campaign, “Car bechni ho, toh CARS24” where Dhoni played dual characters of a seller and buyer.
ITC Ltd also released a film for Sunfeast Yipee when the brand expanded into the new category of pasta products. The TVC showcases him tasting six delicious pasta variants, offering the convenience of instant preparation.
The former captain had done many back to back TVC campaigns with Dream 11 and Snickers, with a new avatar each time.
According to the Duff & Phelps Celebrity Brand Valuation study 2019, while Virat Kohli retained his position as the biggest celebrity brand in India for the third successive year, Dhoni was ranked at number nine.
As per Forbes, in 2016, Dhoni’s net worth was around $31 million and brand endorsements comprised a large part of this value.
According to the Adex survey of TAM Media Research, during the January to June period of 2010, while Dhoni, at his peak, endorsed brands for 24 companies on TV, Shah Rukh Khan and Tendulkar were seen promoting the products of 16 and 15 companies, respectively.
During the period, ‘captain cool’ appeared for a host of brands, including Reebok, Aircel, Godrej, and TVS. In July 2010, he had signed a Rs 210 crore deal with Rhiti Sports Management and Mindscapes which till date is considered as one of the highest-paid deals.
Brands from across verticals joined the bandwagon and poured good wishes for the cricketer, and launched creatives on social media. Amul rolled out a heartwarming video, a montage of his achievement in his 16 years long international career.
We wish all the best to M S Dhoni @msdhoni for the next innings in his life! pic.twitter.com/UvgGHYGPI5
— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) August 15, 2020
Brands like Parle-G, Zomato, KFC, Google, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, IndiGo and many other brands paid tribute to the legendary cricketer.
We like our Chai hot and our “Captain Cool”. You ended this game in style – like always; and we bid you farewell.
#ParleG #Dhoni #CaptainCool #MsDhoni #DhoniRetires #ThankYouDhoni #Cricket #Biscuit #Chai #Game pic.twitter.com/eIW9PLchBD— Parle-G (@officialparleg) August 15, 2020
To the captain who helped India win at the highest level. Retired, but not out. You will be MSD. #DhoniRetires #MSDhoni pic.twitter.com/tNMz5nqmZk
— Disney+ Hotstar (@DisneyPlusHS) August 15, 2020
— Zomato (@ZomatoIN) August 16, 2020
Always came through when it was crunch time. #MSDhoni pic.twitter.com/7M7xB62fk7
— KFC India (@KFC_India) August 16, 2020
#Amul Topical: MS Dhoni retires from international cricket… pic.twitter.com/3PiQhUtyl0
— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) August 16, 2020
To India's #7 forever, thank you! #ThankYouMahi #ThankYouMSD #MSDhoni pic.twitter.com/fesXQmVOij
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) August 15, 2020
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
