Anand Kurian
Encyclopedia
Anand Kurian is a marketing communications
theorist, writer and activist in Mumbai
, India. He has written a best-selling political novel against religious fundamentalism. He has conceived and developed the twin marketing management concepts of Reality Plus and Neo People, other allied concepts and the Universal Integrators marketing model. Professionals such as Narayana Murthy, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Javed Akhtar, R. Gopalakrishnan and IIM professors are interpreting his concepts, in their areas of specialization, for his next book.
, St. Xavier’s College, Elphinstone College
and Government Law College, Mumbai
. He was first in his division at the University of Cambridge Indian School Certificate
examination (he outranked IIT
, IIM
and G.S.Medical College students - he had selected subjects from the humanities, traditionally considered low-scoring). He graduated with honours from Mumbai University, he was awarded scholarships throughout an unorthodox academic career.
He qualified as a lawyer; he topped Moot Court
s in Mumbai University, in Maharashtra State and in India.
, Nestlé
and Unilever
, and for products such as Lay's
, Ariel
, and Coca Cola.
in India occurred at this time; Anand Kurian wrote The Peddler of Soaps, a political novel set against this period. The book seemed prescient; it was written before the Gujarat riots erupted.
The book found support among intellectuals, celebrities, newspaper editors and national award winning actors; among them were Vir Sanghvi
, Shabana Azmi
, Shobhaa De and Tabu
.
Sanghvi described The Peddler of Soaps as ‘Deceptively simple, a contemporary, modern-day fable’; Azmi called it ‘The right book for these wrong times’.
In its review, India Today
said, "It explores the tantalisingly complex issue of why multicultural societies lapse into violence and communal rioting." The Hindu
described it as "Beguilingly simple..." Critical reviewers and readers described it as pseudo-secular and as being anti the Sangh Parivar
His use of the small letter ‘i’ for the personal pronoun ‘I’, in certain chapters of the book, was criticized – this has now been adopted, however, in the editorial page of The Times of India.
The book was on the India Today best-seller list and it topped the best-seller charts of The Times of India
, The Financial Express and The Indian Express
. The book was to be made into a film by Mansoor Khan
.
He has lectured on these concepts at the Indian Institutes of Management
(IIMs), at CEO conclaves, to industry bodies, at IIM conferences and to members of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS)
These lectures have subsequently been published in the Business Standard
, the Times of India, the Hindustan Times
, in professional advertising and marketing publications such as Afaqs, and in The Journal of The All India Management Association.
(IIMs), the Film and Television Institute of India
(FTII) and the National Institute of Design
(NID). His message against communalism is summarised in the dictum ‘A world without borders... people without labels.’
"The Indian way", a keynote Convocation Address at the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian way of life.
In "Racing on the fast track" Anand Kurian (who is an Namboodiri Brahmin
from the community that Arundhati Roy
wrote about in The God of Small Things
), takes a critical look at the caste system.
He has founded India's first campus channel; the Chairman of Cadbury's described it as "an example of the power of an innovative idea." Along with two former Deans of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he has designed a subject ‘The New Culture of Business’, for management students. He has introduced courses on ‘The Business of Cinema’ to management education in India.
, Mani Shankar Aiyar
, R. Balki
, Sagarika Ghose, Ashis Nandy
, Abraham Koshy (of IIM, Ahmedabad), Javed Akhtar
and R Gopalakrishnan
- are interpreting his concepts, in their areas of specialization, for the book.
He continues his work in marketing communications; he has been cited for multi-media innovations, and has served on juries for professional awards. He has been profiled in ‘Marketing people’ (Barnes & Noble), a book about thirty marketers from around the world.
Meanwhile, his feature film has been long delayed. And critics have described him as unorthodox and unconventional.
Others see his unorthodoxy as his strength. Says a former Dean of IIM, Ahmedabad Dr Parikh, "He draws from cultural anthropology
as well as from McKinsey and Kishore Biyani. He straddles both left
and right brain territory to create a new, more dynamic picture."
Says another erstwhile Dean of IIM, Ahmedabad,Dr Shingi, "He is a Renaissance man
; he helps us see, beyond narrow specializations, the complete picture."
Marketing communications
Marketing Communications are messages and related media used to communicate with a market...
theorist, writer and activist in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India. He has written a best-selling political novel against religious fundamentalism. He has conceived and developed the twin marketing management concepts of Reality Plus and Neo People, other allied concepts and the Universal Integrators marketing model. Professionals such as Narayana Murthy, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Javed Akhtar, R. Gopalakrishnan and IIM professors are interpreting his concepts, in their areas of specialization, for his next book.
Education
He was educated at Bombay Scottish SchoolBombay Scottish School
Bombay Scottish School popularly known as Scottish is a private, co-educational day school located at Mahim in Mumbai, India. The institution was established in 1847 by Scottish Christian missionaries under the name Scottish Female Orphanage....
, St. Xavier’s College, Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Mumbai. It was exalted as a prestigious seat of learning during the British Raj and is generally observed for its vibrant alumni...
and Government Law College, Mumbai
Government Law College, Mumbai
The Government Law College, also known as GLC and located in Mumbai, India, is the oldest and one of the most distinguished law schools in India...
. He was first in his division at the University of Cambridge Indian School Certificate
Indian School Certificate
The Indian School Certificate is an examination conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations for Grade 11, i.e., year 11, until 1976....
examination (he outranked IIT
Indian Institutes of Technology
The Indian Institutes of Technology are a group of autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education. The IITs are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as “institutions of national importance”, and lays down their powers, duties,...
, IIM
Indian Institutes of Management
The Indian Institutes of Management , are graduate business schools in India. They were set up with the objective of providing management education and to assist the industry through research and consulting services. The IIMs award diplomas and not degrees.- Institutes :Indian Institute of...
and G.S.Medical College students - he had selected subjects from the humanities, traditionally considered low-scoring). He graduated with honours from Mumbai University, he was awarded scholarships throughout an unorthodox academic career.
He qualified as a lawyer; he topped Moot Court
Moot court
A moot court is an extracurricular activity at many law schools in which participants take part in simulated court proceedings, usually to include drafting briefs and participating in oral argument. The term derives from Anglo Saxon times, when a moot was a gathering of prominent men in a...
s in Mumbai University, in Maharashtra State and in India.
Early career
He trained at Griner, Cuesta & Schrom, an advertising film company in New York. He set up Emphasis on his return to Mumbai; his company has produced, and he has directed, commercials for multinational majors such as Procter & GambleProcter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
, Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
and Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
, and for products such as Lay's
Lay's
Lay's is the brand name for a number of potato chip varieties as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in 1932. Lay's chips has been marketed as a division of Frito-Lay, a company owned by PepsiCo since 1965...
, Ariel
Ariel (laundry)
Ariel is a marketing line of laundry detergents made by Procter & Gamble. It is the flagship brand in Procter & Gamble's European, Mexican, Japanese, Brazilian, Peruvian, Turkish, Filipino, Colombian and Venezuelan portfolios. In some U.S. stores, Mexican Ariel is available.Ariel first appeared on...
, and Coca Cola.
The struggle against communalism
The rise of communalismCommunalism (South Asia)
This article deals with the use of the word communalism in South Asia, as a name for a force separating different communities based on some form of social or sectarian discrimination...
in India occurred at this time; Anand Kurian wrote The Peddler of Soaps, a political novel set against this period. The book seemed prescient; it was written before the Gujarat riots erupted.
The book found support among intellectuals, celebrities, newspaper editors and national award winning actors; among them were Vir Sanghvi
Vir Sanghvi
Vir Sanghvi is an Indian print and television journalist, columnist, and talk show host. Currently, he is an Advisor, at HT Media....
, Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
, Shobhaa De and Tabu
Tabu (actress)
Tabu is an Indian film actress. She has mainly acted in Hindi films, though she has also starred in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali language films, as well as one American film...
.
Sanghvi described The Peddler of Soaps as ‘Deceptively simple, a contemporary, modern-day fable’; Azmi called it ‘The right book for these wrong times’.
In its review, India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
said, "It explores the tantalisingly complex issue of why multicultural societies lapse into violence and communal rioting." The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
described it as "Beguilingly simple..." Critical reviewers and readers described it as pseudo-secular and as being anti the Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...
His use of the small letter ‘i’ for the personal pronoun ‘I’, in certain chapters of the book, was criticized – this has now been adopted, however, in the editorial page of The Times of India.
The book was on the India Today best-seller list and it topped the best-seller charts of The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
, The Financial Express and The Indian Express
The Indian Express
The Indian Express is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in Mumbai by Indian Express Group. After Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking the name The New Indian Express, while the old...
. The book was to be made into a film by Mansoor Khan
Mansoor Khan
Mansoor Khan, son of film maker Nasir Hussain, made his directorial debut with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak which launched the career of his cousin Aamir Khan. The film, a soft Romeo-Juliet inspired romantic drama, was a huge success...
.
Key management concepts
He has conceived and developed marketing management concepts such as: ‘Reality Plus’ ‘Neo People’ ‘Simulated Obsolescence’ ‘The Afghanistan Syndrome’ ‘The Transference Response’ ‘The Laggard's Lock’, (co-written with Nitin Borwankar) ‘Co-omperation’ and has developed ‘The Universal Integrators Model’ .He has lectured on these concepts at the Indian Institutes of Management
Indian Institutes of Management
The Indian Institutes of Management , are graduate business schools in India. They were set up with the objective of providing management education and to assist the industry through research and consulting services. The IIMs award diplomas and not degrees.- Institutes :Indian Institute of...
(IIMs), at CEO conclaves, to industry bodies, at IIM conferences and to members of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS)
These lectures have subsequently been published in the Business Standard
Business Standard
Business Standard is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published by Business Standard Ltd in two languages, English and Hindi...
, the Times of India, the Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
, in professional advertising and marketing publications such as Afaqs, and in The Journal of The All India Management Association.
Articles, keynote addresses & lectures
He lectures at the Indian Institutes of ManagementIndian Institutes of Management
The Indian Institutes of Management , are graduate business schools in India. They were set up with the objective of providing management education and to assist the industry through research and consulting services. The IIMs award diplomas and not degrees.- Institutes :Indian Institute of...
(IIMs), the Film and Television Institute of India
Film and Television Institute of India
Film and Television Institute of India , is an autonomous Institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India. It is fully aided by Central Government of India. It is situated in the premises of the erstwhile Prabhat Film Company in Pune, India...
(FTII) and the National Institute of Design
National Institute of Design
The article for the postgraduate campus can be found at National Institute of Design Gandhinagar and National Institute of Design BangaloreNational Institute of Design is a design school in India. The institute functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Industrial Policy and...
(NID). His message against communalism is summarised in the dictum ‘A world without borders... people without labels.’
"The Indian way", a keynote Convocation Address at the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian way of life.
In "Racing on the fast track" Anand Kurian (who is an Namboodiri Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
from the community that Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...
wrote about in The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book is a description of how the small things in...
), takes a critical look at the caste system.
He has founded India's first campus channel; the Chairman of Cadbury's described it as "an example of the power of an innovative idea." Along with two former Deans of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he has designed a subject ‘The New Culture of Business’, for management students. He has introduced courses on ‘The Business of Cinema’ to management education in India.
Today
He is working on his second book, a work of non-fiction. Professionals from diverse fields - such as Narayana MurthyNarayana Murthy
* N. R. Narayana Murthy is an Indian industrialist, software engineer and founder and Chairman Emeritus of Infosys Technologies Limited.* R. Narayana Murthy is an Indian film actor, director and producer of Telugu films....
, Mani Shankar Aiyar
Mani Shankar Aiyar
Mani Shankar Aiyar is a former Indian diplomat who resigned from foreign service and became a politician working for Rajiv Gandhi in 1989-1991. He is a member of the Indian National Congress party and was the Minister of Panchayati Raj until he lost his seat in the 2009 Election...
, R. Balki
R. Balki
R. Balakrishnan, better known as R. Balki, is Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the advertising agency Lowe Lintas , an ad filmmaker and Hindi film director. He is best known for Cheeni Kum and Paa .-Career:...
, Sagarika Ghose, Ashis Nandy
Ashis Nandy
Ashis Nandy is an Indian political psychologist, a social theorist, and a contemporary cultural and political critic. A trained sociologist and clinical psychologist, his body of work covers a variety of topics, including public conscience, mass violence, and dialogues of civilizations.He was...
, Abraham Koshy (of IIM, Ahmedabad), Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed...
and R Gopalakrishnan
R Gopalakrishnan
R Gopalakrishnan is an Executive Director with one of the largest Indian business groups - Tata Sons, a holding company to one of the largest Indian business groups The Tata Group.He was educated from the prestigious St. Xavier's College, Calcutta...
- are interpreting his concepts, in their areas of specialization, for the book.
He continues his work in marketing communications; he has been cited for multi-media innovations, and has served on juries for professional awards. He has been profiled in ‘Marketing people’ (Barnes & Noble), a book about thirty marketers from around the world.
Meanwhile, his feature film has been long delayed. And critics have described him as unorthodox and unconventional.
Others see his unorthodoxy as his strength. Says a former Dean of IIM, Ahmedabad Dr Parikh, "He draws from cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
as well as from McKinsey and Kishore Biyani. He straddles both left
Left Brain
Left Brain, born Vyron Dalyan Turner, is an American record producer, rapper, and photographer from Los Angeles. He serves as one of the main producers in OFWGKTA, having produced portions on nearly all Odd Future releases...
and right brain territory to create a new, more dynamic picture."
Says another erstwhile Dean of IIM, Ahmedabad,Dr Shingi, "He is a Renaissance man
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
; he helps us see, beyond narrow specializations, the complete picture."
See also
- India's best advertising man (Afaqs)
- The superhero next door (The Times of India)
- India Calling - The outsourcing story (The Times of India)