From IIM to Leo Burnett Arvind Sharma, who has a management degree from IIM Ahmedabad, spent the first couple of years in marketing at Voltas. From Clarion McCann to being an account director in Chaitra, Sharma has been the chairman and CEO for Leo Burnett for some years now.

Around the world
I travel a lot for both work and pleasure. It is my passion to explore new and rich places, which have historic culture and heritage. I love meeting people from different walks of life and therefore I can spend hours at the Caf? Lapays in Paris. Here, one can find people from almost all walks of life. In Paris, there are a lot of French restaurants and you get to see a mix and match of humanities of all kinds.

Naturally balanced food for me
I am a non-vegetarian and have tried almost all cuisine in the world. I love Japanese, French and Italian food. There's only one thing I don't like -- mixing and matching different kinds of food. Everything has its own balance and taste, which should not be disturbed.

The stakes that I had in Chicago were just amazing. I love eating the Gujarati thali and then, not to forget, I have a big sweet tooth and can't resist eating moose and gajar ka halwa.

No spirituality, only physicality is my mantra
I've been doing yoga since I was four years old. Now it's become a habit to take out time at least two to three times a week for yoga. I learnt the art of yoga from my dad as he was totally into it. I don't believe in spirituality but from the view of physicality, I consider yoga to be the best remedy of all health problems.

Where's the time to?
For the last couple of years, all that I have managed to read are magazines. Nowadays who has the time to read as such? And then with the kind of schedule I keep, I rarely get time to browse the internet. Net is the need of the hour and is the easiest way to know about the world, fashion, happenings and everything that is required to keep you updated.

Movies rarely happen
I'm not much into music and movies. I do keep a track of what's new and happening in every field, be it fashion, movies or music. But I don't really get the time to go out for movies.

Relaxation for me is?
For me, relaxing is not about doing nothing, it's about doing a lot of things which interest me. We have a farm house in Alibagh, which is one of my favourite haunts. It's just three acres of grass where I can do what I love the most -- sleep under the biggest ceiling, the sky. I consider this the best way to relax and release stress. Every three weeks I land up there with my wife Poppy, who is a writer, daughter Ishita and son Akshay.

Name: Nandini Gupta

Designation: Senior Executive Producer, Sony Entertainment Television

Sun Sign: Capricorn, 27 December

Education
After my higher secondary at HR College of Commerce in Mumbai, I joined Osmania University for undergradute studies. After completing B Com, I pursued Masters in Commerce from Hong Kong University.

Experience
Currently I am working as a senior executive producer with Sony Entertainment Television (SET). Prior to this, I worked with with Television 18 for seven years. At Sony Entertainment Television I am directing a wide variety of shows.

I have been the programme director for the India special series of the Australian show AXN Who Dares Wins, anchored by Mike Whitney. I have also been associated with the studio-based talent-cum-entertainment show on Star Plus Kya Masti Kya Dhoom. Anchored by Sonali Bendre, the show was directed on a eight camera.

I have also directed a film personalities based chat show anchored by Ruby Bhatia called Kinetic Mega Show. During the course of this show, I got an opportunity to interact with celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Akshay Kumar.

Among the memorable shows that I was associated with was a one hour special on the homecoming of Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific on Sony Entertainment, We are the World. I directed the show organised by the Times of India for the homecoming of Priyanka Chopra and Diya Mirza. It was shot in Mumbai, Delhi, Bareilly and Hyderabad. Later I also directed the one hour feature on the homecoming of Miss Universe Lara Dutta, which was again organised by the Times of India. It was shot in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

During my tenure with Television 18, I was an associate director of a pop music countdown show Popularly Yours aired on Home TV. Besides, I was also associate director for a one hour, on-the-road music countdown show, hosted by Mahima Chowdhary and Roshan Abbas called Public Demand.

Prior to that I had worked on a celebrity chat show hosted by Nikki Bedi on Star Plus called Nikki Tonite and a daily Game show aired on SET, A Double O Slip. Prior to that I was a correspondent on Star Plus' lifestyle-cum-entertainment show Amul India Show.

While I was at Hong Kong, I had filed stories for a picture based entertainment news show on Star Plus, anchored by John Moorhead and Kamal Sidhu. Called India Business Report, it was a weekly business show, anchored by Raghav Bahl BBC.

Job Profile
Currently I am the executive producer of various shows on Sony Entertainment Television. Primarily, I am in charge of Naved Jaffrey and Ravi Behl anchored talent hunt show Boggie Woogie.

Television as career choice
I would have never been satisfied doing a routine nine to five desk job. Which is why the media industry suits me. Here, every day is different, every show is different.

Current Television scenario
Everything is driven by TRPs. Anything that works, is copied. Which is why all programmes look similar. No one wants to risk trying a completely new genre of programming.

Five years from now
I don't know. I take each day as it comes

Hobbies
I love reading and travellingIdea of enjoyment
Watching a really hilarious movie

Name: Priya Mishra

Designation: Senior Executive Producer, Star Plus

Sun Sign: Aries, 26 March 1972

Education
I have done my MA in Mass Communications.

Experience
Prior to Star Plus, I worked in Zee TV for two years. I handled Chotti Ma, Sarhadein, Love Marriage and Lipstick. Later, I joined Star for a year now.

Why Star?... Probably because I had a better scope in Star. You are being watched by more people. That adds to my responsibility which in turn is converted into good output. I enjoy the challenges. Presently, I am handling Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand, Kaahin Kissii Roz and Sanjivani- A Medical Boon.

Job Profile
Literally everything. From the content you see on the sets to what clothes the artistes are wearing to the story to the screenplay to the music. Think of it, every show I do is an extension of my personality. I am so much into it.

I believe art forms are mostly autobiographical. Like recently in the show Des Mein... when the father Rajinder passed away, I could relate to it very easily, it just came from within. Probably because I had gone through that stage myself when I lost my dad 10 years ago.

I always actively participate in the creative aspect of the show. Unlike what the media says, it isn't channel interference, it is more like sharing of ideas. With cohesiveness in functioning, there are better chances of the show becoming successful.

What do you think was the turning point of Des Mein..., it was almost withdrawn at one stage. Right?
I have only heard about it, but fortunately, I entered only from the 44 episode. The graph started going up when Anu tries to kill Rajinder. There was a lot of reaction to that. Even the Dev-Pammi romance part did well. Also, there's no bad saas in this serial and the people see it as a refreshing change; that's working. And of course, Aroonaji is good with touching the inner chord of human emotions.

How do you handle three shows simultaneously?
Big deal! There are people who are handling 20 shows! You don't necessarily need to be present on the sets. But I make it a point to be there when crucial scenes are being shot.

You are doing an Aroona show and an Ektaa show as well? No rivalry problems?
Not at all. This so-called rivalry is only conceived and perceived from outside. You can term it as healthy competition if you want. Mind well, it's great fun.

Why has Sanjivani-A Medical Boon lost its medical touch?
(smiles) Maybe that's what the people want to see. There is a support system for every show. It traces what the people want to see. This research leads the decision-makers to take their decision.

Television as career choice
Surely, I did not get in by default. It was by design. My educational qualifications clearly suggest so, don't they? Well, I was in a dilemma whether to join films or television. I chose the latter simply because I could see that television would be growing a lot bigger in the coming years. So far, I have been proved right. Ironically, films have become smaller- crossover films.

Five years from now
Haven't thought of it. I am enjoying the present so much that I have never take any thought about my future to bed. When my head touches the pillow, I am fast asleep immediately.

Hobbies
Cooking, travelling and watching films.

Idea of enjoyment
Work (smiles).

Name: Namrata Tata

Designation: Senior Executive, Ad Sales, NDTV 24X7

Sun Sign: Virgo, 6 September 1978

Education
I completed my schooling from Greenland School in Breach Candy, Mumbai. Later I joined MMK College in Bandra from where I graduated in Commerce

Experience
I started my career with Mata Securities as a Money Market dealer. I was dealing in the debt market facilitating buying and selling of government securities amid the various players in the market such as banks, mutual funds, financial institutions and primary dealers.

Post MATA, I joined Star India Pvt Ltd and was responsible for ad sales on Star News and National Geographic Channel. I am currently working with NDTV Media and am responsible for ad sales on NDTV 24x7.

Job Profile
At NDTV Media, we work as a team. Contrary to being an hard task, work at NDTV is fun. Here I have freedom to grow. It helps me perform and drives me to push myself to excel. It is so unlike the 'MNC culture'. Everyone cuts across the designation boundary, nobody is unapproachable or high strung. We are a bunch of emotional people, who feel strong about what we do.

I am responsible for generating 50 per cent of the revenues for the channel from the western region. I also have to focus on the new business development.

Television as career choice
Media was something that I was fascinated with even as I was graduating from college. When I got an opportunity to work at a TV station, I seized it. The opportunity allowed me to pursue a career in an industry that had always fascinated me.

Exposure to dynamic medium, where rules of the game change everyday was a fascinating opportunity. It hasn't been long, but within a short span of time, I have harnessed my skills. It was here that I realised my aptitude both as a people's person and of inborn seller. I absolutely love interacting with various kinds of people

Current Television scenario
Imagine a market like India with 40 million C&S households and every person glued to the TV sets for more than two hours per day. That's the power of television for you, hence I feel fortunate enough to be a part of the industry.

The industry is going through major changes right now which only makes it more interesting and stimulating. India is probably one of the only countries in the world with highest number of channels. With the implementation of CAS and the markets maturing, I feel there will be a shakeout and only the best two or three players in each genre will survive.

As far as the opinion of the viewer goes, I really don't have the time to watch the television, so can't help you there. But whatever little time I get, I tune in to NDTV even at home. I just remember one thing that Raj Nayak had said, "If you have to sell something you have to do it with passion. You can't sell something that you are yourself not passionate about."

Rights and wrongs about current TV scenario
I feel sad that media is treated as a commodity than a vehicle. It is also unfortunate that almost all planners/buyers, who are responsible for thousands of crores of rupees, work so hard crunching numbers in office till late at night, that they actually do not consume the product on which they spend their money.

My little experience has taught me that there is a life beyond numbers especially in television and you need to spend time watching television to get a sense and feel of the product and the environment the channel provides. I genuinely feel that ad agencies should have TV sets in their offices for planners/buyers.

Five years from now
I live for today and at this moment, I eat, breathe and sleep NDTV. In an industry that is so dynamic, it is extremely difficult to predict what is going to happen in five year. I am a firm believer in a song that I grew up with Que Sera Sera. So perhaps in five year's time, I will expect NDTV to have a bouquet of channels. I should be growing with the organisation.

Hobbies
Painting... the town red!

Idea of enjoyment
"To see the world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour"

I love life and enjoy every moment of it...

Name: Vijay Barse

Profession: Photographer

Sun Sign: Libra, 1 October 1968

Educational Experience
I was never really academically inclined. After HSC, I joined commercial arts course at Raheja. Ever since my childhood, I have been fascinated by camera. My father has an TLR camera, whenever I did get the time I would take it and start clicking. Later, I also did a photography course from JJ School of Arts.

Professional Experience
After completing my commercial arts course, I started freelancing for advertising firms and also doing some live photography. But I soon realised that my interest wasn't in the photography, I just loved shooting live pictures and I was pretty good at it too. So I joined Zee in the year 1995 and started doing their press pictures. But my first, so to speak, big break came when I was hired to do the photography for teleserial Shanti. Ever since then started my association with Mandira Bedi. At that time, I did not have an idea that Mandira Bedi would be such a hit. Neither did I think that I would be able survive in the industry. What I knew for sure that I did love working for television, I liked the people.

While was working with Zee, I started getting lots of offers to freelance. I thought it was great opportunity, so I left Zee after almost working for a year and half. In 1996, I started freelancing for In house productions. I used to do the live shots for their programmes for Sony, Star Yaar Kalakar and Harmony.

I still remember, Sony officials really liked the pictures that I did for Sudesh Bhosle's unplugged. They approached me to do their pictures and frankly it has been going great ever since. They give me a call whenever they need me. I work on hourly basis. Rest of the time I am free to take up any other assignments. I have also been working for production housed like UTV, In house and Polygraph, plus some studio and live shots for Agencies.

I have also been doing some portfolio for wannabes and established Television acts. Amongst my celebrity list includes Mandira Bedi. We often bump into each other. In fact, I have been doing her pictures till date. Even now, while I am at Sony, she is MAX's mascot.

Television as career choice
I have been also freelancing for film production houses as well, but I not usually very keen working with them. Be it a starlet or an established actor, they have an attitude problem. Where as television people generally avoid the filmi act.

Plus, I think my specialty is live photography. It is the kind of photography that has greater scope in Television.

Present and future of Photography
Broadly speaking, there are three types of photographers: industrial, commercial and glamour. Glamour photographers like Jagdish Mali, Gautam Rajadhyaksha, Subi Samuel are well known and often in the limelight. But despite of being talented lot, the industrial photography has few takers.

With advent of digital photography, the art part of the photography is slowly dying. You can easily mix and match few stuff with just a click. Photography needs to be treated like art, but I guess we have a long way to go.

Current Television scenario
I don't watch television, so I can't help you there. But one thing is for sure, my family does watch a lot of television. Besides the saas-bahu dramas' on the Hindi entertainment channels, which are a must watch, they also catch a lot of regional television. Both at home and my village in Ahemadnagar, Alpha Marathi, DD Sahyadri are regularly watch.

As for the television as the work place, the scenario is far from good. What has kept me going in this industry is my speed. I can deliver thousand prints, in few hours. You can never afford to relax, even after a decade in the industry I never rely on anybody. I personally supervise the wash and check the pictures as soon as they are done. The industry is so fickle that the moment you lax, you are out. You have to be punctual as well as patient.

Right and wrong about current television scenario
In the current television scenario, where daily soaps are the flavour of the season, the production values have become dismal. In the previous set up, just prior to the channel boom, there was a system in place. You had a set of veteran professionals and their understudies who made sure that the work is done well.

In the soap land, where the priority is on fast and cheap production, they were soon replaced the middle men, who with their production houses and channels contacts, got the work done cheaply. In came the gullible souls, the newcomers who were willing to work for lower wages, the middle men got work done for say Rs 5000 that would have otherwise cost 10000. Undoubtedly, the work was shoddy and the newcomers were paid as low as 1000, sometimes not even that.

Five years from now
While I am good at live photography, I would like to experiment with the art aspect of photography. I would love to open up my own advertising firm in another five years.

Hobbies
Though I did love to travel, I rarely get the time to do so. If I can manage, I take off with my friends for weekend. In last eight years, I have just managed to take my family out once for a ten day trip at our native place. I like taking my parents and family to Nasik or Lonavala.

Idea of enjoyment
Drive out of the city or catching a good movie with my friends

Name: Vibhav Agarwal

Designation: Senior Executive Strategic Planning, Mirc Electronics, Onida

Sun Sign: Pisces, 3 March, 1976

Educational Experience
I have done my schooling from different places. Medicine and Engineering were the only choices available to me then, so I enrolled for Engineering based on my inclination towards maths and science. I graduated in 1998 from Regional Engineering College Warangal in Electrical & Electronics stream.

I was selected by Kirloskar Electronic in campus placement. My first job exposed me to different aspect of business and I developed a good blend of technology and business acumen in a short span of 2 years. Thanks to my superiors who showed great confidence in me and gave me some challenging assignments. Very soon I realise that I need to further hone my business skills and so I decided to take a break from work and go for management education.

Getting admission in NITIE was a lovely break in my career and I decided to pursue my post graduation.

Professional Experience
Having come from a business family background, my inclination towards numbers was quite natural. It was a well thought move to start my career in brick and mortar industry. My stint at Kirloskar Electric as a Business Development Executive and later as a Marketing Executive at ABB has introduced me to different dimensions of business such as Projects and Marketing.

My second spell has started with ONIDA immediately after my post graduation as Sr Executive - Strategic Planning. I have always been in the developmental role which I find more creative & challenging.

Job Profile
Job profile includes exploring new business opportunity for the organisation. It spans from making a business plan for new products or new business line to actualising an opportunity to address a new geography and new cluster of people with existing line of business. Its very exciting and promising which requires a lot of understanding of market dynamics.

Strategic Planning as a career choice
When we speak about strategy, we envision generals and armies preparing to wage battle against one another. The more common (and less harmful to human life) reality of the application of strategy is in relation to the process of modern organisations. The term "strategy" derives from the Greek "strategos", which literally means "general of the army". Strategists can be traced back to the battle of Marathon (490 BC), where strategoi advised the political rulers on strategic alternatives for winning wars as opposed to just concentrating on battles. From these military roots, the application and theory of strategy has evolved but the focus as always remained on the "big picture". In the early 1920?s, Harvard Business School developed the Harvard Policy model, one of the first organisational strategy methodologies for private business. This model defined "strategy" as a pattern of purpose and policies defining the organisation and its business. A strategy can therefore be viewed as the underlying logic, which holds the organisation together. The strategies adopted by an organisation will determine its future structure and its scope for improved economic performance. What can be more exciting than this ?

Current Marketing and Advertising scenario
There are no predefined rules in marketing. As long as logic works everything is right. Every successful move becomes a benchmark but repetition of the same does not guarantee the same fruits.

With the advent of foreign players into India and their quest for spanning their aura with aggressive marketing has awakened up many Indian giants. New definitions of marketing are evolving. Competition is certainly sending one message across; that "either become world class or you will not find the trace of your footsteps".

There is still a lot of scope to create win-win situation for both organisations and consumers by competition among the players. But fierce competition on just pricing a product aggressively does not ensure the sustainability of bigger pie of market share in long run. Which results in a life time award of Fly-By-Night operator.

Right and wrong about current marketing scenario
Thanks to the cable TV boom of early 90s, which has opened up a plethora of avenues for advertising industry to address more than 80 million TV homes. But we certainly need some discipline to do so in a more professional way.

I keenly follow the development on CAS implementation as I foresee a big opportunity for my organisation to introduce one more product in it's existing portfolio.

Instead of bringing in more transparency and discipline, so far CAS has brought more confusion in the television domain. There are no concrete plans to implement CAS except a plain announcement by the government. The issue will continue to be in a state of flux unless we provide a regulatory mechanism in the lines of TRAI.

About the current Television scenario
I usually watch news or infotainment channels. I like the current mix of entertainment, business and current news. Though I don't watch the soaps, I find them a turn off, but I am not complaining. I have the remote.

Five years from now
I am looking forward to enrich myself by exploring newer horizons in my present job profile and discover a path breaking business plan for my organisation.

Hobbies
I like listening to music, debating, reading & cooking. I am very fond of cooking, especially food of my choice.

Idea of enjoyment
Spending few moments with nature.