MUMBAI: How do you make your company an exciting place to be – one where your skill sets are constantly being upgraded so that you feel you are constantly growing professionally and you are working in a cutting edge firm? Well you could take the tack that Radio One is taking.
For starters it has created a core differentiation team consisting of national programming head Anil Machado, Saurabh Sehgal who was recently promoted to national corporate sales head Debojit Saha who is the national client solutions head and station director Bangalore and national marketing head Shyju Varkey.
“Product and people skill up gradation are essential to survival in a commoditized market where no differentiation exists. We want clients and business partners to continue to say two things to us “you are the most differentiated radio network AND you have the best people. All our station directors have ensured we function this way in every city we operate in,” says managing director Vineet Singh Hukmani.
Related Post
Radio One operates differentiated stations targeting educated Indians across its seven markets: international stations in Mumbai and Delhi; a Bollywood station in Bangalore; ‘maximum music’ stations in Ahmedabad and Pune; a 100 percent retro station in Kolkata and Chennai’s only 100 per cent request station.
Radio One has also trimmed manpower down from 166 people last year to 118 people across its seven markets. This is part of its initiative to create a ‘flat organization structure’ where senior people in the system take on enhanced functional responsibilities thereby giving them holistic management experiences.
As part of that initiative, it recently gave Varkey the additional responsibility of “chief skills officer” even as he continues to hold his current function. In his enhanced role Varkey will look after ‘skill up gradation for people’ across markets and functions. He will use both internal and external mentors to create a platform for ‘applied learning’. The company will fund this skill up gradation program to ensure people are well equipped in times of high competition and slow paced economic growth.
Points out Hukmani: “We have identified our stars within the system and are ensuring we retain, upgrade and reward quality people. Quantity has created many problems for the radio industry and that tends to encourage mediocrity and of course it adds to cost. Our hunger for innovation and differentiation has helped us identify people across levels who are ready for the next level of growth.”
The company is well on its way in creating a ‘value growth’ led strategy. This allows better targeting of more educated higher net worth audiences. This is made possible by ensuring enhanced product quality and enhanced people skills which justify the higher premium it charges in the market.
