First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
We are doing well, progressing as a business and as people in an extremely close-knit organization.
Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company?
I have always been passionate about creativity and innovation. I have an insatiable eagerness to acquire more knowledge and to make a superior impact through my work. After realizing my penchant for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, I decided to blend our skills with science, detail, and analytics. That’s how I embarked on the entrepreneurial journey by investing my savings and launching Spicetree Design Agency on the 6th of June 2004.
Over the years, the company has created a strong brand reputation in fields like Digital, Web, Content, and Print design space. SDA is today a team with 38 experts who constantly pursue the organization’s goals.
SDA offers a holistic range of digital marketing solutions, including SEO, SMO, SMM, e-mailers, and retargeting to help brands scale quickly. The company is also renowned for creating a brand image and offering consultations on products and services.
SDA serves more than 1200 clients ranging from health, travel, event management, corporate, finance, engineering, manufacturing, architecture, education, retail, F&B, real estate, etc. The company has now set up its studio unit to produce short films and ad films.
How does your company innovate?
We don’t consider ourselves just a digital agency but rather a partner to our clients. We don’t just create effective communication but also focus on observing the impact of the communication on the campaign performance. For instance, if it is a mall activity that we have worked for, we don’t just limit ourselves to creating and managing their promotions online. Still, our endeavor is also to visit the on-ground activation and see the generated response. This helps to understand consumer behavior and create even better solutions moving forward.
Our core philosophy of obtaining ‘factual creativity’ sets us apart from the competition by creating the perfect blend of creative thought and scientific analytics. The general perception is that these two things are poles apart and create an anomaly.
However, our utmost emphasis is on offering practicality through uniquely and previously undiscovered creativity. This approach has been instrumental in creating an image for our clients that makes them distinct in their verticals.
How the Coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?
We have been able to buck the trend of COVID, and SDA has only grown during this period. We have even expanded to the US markets during this period, and within India, we have entered the regional markets of Chennai and Bangalore. We have added more clients and expanded our service offerings as well. Thus, 2020 and 2021 have been good overall progress for us.
Did you have to make difficult choices and the lessons learned?
Every business has some uncertainties and challenges. I have spent 25 plus years and handled different crisis scenarios in this period. We have survived and thrived. This is what we are adept at, and as a team, we are confident of dealing with any adverse situations and challenges that come our way.
I keep telling the team that persistence, creativity, and effort can help us overcome any challenge no matter what the situation. That’s how we have withstood the shock of two economic depressions and have scaled business even in the wake of the pandemic disruption.
I also believe strongly in employee engagement and bonding as a motivational channel. Before the pandemic, we used to do learning activities and fun get-togethers every alternate week. These engagement activities have become virtual in the current scenario, but we remain engaged and close-knit.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?
There is nothing specific that we have used to beat the crisis. But yes, the single most important driving force to keep all stakeholders upbeat is our core ethos, i.e., growth for all, above all. So we keep this philosophy in mind while we develop or manage anything whatsoever.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
We compete with ourselves, always striving to be better than the last time. Working out strategies and ideas to help clients more than the last time. We keep trying to beat ourselves each time.
Your final thoughts
If you are looking forward to creating a name for yourself in your respective field of work, I would advise you to remember that wasting precious time on procrastination or idleness is unfair. “Rest in Peace” is a wish for the souls from the other world, and if you are willing to enter the world of business, then you must always be ready to give your best shot.
I offer this piece of advice more than other words of wisdom; because almost all of us listen to the voice of sloth that has infiltrated and cocooned itself in our minds.
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