1. The document discusses how Satyam BPO leverages its CEO, Venkatesh Roddam, for branding purposes through thought leadership opportunities like speeches and media interviews. 2. It explains the steps taken to effectively position the CEO as a thought leader in the industry, including understanding media landscapes, preparing the CEO for different types of interactions, and maintaining consistency in the CEO's messages. 3. Thought leadership is defined as an executive sharing perspective on broad industry topics with a wide audience, and several examples are given of successful thought leadership campaigns that elevated other CEOs and their companies.

1. The BrandCEO
A case study presented by
Kulwinder Singh (
Head- Global Marketing and Communications (GM&C)
Satyam BPO Limited
CGBL - Batch 15)

2. A 10% positive change in a CEO's
reputation results in a 24% increase in
the company's market capitalization
– David Larcker, Professor of Accounting
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

3. How does Satyam BPO leverage CEO for branding?
In a global economy, with fiercely competitive firms rapidly
commoditizing products, strong brands help companies to
stand out from the crowd and differentiate themselves on a
criterion other than cost. All successful companies
leverage their CEOs to derive business benefits. At
Satyam BPO, leveraging CEO for branding is a full-fledged
practice.
So what is a brand? Basically, it's a trade name that's given
to a product or service. At the same time, it's also an
exclusive association that distinguishes a company,
product, or service from its competition. One company's
brand, for instance, is providing critical parts to its
customers when they're needed. For another firm, the
product is an identification card; its brand speaks of
providing needed security at schools and companies.
Challenges companies face today:
?The ability to bring world-class strategic brand thinking
to bear on market opportunities and business
challenges, or think strategically;
?The ability to consistently deliver on the brand and its
promise in high impact and relevant ways, in the face of
limited resources and the need for prioritization and
tough choices, or operationalize consistently.
The BrandCEO

4. Companies often spend millions of dollars to establish
and promote their brands, only to ignore them later.
Worldwide, the significance of the CEO brand is on the
rise. In fact, it is being seen as a means to enhance
company valuations. The logic - performance drives
value and perception enhances it. A company derives
base value through its business model, viability of its
strategy, long-term implementation of the strategy,
strength of the customer base, sales and profitability,
returns given to investors, and its projected ongoing
success. But there is an increasing argument that proper
positioning of the leaders of the company can enhance
value. CEO departures and successions are headline-
making news, capturing the attention of audiences
worldwide.
Why spend millions of
dollars on brands?
The CEO brand strategy
At Satyam BPO, the direct relationship between CEO
performance and a company's reputation is strong. Our
CEO remains the organization's public face and ethical
compass. As a brand you want to stand for something
clear and consistent. As a human being you want a
balance between consistency and diversity. The most
successful CEOs are the ones that are consistent. If the
brand has meaning then it feels authentic. It's very hard to
go through the motions every day.
However, one needs to answer the following
questions to leverage the CEO for branding:
?Does your CEO have a reputation in the
marketplace?
?Is your CEO committed to brand-building?
?Does he understand the PR lingo?
?Does his network large enough to reach
out larger audience?
?Does he recognize thought-leadership as
a way to build brand?
The CEO's responsibility is to make sure that there is a
clear brand strategy in place and that all functions in the
organization understand it, embrace it, and are aligned
with it.

5. The CEO's checklist:
To argue that this number is on the higher side misses an
important point. Whether the CEO is responsible for 20
percent, 30 percent or 40 percent of a company's image,
this individual has a huge impact on market perception.
Even in this era of CEOs 'raiding the pantry,' the media
still personifies a company through its CEO. That's why
the covers of heavyweight business magazines such as
BusinessWorld, Business Today, BusinessWeek,
Outlook Business and Business India typically feature
the faces of CEOs.
Think strategically
?dynamic customer modeling;
?brand identity and positioning development;
?brand portfolio management;
?multi-disciplinary, general management perspective;
?maintain brand portfolio relevance over time.
Operationalize consistently
?brand touchpoint analysis and prioritization;
?multichannel marketing execution;
?purchase and post-purchase brand delivery;
?brand-driven reengineering and brand metrics;
?employee brand assimilation and culture.
PR Power of CEO
There's no question that the top leader in any
organization wields an inordinate amount of clout in
building the image of his or her respective organization.
A study by Wirthlin Worldwide, a research firm,
quantified this clout as '40% of the company's image
stems from the actions and decisions of the CEO'.

6. Capitalization on CEO
'A strong CEO brand diminishes confusion and
uncertainty and maximizes freedom and control - all
based on authentic value'.
While executing an external communication campaign to
elevate the Satyam BPO brand to leave behind media
shyness and a 'loss-making BPO subsidiary' image to
that of a leading BPO to attract fresh talent and infuse
energy, the Global Marketing & Communications team
contemplated about various existing opportunities to
address this problem.
After a few brain-sailing sessions with various business
and function heads, the team realized that it was led by a
global leader, a successful banker and who took a brave
decision to turn around a relatively young and small BPO
firm against already well-established bigwigs.
After deliberations and detailed planning, the team
decided to use its biggest bet for the next 24 months - the
CEO.

7. Understanding Media
Effectively leveraging Venkatesh Roddam in our media
relations efforts started by understanding the national and
local media landscape and how we were faring.
We focused on target audiences from two different angles
1. Media Opportunities
2. Speaking Opportunities
Steps taken to ensure we capitalize on media
opportunities
1. We targeted our media opportunities carefully,
especially because in the past we had been
handicapped with a media-shy legacy. To make
matters worse, we were a loss-making subsidiary of
an outsourcing major that was otherwise doing
extremely well in IT outsourcing. It was a point where
one wrong positioning move could have derailed all
efforts. We targeted media ranging from local
newspapers to regional publications to the national
media. We focused our efforts to optimize the
effectiveness of the energy, time and efforts that were
put in.
2. We understood which type of media best suits
Venkatesh and played to his personality strengths.
We had to decide among radio/TV/general circulation
publications/trade journals
3. We also made sure Venkatesh updated himself about
the difference between live and taped interviews.
These are important distinctions from messaging
perspective.
4. One of the most important discretions exercised was
to use Venkatesh only for key interviews. Due to this
distinction, even other leaders from the management
team were exposed to media time and again.

8. Capitalization on
presentation
opportunities
Leveraging thought leadership and presentation
opportunities involved choosing the target audience
carefully in terms of whether Venkatesh should speak to
customers/professional associations/business leaders.
Another challenge was to position Venkatesh as an
opinion leader in the BPO industry. We sought forums in
Hyderabad and within the BPO industry that served to
raise his profile, and in turn Satyam BPO's profile. In
terms of content, we also ensured that Venkatesh's
speeches conveyed our corporate messages most
effectively.
Preparation for the thought leadership opportunities
involved blocking a good amount of time with him in
advance and tossing possible questions at him,
simulating a real audience. We also emphasized the need
to use his key messages as part of every response. This
was critical, for many a presentation falls apart once the
Q&A begins, but in all media interactions till date, the
media has been convinced with Venkatesh's responses.
But, success in this arena requires certain things. The
speech must be substantive. It must have something to
say about business trends today, and not merely be a
sales vehicle for the company. It must be well-written
and delivered with credibility. The speaker must take
time to rehearse and should retain an executive
communications coach to help polish the speaker's
skills.

9. A concerted thought leadership campaign offered one of
the best vehicles to elevate Venkatesh's stature in the
industry.
As “thought leadership” continues, its definition has been
watered down. We define “thought leadership” as 'an
executive sharing his perspective or taking a stand on a
broad industry or business topic of interest with a wider
audience'.
One of the best Thought Leadership campaigns in the
BPO industry came from Infosys BPO (Progeon earlier)
when it realized that product PR by itself wasn't building
equity in the company name. This understanding led to a
thought leadership campaign in early 2006 around the
impact of the Internet on the economy.
Infosys BPO engaged with one of the leading research
firm to conduct a wide-ranging study on the topic with the
results serving as fodder for the PR campaign. Without
getting into all the details, it is revealing to see the
following chart that captures the numbers of articles that
associate Infosys BPO with the process offshoring
economy.
In a relatively short period of time, Infosys
BPO's corporate image went from
“plumbing for the BPO Industry” to
“powering the BPO Industry.”
Accordingly, effective thought leadership
doesn't require millions of dollars in
investment. Consistency and picking the
right topics ultimately drive success.
True Thought
Leadership

10. Global Marketing and Communications team executed a
program to elevate Venkatesh through a number of
activities that include thought leadership. The objective of
this brief was to bring more discipline to Venkatesh's
executive elevation program largely through greater
consistency in messages/content.
When it comes to the thought leadership component, it's
worth emphasizing the importance of the executive
articulating compelling information. By compelling, we
mean information that is:
?Contrarian
?Controversial
?In-depth
?Anecdotal
?Dramatic
?Passionate
In short, the executive needs to take a stand and offer
thought-provoking commentary. It's also worth pointing
out that an executive elevation program is a marathon,
not a sprint.
It takes time to establish any executive as a leader of an
industry (as opposed to a leader of a company). To revisit
Infosys BPO or Wipro BPO as an example, Akshay
Bhargava or Raman Roy have become poster boys for
the entire BPO sector. But it didn't happen overnight.
While there is a “science” to an executive elevation
program, there's also an element of “art.” Often, you find a
mundane opportunity leads to a contact, which leads to a
relationship and ultimately generates a home run.
Consider Global Services magazine. It was a 'push'
initiative that got Nipuna, before renaming to Satyam
BPO, into the Global Services inaugural issue featuring
Venkatesh with Neeraj Bhargava of WNS.
You never know where the gold is buried. That was the
reason for arranging meetings between Venkatesh and
key reporters with the simple objective of
starting/building relationships. This type of activity
produces long-term dividends.
CEO: Walk the Talk

11. Closing Remarks
Needless to say, the executive elevation program for
Venkatesh helped to create brand Satyam BPO.
Interactions with Bloomberg, BusinessWorld and FAO
Today are steps in the right direction. In fact, the FAO
Today interview focused on industry-centric issues
around process offshoring.
Taking the executive elevation program to the next level
requires greater emphasis on the thought leadership
component.
As reflected in the research, no competitor CEO has
distinguished himself in this arena, making it even more of
an opportunity for Satyam BPO.And taking on a speaking
pulpit such as “The Specialty BPO” would allow us to be
even more aggressive in distancing Satyam BPO from
the competition.

12. The CEO helps create and
nurture the brand.
The CEO is the guardian of
the brand,
protecting it from short term
actions
which may result in longer-
term value destruction.
The CEO safeguards the
continuity of the brand,
ensuring consistency across
time.
The CEO is the architect of
the future of the brand.