iWorld
Jigsaw Brand Consultants Shortlist for Transform Asia Awards 2023
Mumbai: Strategic branding consultancy, Jigsaw Brand Consultants, founded by academician turned consultant Rutu Mody Kamdar, has been shortlisted for its remarkable work with Bennett Coleman Pvt. Ltd. and Mankind Pharma at The Transform Awards Asia 2023.
Regarded as the only awards program globally that recognises best practices in corporate, product, and global brand development work, this year’s shortlist represents an exciting depth and breadth of transformative rebranding and brand development projects.
Jigsaw Brand Consultants, a leading player in the world of brand strategy and design, is delighted to be a part of the esteemed nomination list, which includes the likes of Siegel+Gale, Design Bridge and Partners, YLAB, MetaDesign China Limited, among several others from the Asia Region.
With its holistic and integrative approach, Jigsaw has worked extensively with Bennett Coleman Pvt. Ltd. and Mankind Pharma and has been shortlisted in the following categories for the work done with them in the past year:
Best development of a new brand within an existing brand portfolio: PregaHope & PregaHappy (Mankind Pharma).
Best brand architecture solution: BENNETT, COLEMAN & CO. LTD for Times Professional Learning.
Rutu Mody Kamdar, a founder of Jigsaw, said, “It is a true honour to be acknowledged by this year’s Transform judges. At Jigsaw, we take on every challenge that comes our way—digging deep into the brand’s requirements, researching and discovering real insights to provide relevant strategic direction, and finally ensuring the correct brand positioning and identity. We are involved from start to finish through the brand’s journey. It is indeed a proud moment for us to be recognised on a global platform for our work alongside big industry players and other brands.”
Jigsaw is one of the first consultancies in the country to successfully integrate the disciplines of research, strategic brand planning, and design into an integrated practice. Their clients also include the likes of Unilever, Godrej, Tata Consumer, Reliance Retail, J&J, Welspun, Marico, and Rustomjee, among several others.
The Transform Asia Awards ceremony will once again take place in Shanghai and will be hosted on 20 November at W Shanghai – The Bund. Every entry into this year’s Transform Awards has been scrupulously examined by its panel of expert judges. The 2023 batch of judges, who were asked to focus particularly on a project’s creativity, innovation, strategic excellence, and implementation, hailed from a wide variety of organizations, including The Coca-Cola Company, Google, and Intel India.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
