MAM
Soho Square Mumbai wins H&R Johnson creative biz
MUMBAI: Soho Square Mumbai has won the mandate for the H&R Johnson creative business. This includes tiles, bathrooms, kitchens and marble and quartz.
Soho Square Mumbai head of office Samrat Bedi said, “H&R Johnson is pretty much a household name in this category and being associated with this brand therefore makes this win even more special. The brand has ambitious plans in India for the road ahead and all of us at Soho Square are proud and honoured to be partnering H&R Johnson on the journey to make these plans a reality.”
H&R Johnson India COO – emerging business and marketing Sushil Matey said, “The energy and enthusiasm of the Soho Square team is visible in the work that they have proposed for our brand. We are delighted to be working with a team that brings with them their passion and experience into every single engagement.
Soho Square Mumbai vice president account management Mohit Ahuja said, “This win is also exciting from a portfolio point of view for us. In the homes and infrastructure category, we already have a realty major and a water-proofing solutions brand. Thus the H&R Johnson products strengthen this segment for us.”
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.
