Sponge: Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients

About the Book

A BOOK ABOUT HOW WE CAN LEARN FROM OUR ENCOUNTERS WITH CUSTOMERS AND CLIENTS, AND ACCELERATE OUR SUCCESS IN BUSINESS AND CAREER

Veteran adman and author Ambi Parameswaran has relied on one process of learning above all others: powerful conversations with clients and customers. A challenging customer, in his view, goes from being someone who poses an obstacle to quality work to someone with eye-opening ideas and concepts. Approached as an exercise in listening and learning, these conversations can become long-term lessons.

Ambi has worked with some of the most respected brands and names in the Indian corporate world, and each of those assignments were for him masterclasses in leadership development. In this book, Ambi recounts conversations with some of the most iconic business leaders, such as Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, S. Ramadorai, Karsanbhai Patel, M. Damodaran, Dr V. Kurien and many others. He soaked up these conversations, in his own words, ’like a sponge’. This book is an attempt to walk us through some of those dialogues-both the illuminating and the difficult aspects of them-to help us understand how they were learning sessions. For anyone looking at turbocharging their business and career, the ’Sponge Process’, which emphasises listening, is a radical new way of engaging with clients and customers.

About the Author

Ambi Parameswaran is a brand consultant/coach and Founder of brand-building.com, a brand advisory. He is a much in demand speaker at corporate and industry events, and the award-winning best-selling author of ten books.

Ambi spent his forty-year career in corporate India with Boots Company, UDI Yellow pages, Rediffusion Advertising and FCB Ulka. He spent twenty-five years with FCB Ulka building it into one of India’s top five ad agencies. Over the last five years, he has served on corporate boards as an Independent Director, as a Brand Coach to several small and large brands and as a mentor to exciting new start-ups. He has worked on iconic brands and companies such as Tata, Wipro, Zee, TCS, Thermax, Tata Indica, GSK, Tropicana, Amul, Nirma, LIC, Santoor, Sundrop, Abbott, ITC, etc.

Ambi now reads, writes, teaches and coaches leaders across multiple domains. He is a guest faculty at IIM Calcutta, IIM Ahmedabad, MICA and an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at SPJIMR.

Ambi’s columns appear regularly in the Business Standard and several other business publications. He is a distinguished alumnus awardee from both IIT Madras and IIM Calcutta, an AMP graduate from Harvard Business School, a PhD in management from Mumbai University and a CFI-Certified CEO Coach.