Akshaara LalwaniFounder and CEO of Communicate India Published On: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 Views 6825

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can be achieved."

Akshara is a hardworking and diligent professional. She has always been known to give her 100 percent on every assignment she undertakes. After completing her bachelors of arts in Economics, she started her career as a sales and client executive. Thereafter she moved on to the business development for polish her business skills. This stint gave her ample experience and was one of the factors that resulted in her venturing into a startup.

Akshaara Lalwani started running her own company initially out of her home in Mumbai with one person and one client when she was just 23 years old. Four years later, her team grew of more than 30 people and several clients. Her clients span across multinational companies to dozens to Indian blue chip organizations. According to her Communicate India is headed towards becoming one of the premier PR solutions organizations with in the country.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

Communicate India is a 360 degrees brand solutions and Public Relations firm which handles clients across verticals like Corporate, Health & Fitness, Real Estate, Lifestyle, Media, Human Resources and more.

We go beyond the traditional PR mandate and offer our clients value added services like events planning, social media solutions with content support, media planning and buying, and direct marketing. Our holistic approach to branding allows us to create and execute campaigns across various media platforms and maintain continuity in the message.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

We felt there was a void within the market whereby there were different agencies working across digital, public relations, events and creative’s. Thereby resulting in the continuity of the message not being maintained in addition to wastage on part of client for multiple briefing sessions. Communicate India – 360 Brand Solutions was conceptualized to bridge that gap.

What is your life mantra?

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can be achieved.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

Being in the services industry, you have to cater to the needs of different clients/ different personalities in addition to the expectation of the media and your team. It is a triangle and disappointing even one of them can have dire consequences on morale. Expectation and morale management is the biggest recurring challenge we face.

How did you overcome those challenges?

You have to take a step back and evaluate – and play a balancing act! Learn and improve from every mistake. Stand up for your team when they are right.

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

At Communicate India we have reverse brain drain, our team comes from the US, UK, Spain, Middle East to name a few Having the spirit of teamwork, non hierarchy, continuous improvement is the way to go!

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

Hardworking
persuasiveness
hunger!

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

Bookmyshow for the ease of booking movie tickets. Also instagram and facebook, I enjoy knowing what others are up to in their lives – joy, sorrows, accomplishments and more…helps me feel more connected!

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

Power packing so much more in a day – Meetings, Reviews, Exercise. the works!

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Getting anxious on the slightest of occasions. It is important to be calm and collected even under the most stressful situations in order to lead effectively.

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success:

Former co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs considered hiring the best staff to be your most important job. I could not agree more!

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

As a business owner you are undoubtedly very busy. You have so much to do every day: customers to find, employees to hire (or fire), potential partners to meet.

Your time is your most valuable asset. It’s also the easiest asset to lose track of. If you’re not careful.

One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

Punctuality. Respect ones time. Time is the most important asset you have.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

To expand to a 100 people by 2016, 200 by 2017 and 300 by 2018. Start our own in house full fledged advertising and media buying division which is a fledgling at present. Looking for partners to foray into real estate as well as that line of business excites me.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

I would have started working when I was 10 years old instead of 16 years. Experience and being on the job is the biggest and best teacher.

What are your top three getaway destinations?