Shivjeet Kullar, ex-chief executive officer, K-Factor, has switched roles from setting up the company as CEO and founder creative director to focusing on the creative side.
Shantomoy Ray, who helped Kullar set up the company in 2004, has taken over as CEO in his place and now has a stake in the agency. Kullar and Ray have known each other for eight years and in fact worked together in Arms Communications from 2000 to 2004.
Kullar explained the reasons behind his move, “When Ray was buying a stake in the company, I decided and made very clear that I shall only be focussing on the creative function of the agency. When I set up K-Factor four years ago, I was paying attention to the creative bit – the attention ratio between creative and administration was 80:20. But with businesses growing, the ratio reversed – the ratio between administration and creative became 90:10. I want to pay more attention to the creative now,”
Confirming rumours that K-Factor might be bought over by one of the giants of the ad industry, Kullar disclosed that JWT and Madison were considering buying it out. “At the time, the management people of those agencies also expected me to achieve business targets, which I didn’t want to do. And that’s one of the reasons why the buyouts fell apart,” he says.
Ray has 12 years’ experience in the ad industry, having worked in agencies including McCann and Arms Communications. On buying the stake, Ray commented, “The purpose is of entrepreneurship and investment. Kullar and I have known each other for quite some time now. He offered me a stake and I picked it up.”
Ray commented on his plans for the business, “Looking at the current state of meltdown of the global economy, marketers are only going to squeeze their advertising spends. With that, our focus will be on retention of our current clients and growing with them.”