MAM
What’s the glue to make clients stick to an agency
VUCA. Millennials. Gen Z. BANI. Digital. Traditional. Phygital. AI-ML. In the jargon-full world of marketing that we live in, clients seek more answers than ever before. It’s just not easy to navigate businesses and brands in these highly complex and connected times. So, I tried putting myself in the shoes of the ‘client’ to go about this.
Outcomes
Yes, I’d like an agency that talks the end result with me – the business outcome. For me not to think of them as an easily replaceable vendor, they need to understand what makes my business tick. And live it. Not in powerpoints, in reality.
My agency got to put their skin in the game. More than the skills and the means, they need to have this mindset that looks beyond a campaign or a launch or a content series. How is every single rupee that my brand is spending, is getting invested back into it. That’s what I’m looking for my agency to be thinking – both creatively and operationally.
And we are talking agreed outcomes here, that are measurable. If that’s the currency my agency has got, chances are, I am not going anywhere else.
Sustainable outcomes
It’s not about cracking something once, or twice, and then putting it aside. Outcomes are only as good as how long their impact lasts. When the agency is linked deeply with my business, they can’t take their foot off the pedal, just as my business can’t.
Now that takes something. It won’t come by asking or waiting for a brief. It will come by investing in my business, by acting like my extended team, and by continuously playing the role of a partner. Again, not as lip service, in reality. Actively tell me, guide me, challenge me in decisions of consumer segmenting, media spends, creative strategies, tech interventions, digital efficiencies, resource optimisation and the like.
For my business to grow, they need to play a part in every critical discussion that touches my business. As that will directly impact the outcome. So, the longer my agency keeps achieving the outcomes, the longer I stay with them. It’s that simple.
Mutually rewarding outcomes
One-sided relationships rarely last. So, if the agency is joined with my business at the hip, it has to work for both. And it should work both ways. Such that the commercial model mirrors my business performance, as long as it’s based on agreed outcomes. It can’t be just about getting their retainers, but adding value in the real sense. So I can truly see them as partners.
Which brings ‘chemistry’ into the equation. Mostly, I see people talk output. It’s transactional. It’s short-sighted. An idea, a campaign, a media deal, an influencer package… these are all means to an end, not the end by themselves. There needs to be this DNA match with my agency people.
If the people at my agency are someone I can relate to, exchange thoughts and ideas openly with, and know are operating with an ‘us’ mindset instead of selling their services, why would I want to talk to anyone else!
The article has been authored by IdeateLab chief creative officer Raman R.S. Minhas.
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.
