[icernet] Profile - RK Swamy: The 'Grand Old Old Man' of Indian advertising

[Arul Selvan]

R K Swamy, 80, the founder chairman of the Chennai-based advertising 
agency, R K SWAMY BBDO. Swamy is said to be among the first few 
entrepreneurs in the advertising industry to have set up his own agency 
at the ripe age of 50. He launched R K SWAMY Advertising Associates Pvt 
Ltd in Chennai, after having worked nearly 30 years at Indias largest 
agency JWT. And thanks to Swamys passion, RK Swamy featured among the 
top 10 agencies in India within the first five years of its operations. 
To ramp up growth, he brought in an international partner BBDO Worldwide 
in the late 80s and converted his company into R K SWAMY BBDO Advertising.

As early as 1986-87, he foresaw the need for quality television 
programming and set up a TV software division, HansaVision, which became 
a well-recognised name among advertisers and agencies all over the 
country. Around the same he set up another division for corporate and 
final advertising. RK Swamy also wrote a book 
India - How to succeed 
without tears
 which revealed his deep understanding and analysis of 
what India needed to do to emerge as a serious economic power. Swamy was 
probably the only person who had held almost all the top posts of the 
all industry bodies related to advertising. He was President of the 
Advertising Agencies Association of India from 1982-84, Chairman of the 
Audit Bureau of Circulation in 1983-84 and the founder member and 
chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India in 1988-89. For 
his invaluable contribution to the advertising industry he was presented 
the prestigious AAAI-Premnarayan award by the industry body in 1998. The 
Advertising Clubs in Madras and Calcutta also recognised him for his 
life-long service to the industry in their respective Awards. He was 
actively involved in the formation of the All India Management 
Association and served as its President in 1977-78.

Source:
Business Standard
June 6, 2003