“Someday I want people to point to Subhashji and say,
‘That’s Punit Goenka’s father’. That’s my only goal in life. I want that
recognition once.”This quote is actually the expression of a secret
desire by one of the scions of the Essel Group, Punit Goenka, who helms
the media and entertainment businesses of the group (his younger brother
Amit Goenka is entrusted with overseeing the group’s non-media
businesses).
After close to a decade of leading the Zee
Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) – he took over as CEO in 2008-
we can safely predict that sooner rather than later, he may well realise
that goal. Some evidence of the fact that he is moving in the right
direction towards achieving that secret goal is this – He has lead ZEE
in achieving a multitude of milestones and prestigious awards that have
elevated the brand to that of a global player. Some of these include the
Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Award (2015), IMC Fusion Award for
Excellence in Media(2013), and Businessworld Infocom ICT Award (2012).
Always with an eye on the future, and the razor-sharp business acumen
that he inherited from his father, Zee has achieved global stature in
the new media domain which is manifested in the expansion of the
company's international presence across 169 countries, and its reach to
close to a billion viewers.
Education and introduction to the family business
Punit
Goenka, the eldest son of the highly successful
entrepreneur-par-excellence, and chairman of the Essel Group, did his
Bachelors of Commerce (B.Com.) from the Mumbai University in
1995.Admittedly, by the time he was ready to be inducted into the family
business (out of choice, no one – not even his super-imposing father,
forced him to enter the business), things were not even remotely close
to being as adverse as they were for his father – who started his grain
trading business in the Hissar town of Haryana (though he was born in
Rajasthan, the family had moved to Haryana looking for greener business
pastures) with a mere Rs.17 in his pocket (that’s less than a quarter
dollar) and made it big with his shrewdness, superlative acumen, and
vision.
However, he wasn’t straight-jacketed into a leadership
role. Punit Goenka was groomed and mentored by his father to,
eventually, helm the affairs of his media business.
Punit Goenka
headed Zee Telefilms Ltd (1995 -1997) - a music division of ZEEL
thatengaged in audio/video music album publication. Then he was tasked
with running Dish TV (erstwhile ASC Enterprises Ltd.) where he served as
its Vice President Operations (for 3 years since 1997).
ZEEL
After
serving Dish TV (was a director there until 2007), he was brought into
the group’s most successful and flagship company – Zee Entertainment
Enterprises Ltd., as its Network Operating Officer in 2005 - where he
also served as the Head of Zee TV & Cinema (part of ZEEL).One cannot
find fault with anyone for being awestruck as well as feeling a bit
intimidated by the super-successful Subhash Chandra, even if he is your
father. So, when Punit realized he needed to take control of Zee TV’s
day-to-days operations and the decisions thereof, he had to seize them
from his father – albeit through a request. One can imagine his plight
when he says how scary it was to go and express his ideas to his father.
It
took him months to approach his father, after which he mustered enough
courage to go and ask his father to let him take decisions for taking
forward the media company. The senior, being the visionary, looked upon
this as the coming of age of his eldest son and very whole-heartedly
allowed him the freedom and confidence to take decisions.
Among
all the things that the scion inherited from his, the one that has stood
out and has served him and the company well has been his modus-operandi
of creating consensus and then going with it.That means, apart from
banking on his own capabilities, he also trusted the core-group that had
also been with his father through the journey of the company’s journey
as India’s first non-state-owned television company to becoming the $3
billion conglomerate that is into myriad of business from online gaming,
news, television, infrastructure, etc.
Success, competition, and diversification
Punit
has been able keep the distinction of ZEEL from other media companies
by exercising a vice-like grip on cost and focus on profits. What it has
meant is that, inspite of the so many media companies eating into the
pie of the Indian media business, Punit has been able to ward off
competition where it matters the company most and keeping it well and
truly in the race for achieving his father’s goal of taking ZEEL into
the top-ten of global media houses.
It hasn’t been easy to say the
least. Amidst sustained competition from both local as well as
international media players, what would otherwise have spelt doom for so
many others (as it has indeed been for some), Punit has very
masterfully orchestrated the diversification of the company’s offerings
into various other segments and sub-segments, ushering it into the
digital age.
Along the way he has had to align and re-align the
business model that had worked so well under his father, to meet the
dynamics of a nation that has gone increasing digital with the onset of
multiple service providers making it easy for the country-folk to
consumer media content in so many ways that could not have been imagined
during the company’s hey-days when his father helmed it.
Going digital and international through localization
While
diversifying its offerings to meet the demands of anet-savvy audience
was in-line with the trends, one of the key decisions ZEEL took under
Punit’s leadership was to go international by offering Indian,
particularly Bollywood content to the rest of the world – in their
language. Something that was missed by the other leading industry
players.
This worked really well and contributed greatly to the
revenues of the company, so much so that ZEEL now aims to clock a major
portion of its revenues through its international offerings.
Another
shrewd strategy that Punit Goenka embarked upon that has helped ZEEL
sustain its position on the domestic front has been to focus on regional
audience – tying up with locals and creating and offering local content
as opposed to the other players who seem (so far) to be content playing
national. On the digital front, there’s a Netflix-like offering called
Ditto TV – which offers video content (and the like) on a low-cost
subscription basis – the business seeing some good traction so far.
No
wonder then that many observers believe Punit to have transformed ZEEL
it into a well-oiled and profitable business without ever compromising
on quality. And why would he not - he is known to be an out-and-out
people person and a go-getter who knows how to get the best out of his
team. It seems that while the great new business ideas always come from
Subhash Chandra – who is difficult to approach, it is Punit’s
responsibility to bring enthusiasm into the business so as to implement
those wonderful ideas of his father, which have (barring a couple)
almost always worked.