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The company serves more than 280 retained clients, including some of the largest corporations and financial institutions, both Indian and multinational. Adfactors provides services across all important political, financial and media markets in India through its exclusive network of 40 offices. It is a member of PROI Worldwide, the largest global partnership of independent public relations firms.
During the launch of the company in Sri Lanka earlier this month, the Daily FT met up with Co-Founder/Managing Director Adfactors Group Madan Bahal where in a brief discussion he shared his views on areas such as the field of communication, how it has evolved, what makes his company stand out, and what it will bring to Sri Lanka.
Following are the excerpts of the interview:
Q: What is Adfactors about? What is unique about it?
A: Adfactors is India’s largest public relations company. It was founded in 1997. In the home context it is the youngest firm compared to its peer groups in terms of age. It is the only Indian firm that is amongst the top 10 PR firms, whereas all others institutions on that list are multinational companies.
Q: What is the global presence and how well is Adfactors established in those regions?
A: Adfactors is present in Dubai, Singapore and Nepal. These three countries, like Sri Lanka, are new forays for us. We entered those markets about four years back. I must say that within that short span of time we have done quite well.
However, there is a difference in the markets and the way we serve. In India our uniqueness comes from what is called domain expertise. In a market full of generalists, where everyone is doing everything, Adfactors has brought a specialisation approach to business. We gained significant market position because of this domain expertise in certain key sectors.
In the area of capital market communications, we are recognised as a leader. We are also leading in communication in the banking and finance sector. Adfactors has market leading practices in infrastructure, energy and natural resources as well.
There are a few important sectors in the economy where we have created expertise in each of those verticals so that our clients can get superior service so we are able to understand their needs better and interpret media and other stakeholders in a more informed manner.
To give an example, in capital markets we have a leadership position in what is called league tables for almost 15 years. We have managed every single IPO that is over a billion dollars in India. Our market share is 75% upwards YOY. We serve some 71 banking and financial institutions, which is the largest number of clients a PR firm would have in that sector.
This specialisation that has resulted out of domain expertise is what makes Adfactors standout.
Q: Who are Adfactors current clientele?
A: We work with the largest public, private, and foreign banks in the countries we serve. When looking at infrastructure sector in India, we serve three of the top 10 companies, and in the power sector we cater to five of the top 10. So because of this specialisation we do a large amount of work. When you have domain expertise more work comes in, and when more work comes in, the more experienced you get.
Q: Is Adfactors selective of its clients?
A: We are quite picky. There are two kinds of pickiness. One is a philosophical kind where we do not work for alcohol, tobacco and gambling 
companies. We also don’t work for clients that have a history of disturbing the environment.
The work we do in society of communications must be consistent with what the society expects out of business, therefore be a responsible communicator. Our job is to build trust.
The second is that we will not take up work where we are not experts. We will only take up projects where we can do a very good job.
Q: Adfactors handles areas such as investment relation, IPO transaction, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate practice, to name a few. What are these about and how does the firm master these?
A: Corporate reputation is a general element. Reputation is an intangible asset. It helps you compete better in the market place. Weather it is for money, customers, human resources, or access to resources, a good reputation is useful in any context. That is an area of specialisation all public relations companies must have. Within that are special target groups such as investors. When we communicate to them it becomes investor relations. There are other specialisations that we have which is public affairs where we do a lot of advocacy communication. Trying to help businesses understand the policy environment and communicate policy makers. Then there is business to business communication, and internal communications.
All these require strategies to be implemented. For strategies to succeed, the execution has to be good, and for that communication is critical.
Another area that we offer solutions for is crisis communications. We have again a market leading practice in this. All businesses in the current context are under tremendous scrutiny. Society wants businesses to be responsible and they are continuously watching. When there is a misalignment of business and social interest, there is a crisis likely to brew. If crisis is not handled well, it can cause a lot of harm to the company because the reputation will get damaged and that will hurt the economic interest. So you need fair amount of expertise in crisis communication to mobilise expert resources, to tell the world your side of the story, and share that you are behaving responsibly.
Q: What made Adfactors explore Sri Lanka?
A: Our vision is to become a multinational firm, to serve our clients all over the world. We want to gain experience in markets that are close to us. There is some sort of cultural understanding in the markets that we have explored so far. As a next step we will want to go West.
We think Sri Lanka has tremendous opportunity now. The context is just right. It could be said that the economy is at an inflection point. We note that the long term GDP forecast is 7% upwards, there is going to be huge investment in capital expenditure and the Government wants to make a mainstream and developed economy. All these larger macro factors are very exciting. When you look at the next level there are lots of policy priorities. The Government wants to mobilise domestic savings for productive use and wants to attract foreign capital. There is a desire to make the financial sector more robust.
When such priorities are there in an economy, there is a tremendous need for communications. This is because communications is central to the change process. To explain why you are doing something, that is where the public relation plays the critical role of being a change agent and facilitator.
At the point where Sri Lanka is today, we believe that expertise is required in communication. We think that generalist communication approaches will not be very helpful. It’s an evolving situation, but if the ongoing changes in the economy need to be facilitated faster, then expertise in communication is required. This is where a firm such as Adfactors will be useful in the local economic context.
Q: What are the capabilities of Adfactors for the Sri Lankan market?
A: There are few noteworthy ones. We have capabilities in financial communication, reputation management, crisis communication, and advocacy communication. This experience we will bring to Sri Lanka. We will also bring in a plethora of international experience. We will create a winning combination that the Sri Lankan market would require.
Q: Sri Lanka’s financial sector is at a turning point with the consolidation taking place, and that itself is a huge opportunity for a company such as Adfactors. Was that taken into account when considering the timing of entering into Sri Lanka?
A: It is a coincidence that our own needs to grow and expand met with the needs of this market. However, consolidation of this kind has to be addressed well since when such a change happens there is lot of stakeholder concerns. The customers are interested in knowing what will happen to them. Therefore it is the responsibility of businesses to communicate and take care of the concerns of their customers, agents, suppliers, government and regulators. That said I believe the timing of our entry is very opportunistic.
Q: What is Adfactors’ opinion and assessment of the Sri Lankan capital market?
A: All markets go through an evolutionary phase, and Sri Lanka’s capital market is at that position at the moment. As the economy is getting robust and stronger, the Sri Lankan capital market will also emerge stronger in the near future.
Q: Touching on India, it has a developed financial market that almost all companies have investment relation officers. What is the importance of having these officers?
A: Once a company has raised capital from the public, there is a responsibility to communicate to the people from whom the money has been taken, whether it is individual shareholders, institutional shareholders, or global investors. As a responsibility you have to communicate what is 
being done with their money and the issues you are facing as a company. Investors have the right to know that and the issuer has a responsibility in this regard. Therefore, investment relation officers, weather it is within the company, or counsellors such as Adfactors, have an important role to play.
Q: How has the field of communication evolved over the years? What is the experience of Adfactors in that?
A: It certainly has evolved. There are two drivers of this change. One is that after the global economic downturn the scrutiny on businesses increased by many folds. The second driver is the empowerment of a common man because of social media. We are now living on a planet of 1.2 billion journalists. That is because anybody who wants to say something can go on the internet and say so. That has become a driver of the need to communicate with the world outside.
