Awadhesh Jha is loved as a business leader. He is patient, invested in his team’s growth, and is always looking for ways to remove obstacles from their professional paths.
He has been leading the India operations of Fortum Charge & Drive India, a subsidiary of Fortum, the Finnish clean energy major, which earned an operating profit of about US$1.8 billion last year, for almost a decade as Executive Director. Fortum Charge & Drive India has now become one of the leading electric vehicle (EV) charging station providers for four wheeler passenger EVs in the country, alongside Tata Power and Jio-BP (a joint venture between Reliance and British Petroleum Mobility). And like most visionary business leaders, he wants every Indian EV user to deeply connect with their brand and feel invested in the vision of climate-friendly mobility.
To realize this vision, Jha wanted The Ken’s learning division to help them address two key objectives:
- How could Fortum Charge & Drive India, now rebranded as Glida, as a business, communicate with the larger Indian audience (such as users, policy-makers, and real estate developers) while still sticking to the company’s core purpose of promoting clean energy?
- How could his team get Indians to believe that large-scale use of EVs in India is inevitable?
Jha knows that the next decade is going to be very different from the last one. So he decided to fuel this journey by enrolling his team of 12 professionals—working across key areas like customer journey and experience, network growth, corporate development and franchise, marketing and app development—in the narrative thinking programme conducted by The Ken. And he feels proud of his decision.
“The biggest demonstration of my learnings from the workshop came when the board, which met within 15 days of the workshop, noted the change in style of my storytelling through data. I enjoyed the programme, and I am consciously making an effort to convert this learning into a habit of storytelling every day,” he says.
He adds that the team, too, radiates conviction, thinks differently, and is constantly innovating while communicating clearly, precisely, and in a way that captures the attention of their audiences. Because they have imbibed a very important lesson.
Navel gazing is a death trap for a budding brand
Before these sessions, marketing and communications manager Tuhina Singh used to only think about communicating the message clearly. Now, she has realised that it is very important for the audience to not just understand the message but also pay attention to it, remember it, and trust it.
In hindsight, she says, their messaging used to be all about them. Now, the message they want to broadcast is subtle, even in the background, and the customer, their needs, and their imaginations are front and centre, she adds.
With the purpose of capturing the mind-share of potential EV users, Singh is applying her learnings from the workshop in an ad film, and she’s already seeing that the new messages are resonating more.
“The script went through a couple of changes. We worked with themes, plot, and conflict and discussed what we wanted to achieve with the ad film. We are making conversations simpler and not just about our brand. The purpose is to emotionally connect with the audience so we have kept the brand in the background and the customer voice is more upfront. We just ask, is the complication strong enough? Is it connecting with the end result? What will the audience feel when they watch it?”
The organization and participants’ post-programme communication with the outside audiences is getting more engaging, and the internal communication is crisper. Jha has been trying to put the audience first since their rebranding to Glida in July this year. Over the next two years, he intends to apply the learnings from the programme to position the brand in a way that any user can easily recall. He points to a presentation to make the point that earlier, his team’s presentations would often “beat around the bush” and be verbose. Now, they are much clearer in communicating the actual story.
Even personally, Jha believes more in the science of storytelling now and expects that he will be more lucid in his communication in the future.
It is about the audience first. Always
The learning objectives that Jha and his team shared have been met. Here are a few of the goals they wanted to achieve before the programme began:
- We should be very precise in our communication with the decision maker to let them know what is on offer and why they should care. How to maintain the essence of something and keep it very short?
- How do we create a story out of that data without converting that data into text?
- How do we create compelling presentation decks with customized stories for different sets of audiences?
Deepak Paliwal, General Manager of Network Growth & Corporate Development, says he has already observed a difference. For instance, during a recent business meeting, they had with a major real estate developer.
“Earlier, the first slide used to be about us and I used to feel good about myself, but I have changed the approach to making it about the audience. The big introduction call last month had the audience-first approach, and it worked. Even the deck used to have a lot of slides, but now, the message is clear and crisp in headlines, and it is showing results. I can sense it in every meeting.”
Ankit Maheshwari, who handles the customer experience and journey, chimes in about how he thinks of all communication as a way to bridge the information gap. Thinking about the audience first has helped him pacify customers, show them the big picture, and also shift the conversation with his audience—from responses seeking clarity to genuine questions and engagement.
The magic happens when brands switch perspective
Surbhi Miglani, Tech Lead, says she saw immediate returns when she could inspire a bunch of interns to solve a problem that they did not care about in the past.
“In team management, I got to work with interns, so I have realised that I have to create a story to create a sense of belonging and ownership. Earlier, they were not able to see the need. When they understood the problem and why we needed to solve it, they delivered work before deadlines and ensured great quality.”
She also diligently applies data storytelling and thinks structurally about each communication, its purpose, and the questions it answers. Earlier, she says she used to jump into product development, but now, she’s learnt to be more systematic and deliberative. “It has helped us understand customer feedback better, identify the real problems by asking the right questions, and develop a clear call-to-action strategy for our app users,” she adds.
Some of her colleagues have left similar feedback on what they learned in our post-programme surveys:
- “Structure is the king along with customer 😊”
- “Key learning—do not forget the audience.”
- “The whole concept of breaking the information into more snackable content which stays informative.”
Over the next year, Jha and his team expect storytelling to help them build a brand that resonates deeply with their customers and potential customers. Glida means free movement, and they hope their users will not just move freely but also find a sense of belonging and trust in their brand.
P.S.: we are now ready to accept applications from teams within organisations for the class of 2024. There are only a limited number of slots left. Sign up here.
Disclaimer: The Ken’s Learning team is not involved in editorial decisions and operates independently of its Editorial team.
