Vivek Hattangadi

The Story of Shiksha: The Leader Who Had No Title – Brand Management 70 Part 1 The Story of Shiksha – The Girl Who Refused Her Title In the glittering ecosystem of India’s pharmaceutical landscape, where competition was fierce and hierarchies ruled, rose a young woman named Shiksha—equal parts ambition and grace. A pharmacy graduate […]

Did You Have Your Morning Cuppa? If Made From Pouched Milk – It’s Pure, Wholesome Milk Packed In Poison Preamble I was invited to address the valedictory session at Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur on Saturday, 28 June 2025 . The theme was “SUSTAINABILITY, INNOVATION. PRACTICES,  AND  ADVANCEMENTS IN MANAGEMENT”. And my valedictory was on sustainability.

EMOTIONAL POSITIONING – Brand Management 72 What’s the glue that holds your concept of ‘positioning” in the doctor’s memory for years, even decades? Emotions! ‘Emotions’ is the glue that sticks a memory in the mind. But why do visuals express emotions much better than words? And there is a neurological reason for that! The brain

From Bed to Bathroom , With Confidence: The Purpose of Brand Flex100 – Successful Pharma Brand Management 69 Part 1 Characters: Scene: The Strategy Room, Canopus Pharmaceuticals, Mumbai It was a cloudy Tuesday morning when Shiksha walked into the 32nd floor strategy room at Canopus Pharma HQ, at BKC – Mumbai. She was nervous but

Doctor Calls are Broken: How Indian Pharma Can Win Back Attention with Precision – Brand Management 68 A couple of days back I posted a quote from David Ogilvy. “Never mistake quantity of calls for quality of salesmanship”. It evoked a great deal of intellectual responses not only from LinkedIn but also from other social

The Jack Welch Lexicon of Leadership – The Black Belts – Successful Sales Management 19 I just completed rereading the book “The Jack Welch Lexicon of Leadership” – The Black Belts. I had first read it somewhere in 2018, but unfortunately, I hadn’t made any notes.  In the re-reading I made it a point to

A Universal Challenge: Succession Planning at B – Black Belt Brand Builders Across the globe, in every nation and within every industry, no matter how big or small is the enterprise, the matter of ‘Succession Planning’ casts a long shadow over firms. It’s a persistent worry, a knot of uncertainty that many organizations struggle to

Lessons from Fish!  How Fish Philosophy Transforms Pharmaceutical Sales Personnel – Sales Management 2 I was rereading the book “Fish! A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results” written by Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, and Harry Paul after a long time. “Fish! offers powerful insights inspired by Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market, where

From Feedback to Feedforward: A Better Way Forward – Sales Management 1 I was re-re-reading Marshall Goldsmith’s ‘Principles of Feedforward’ from his book – “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” for may be the umpteenth time. If you have to understand this book in three simple sentences –  (1) It’s often our behavioral

The Whisper in the Ad: A Tale of Subliminal Messages – Brand Management 65 (Visual – BING IMAGE CREATOR) I was lounging on my sofa this Sunday morning watching my favorite show “Rangoli” and the commercials. I usually watch commercials to learn what not to do in pharma advertising. Most break my heart with their