Being in Brand ‘O’ Logist

(As one of my friends once mispronounced and asked me, so are you all a doctor of brands? I could just smile.)

Brandlogist is not a consultancy. It’s a powerful idea waiting to be unleashed. And in the last six months I have come across various instances making that idea more powerful & closer to me. Of course the idea is not perfect it’s enamored with its share of flaws.

First let me be very clear why am writing this, it’s NOT for PR. It’s because this is the first encounter in my life with a company which is worth writing about for ‘non-commercial’ reasons. My thoughts are my own and are not stated or promoted by Brandlogist.   Some are good and some not so hence I hope after I finish writing this my CEO doesn’t fire me! Between I really respect his decision of not even changing a single word of this document, the main raison d’être I am writing this at the first place.

Ok so why I readily agreed to become the first employee of this organization over some of the best advertising agencies in town? The concept simply blew me away. Imagine an organization which gives you the freedom to do anything you want to, has no departments, and is more flexible in its operations than you can imagine. Let me give you my own example. Just in the last six months as Brand Analyst I have done designing, copywriting, planning, strategizing, wrote press releases, did presentation for pitches, even account management, research and photography! And all this because I had an urge to learn new things, my boss let me do it. Yes, I have to be good enough to do these pallets of work to actually pass them through the client but how more supportive can your system be to your personal growth and happiness?

The way Brandlogist was built, it innovatively wanted to play on ‘The office without an office’ space. Did it work? In some ways yes it did. You can work in your pajamas sipping tea in your balcony at 11 am. You have Skype just in case your team wants to sort something together. The whole world is your office, especially the classiest of cafes and the most suave restaurants. Fancy isn’t it? But of course it has its downside too I realized, if any employee is not self responsible enough no matter what you do work will impede. And if you are naturally a little disorganized like me with endless search for setting things perfect, you will end up working 16 hours because that mindset never leaves you as the place before and after office hours remain the same. In environment like this you have to strictly know when to make that imperative line. I am still learning.

Now we are a very close knitted small circle of people with varied mindsets working together. In a system like this either you have a supportive group looking out for each other or egoist bunch jumping for individual attention. Our founding team thankfully is the former, it would be interesting to see in the coming years how we keep it that ways with more talent, inquisitive minds and soaring aspirations blending together!

Ahh I almost forgot another thing I thought I would tell you. Brandlogist as I have told you already is an idea and one of its powerful ideas is its sincere endeavor for its employee’s growth. Every month one person is given a good amount to utilize in anything he or she always wanted to learn from piano to swimming, from salsa to cooking! And it’s an endless cycle so your knowledge when you move out is not just of the brands you worked with but a new set of passions you have befriended. And like you too, my first thoughts were Oh ya dude why not, you think all your employees are angelic enough to spend the money on the proposed hobby? Well Brandlogist cuts the cheque in the name of the institute teaching you your hobby! Shit! And there goes all the parties that I had planned out of the window: P

Another thing which makes my Brandlogist experience worthwhile is the type of atmosphere that I get to work in. How many bosses give you a huge set of classic books just for New Year and not because you have won a pitch or he is your friend from ten years? How many colleagues help you with ‘your’ work when you’re down when they can easily say no? And how many interns are ready to work with you till late not because it’s an order but because they themselves have the fire to learn something out of it? In any company it’s the environment which matters the most. In our company it’s very honest, sometimes a little too honest I would agree. That I think we should curtail a little as complete honesty at times could be personal. But otherwise it’s very comfortable and casual. We keep cracking stupid jokes half the time when our CEO is not around and half the time when he is! In his words as long as the timeline and work isn’t hampered we can do anything. (Swear to God he said that! Of course it’s not safe to keep it that open ended :P)

 You know when you start feeling the company you are working for is your own, you start going beyond ordinary efforts and that’s like the most affable relationship you can ever have with any company in the world. And trust me, most of them stops at being just another MNC paying you for your efforts. Not as a family accepting you with your strength and flaws and letting you do your own thing.  I can personally assure you Brandlogist does. Yes sometimes it swears, goes mad, writes long mails and has some little fights here and there but because it believes in being honest in your face and that’s what good families are made of.

I can’t tell you where Brandlogist & I will be six years from now but what I can tell you I would always very, very fondly remember the last six months. From every official and unofficial outing to our every random Pinterest picture (the ones not uploaded too!). Thanks for the wonderful tryst my friend. My passion yearns more everyday in your ‘company’. Like literally! :)