A Business Consulting and Communication Services Agency –Creative Factor believes in working with clients as an extended marketing team. In an interview with Insights Success, Tridiv Das and Satish Kumar, the Co-founders of Creative Factor Group have shared some insightful answers highlighting the influences made by his firm, service offerings, winning honors, current and future perceptions.
- Enlighten us with the foundation story of the company and also the brief details of the company’s initial days.
Creative Factor was founded in the year 2009, with very modest beginnings as a proprietorship company by Tridiv Das in the month of September. The company was started in a small corner in his house, in Bengaluru with just a Laptop.
Two to three months into the business, and after consulting a few large and prestigious Indian and MNC brands, on their Marketing & Brand Management strategy, he was joined by his longtime colleague and friend Satish Kumar to add more intellectual and business operational strength to the company. While Tridiv looked into the idea and strategy part of the assignments, Satish used to manage the domain of giving life to the ideas.
We are constantly trying to leverage creativity as a practice which is delivering the brilliant ideas. Also, we added more muscle by building our teams and opened an office in Delhi & subsequently in Chennai. The word about our good work and our motto of working as a truly extended team for our clients fetched us more business. Clients started trusting us as their true advisors, an extended team who solves their business problems.
Since the very beginning, we have been strictly following and reinforcing processes. Hence, we are one the first agencies to implement ISO Certification.
- Brief us about the Founder/CEO of the company and the major contribution of him/her towards the company.
As a founder one has to wear multiple hats, and Tridiv has managed it very well, doing equal justice with all the departments that are crucial to the success of the organization.
He along with his partner, Satish, defined and implemented all the systems and processes required for the smooth functioning of the organisation. And this experience has given us the edge to consult and advise mid-sized organisations, to help them establish their business processes successfully.
Tridiv is the face of the organisation, and has been constantly striving to raise the bar, be in our consulting or delivery models. He has been instrumental in foreseeing the future of our industry, and has prepared the organization to embrace change, learn, equip, train and mentor the team for the future – be in the areas of technology implementations, new services, and consulting assignments.
- Please share with us the initial struggle that strengthen the current success of the brand.
The initial days were a struggle as is the case with all Entrepreneurs, attracting right talent, managing finances, surplus funds for operating expenses were some of the key challenge.
We also faced the challenge of competing against small players who sold the services at prices below the market value. But we stood our ground, and over a period of time, potential clients, saw the value that we brought to the table, in working with them as their truly extended team! All these struggles taught us that we need to empower ourselves, with the best of knowledge, resources and network of partners.
We constantly push our teams to push themselves to be the best in the industry, and we encourage them to invest time in themselves, and learn new things and stay abreast of what is happening in the industry (Business Communication, Consulting & that of our clients’ industries). We conduct many in-house training programs (some of which are mandatory, and others are optional, as per the choice of the team members) for the team members, the next and upcoming generation to empower them, to lead the future.
We have also managed to bring on board some of the exceptionally best talents in the industry to be a part of our management team, viz Partho Sinha – to nurture and grow our Creative & Innovation Thinking practice & Tripesh Das – to wield and grow our Visual Media & Digital Spheres, which has strengthened the confidence that our client’s place in us.
- Tell us about the services you provide through your venture.
Business Communications – We provide all the services that a Brand or Marketing Head of an organization would require to help him / her keep his / her Brand stay relevant among their stake holders (Internal & External), using traditional & technology driven tools.
Business Consulting – We provide a whole range of services to help organizations scale their business, setting up processes, Digital Enablement, HR services, Gap Audits, Customer Experience Design & development, Leadership Training, Trademark & IP consulting, Managing & Resolving Broad Level Conflicts, Brand Business Workshops, Cultural Transformation, Personal Branding and customised consulting offerings as well.
- What have been big developments for the company in India over the last six months?
We have restarted our operations in the West, have signed up a few prestigious consulting assignments, strengthened our network, and are investing time and energy in technological enablement. We are also in discussion for collaborations with international partners.
- Please share some success stories, awards and accolades that the company has received.
Our biggest awards have been our select list of long-standing clients, and there have been many challenges that we have solved along with our clients, the details of which are confidential. We have won a few industry awards for business communication assignments, some of them worth mentioning are:
- Be a Responsible Indian for Schneider Electric was nominated at the Brand Equity Kaleido Awards for Best campaign in Energy (Power / Oil & Gas / Renewables, etc)
- Ticket to Break Free for Fujitsu at DMAI
- How will you describe your company in one word?
Problem-Solvers / Advisors
- What is the current industry scenario from your perspective?
The industry in going through a flux, and Technology combined with Creativity is changing the entire communications industry landscape, and one has to constantly keep evolving to deliver the best experiences on behalf of the Brands we represent.
- Advice for the budding entrepreneurs who are trying to embark in the same field.
Have a thought through business service differentiator, understand the client’s ecosystem, their business models, and provide a consultative approach to their marketing problems, and focus on delivering real value to your clients.
- Brief us about the future of the company or the goal it has set to mark its exceptionality in future.
The focus for the near future is to strengthen our consulting offerings, establish ventures that focus on an overall betterment of the society at large (we have two such ventures – Green Factor (Indoor Greenhouse solution to solve food crisis in the overpopulated world) and Samsarana (An Advance Age Solution)), work on building and training our second level of management, establish our international footprint in emerging markets, invest in technology enablers, building a culture that will address the needs of today’s millennials and empowering them to realize their true potential.
