The Most Powerful Brand In The World

This fortnight I would like to share some thoughts on building personal brands. There’s a wonderful human being I know. His name is Subroto Ghosal. He was a trainer with Air India and a former National president of Indian Jaycees. Subroto is one the best examples I know of how a personal brand can be built.

My first lessons in training were enshrined in his words, “Everybody who can afford a briefcase and a hundred visiting cards is a trainer, Ramesh. What will you do to stand out from the herd ?” “Forget the text books, Creativity is YOU and how you can present yourself to an audience” I was fortunate to attend some of his workshops and I still remember once, he just used a newspaper as a prop to hold us spellbound for hours. This was before the PowerPoints and the Multimedias !

He did not have the baritone of an Amitabh but used his modulation superbly. A great sense of wry humour. He could make you laugh in a minute and cry the next with his powerful speeches.

And the amount of reading he did! I have rarely seen him without a book. And he used the knowledge so judiciously. He never showed off.

I still remember the time he was the chief coach of the National Train the Trainers Seminar and I was one of his assistants. On the first day, he was completely off tangent and that evening, rather tremulously, I told him so. His reaction took me by surprise. He asked me to point out everything that had gone wrong and how it could be corrected. He prepared himself throughout the night and the next three days were absolutely delightful for his participants and for us on the faculty. His willingness, nay his eagerness, to learn even from lowly assistants truly made him outstanding.

When he stood for national presidency-those were the days when elections were aggressively fought – he was bucking the already powerful “Family” and he had no support group of his own. His entire electioneering was a lesson in creative brand building.

Those were the days when emails were non-existent. And Subroto endeared himself to 35000 Jaycees as the “small” man by not using the capital letter at all in all his letters. He must have sent out thousands of letters that year and all of them were in small caps ! Even his inland letters and covers were different. He had an image of a bare foot in place of the sender’s address and a message. Was it “Come, Walk with me”, Subroto ?

He personalized his campaign by sending individually addressed letters remembering small personal details of his addressees. And all this before mail merging !
He told a few of us at the beginning of his campaign year, “This year, the better dressed man will win” I bet, even today, none of his contemporaries can fault Subroto for being badly dressed. And, of course, his wife, Hootoxi, charming and graceful, a thorough professional in her right, was the perfect companion.

“I know that you have been asked not to vote for me by your seniors. But I know you so well. Just do me a favor. Just give me only YOUR vote. I don’t want to lose with a heavy margin” is what he told EVERY voter and sure enough most of them voted for Subroto !

The evening of the candidates platform was when Subroto won the hearts of everyone in the 2000 plus audience. Observing his arch rival coughing when he was delivering his speech, Subroto snatched the glass of water in front of him, walked across the stage and smiling gave it to his rival. The audience burst into spontaneous applause. And a day later, Subroto brought the house down when he was declared the upset winner.

Subroto's personal brand bulding formula comprised Being different, Positioning Yourself, Localizing and Personalizing Communication, Appealing to the heart, Creative Packaging and Converting Adversity to Opportunity.

I haven’t met Subroto for quite some time now. But I bet, even today, I could carry on conversing with him as if we keep meeting every day. Such is his charisma.
Subroto is on Face Book. Get to know him and you will be richer. Every time you interact with him !