Press Play to listen to Madan Bahal of Adfactors PR on MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast
This, episode 119 of our award-winning series MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast, is truly special because it features the peerless PR and Comms leader, Madan Bahal, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Adfactors PR, India’s largest independent PR and Marketing firm. What makes this a prized episode for us is that it marks Madan’s first media conversation in the past perhaps three years or more.
This episode offers a deep dive into the values and work culture that underpin Adfactors PR’s philosophy of sustainable growth, achieved by collaborative, mutually respectful, hardworking teams driven by integrity and values, knowledge and expertise, capability and commitment, dedication and dependability, and an unwavering, responsible responsiveness for the client.
Over the past 28 years at Adfactors PR, this work culture, akin to Corporate Spirituality, has helped grow the firm into India’s largest independent PR, Communications, and Marketing entity.
And it is the kind of Corporate Spirituality in Adfactors PR’s working that can help inspire and energize businesses in the PR and Comms space in India today. Businesses which, as Madan Bahal puts it, are faced with both an existential threat and the exponential opportunity that exists on the other side of the coin.
We speak of Adfactors PR’s remarkable journey, recent awards, and the keys to its sustained success. What will inspire PR professionals is how the firm adapted during COVID-19 to, remarkably, grow even during the pandemic as it had during the economic downturn earlier.
Madan emphasizes the firm’s adaptation to evolve ahead of the curve and attributes Adfactors PR’s growth during COVID to its collective focus on security and responsiveness, along with being available 24/7 to clients, by first preparing for a massive and near-overnight evolution from a desktop agency to a laptop agency, replete with the entire training, software, resources, and infrastructure for complete collaboration.
Madan speaks of the benefits of Adfactors PR’s independence, values, culture, and more that have helped Adfactors PR to not only keep growing, but also sharpen its focus on the preferred route of sustainable over exponential growth. Madan also tells me, with a disarming mix of humility and pride, about building, on the back of a principled and purpose-driven mission, the National asset that Adfactors PR has become, “to serve our beautiful country.” Little wonder then, that when asked for his vision for Adfactors PR and whether it will continue to remain independent, he replies: “For eternity.”
Madan also shares a detailed reply to the question of succession planning at Adfactors PR.
He underlines the importance of continuous learning, integrity, and being a good generalist in public relations, and shares that he considers it his duty to keep investing in the most extensive L&D initiatives for everyone who works at his firm. Which, perhaps, explains why Adfactors PR’s L&D spends are larger than those of the next 20 agencies put together.
Madan also speaks of the enduring importance of building strong client relationships and effective communication in evolving societies. He shares his optimism about the future of PR and advises all PR professionals to focus on conduct and continuous learning.
All this, and much more, in this conversation packed with insights, inspiration, and the wisdom of the experiences of a peerless PR and comms professional and profoundly empathetic, sensitive, and humble human – Madan Bahal, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Adfactors PR. Watch. Listen. Reap. Revel.
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