Girish was born and raised in Bahrain where he lived till he was 14 when his family returned to India. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication at the Manipal Institute of Technology and soon afterwards, an MBA in marketing from the Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirapalli. His childhood, says Girish, was a “fantastic blend of international pop culture and Indian religion, culture and fine arts”.
Even while living as expatriates, his parents were careful to stay in touch with their roots and were patrons of Indian art and culture. “At the same time, I was watching all these British and American TV shows and movies. I think this has served me very well in the long run,” Girish tells Management@Work in an email interview.

When did you leave India? How did that come about?
Professionally, I left India in October 2006. At that time, I was heading the Mindshare operations in South India. Earlier that year, I had a discussion with my country head about the next stage in my career. One option was to look at one of the bigger offices in India, that is, Mumbai or Delhi, or moving out of India into one of the other Asian markets. I wasn’t very keen on living in Mumbai or Delhi, so I opted for the latter.

A few months later, I was offered the option of running the Unilever business in Mindshare Vietnam. On paper, this looked like a step down from my existing role of running a multi-location P&L, but my career path was clearly explained to me and I had faith in the Mindshare Indian and regional management, so after some initial hesitation I agreed to go for it.

Looking back, what are the key decisions you’ve made in your career?
I have to admit, the most important decision was made for me by the associate vice-president of JWT who recruited me as a management trainee. I applied for a job in account management, but after a two-hour interview she said she was going to hire me, not as a client servicing person, but rather in the media department.

I hesitated because in those days, media was still a sort of back-room function. She asked me to trust her and assured me that if I didn’t like the job after one month, she would move me to account management. I agreed and was signed on. A month after I started my job, she called me to her office and asked me how I found the job. I told her I loved it, that I was already thinking of ratings and GRPs (gross rating points) even after I had left work each day!

Another key point was the decision to move out of India into the region. While India was, and still is, a leader in terms of best practice for us in Asia-Pacific, it is in some ways, a self-contained sub-region having limited interaction with the rest of Asia-Pacific. Fortunately, as head of Mindshare South, I was working on a number of global accounts like Ford, IBM, Lenovo and Nike — exposure which stood me in good stead when I left India.

Has your background in India helped you in your career?
Definitely. Our English-based education system is a big factor. India is also a country where math skills are highly respected. Naturally, being good with numbers is a great asset to have in senior management positions.

Also, our schools and colleges have many extra-curricular activities which are knowledge-based, such as quizzes, debates, and extempore speech contests.  All of this results in a talent base that has a high level of general knowledge (and a hunger for acquiring more knowledge) and also trained managers to think on their feet. Both of these are important hallmarks of a good manager.

This article appeared in Management@work, the monthly management pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 852, Apr 4-10, 2011