Nikhil Khanna is the founder of Avian Media. He is currently the Executive Chairman of AvianWE
Then and Now
Then; It was hand-soapy and oleaginous.
Now; It’s crisp, professional, to the point.
Then; It was delightfully vague.
Now; It’s structured, focused and gimlet-eyed.
Then; It unfurled at five-star hotels featuring endless lunches fuelled with bottomless glasses.
Now; Lucky if you’ll get a coffee. And rightly so. Who has the time anyway?
Then; A power sari lady or a smart suited man with a posh accent from a public school was enough to make friends and influence people.
Now; People from small towns with a burning desire to succeed and build an enterprise are the stars. As the saying goes, “No one cares, work hard.” And they really work hard.
Then; Hierarchies flourished like great tropical jungles where ‘workers’ gingerly tapped the ‘boss’ (that word!), in archaic, hideously overdone offices. Think ‘English’ club chairs covered in cheap green pleather, heavy dark-brown furniture, cowering secretaries
Now; The offices are bright, cheerful, noisy and vigorously open door. Light streams in as do ideas.
Then; Clients were pudgy manufacturers of ‘things’ looking for ‘inflooenze’in the dusty corridors of power via the media.
Now; The clients are vibrant and in smart, innovative industries that are both forward-looking techy-new.
Then; The media were either pompous old windbags with towering egos or then ferrety chancers on the quiet make. Of course, there were the brilliant ones as well- too many to mention here but suffice to say men and women who were journalists in the best traditions of the profession. Fearless, dedicated and inspired.
Now; The media. What’s that?
Then; Social meant a cocktail party, and media was (see above).
Now; social media is a monster that will grab, swallow and digest without even the slightest hint of eructation.
‘Change is the only constant,’’, said Heraclitus. He could have been speaking of the PR profession.
Read more about their journey and thoughts in the book Surge. Get a copy at bit.ly/surgethebook