Thank You!

It was an immense honor for me to receive the Sabre Award 2019 for Outstanding Individual Achievement at a recent ceremony in London. I would like to thank The Holmes Report and the jury for this recognition of the high momentum brand journey that my 425,000 colleagues in TCS and I have been on over the past two decades.

To be honest, while as a team we have over the years always gladly celebrated every milestone and award we have recieved for the various campaigns and projects in our purview, I was a bit uncomfortable accepting this particular award. In my view the word "Individual" in it does not adequately reflect what lies behind the achievement.

At our company, we host an annual flagship event for our C-Level clients called the TCS Summit, which had held editions in North America, Europe, Japan, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Every year we bring a range of inspiring speakers from the world of business, politics and sport to reflect on their experiences and wisdom. Particularly on the sports front, we have been fortunate to hear from a range of legends including Carl Lewis, Magic Johnson, Monica Seles, Michael Owen, Lord Sebastian Coe, Payton Manning, Dame Kelly Holmes, Felix Baumgartner, Ricky Ponting, Pele, Johan Cruyff and many others who have set records and broken new ground in their respective disciplines.

Interestingly, if you hear their life stories and what lies behind their achievements, all of them have a very similar story to tell. Even if they were into individual sports, their success were always underpinned by the efforts of others. At a young age they had parents who nurtured their talent and sacrificed to get them the best training, their families generously gave away their own time with them, so that they could train from 4 AM in the morning and go off on long travel cycles, their coaches helped them get that extra inch which is the difference between being a champion and being #2, and their teammates and friends were always there to support them when they were in a bad patch and needed to turn things around.

The marketing & communications function is absolutely a team sport. The best of leaders, without a good team around them don't get very far. And even an average leader, with a great team can significantly overachieve. I have always been privileged to be in the latter category, hence would like to take the occasion to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey - the wonderful colleagues in our marketing & comms team that I am privileged to work with every day, the business leaders who have supported a strong vision for our brand from our Chairman and CEO to the Country heads and Clients partners we work together with daily, our partners, advisors and agencies who share our passion and most of all - my family which is the ultimate foundation on which everything else is built.

There are too many of you to name individually, but you all know who you are and my sense of gratitude towards you. Thank you very much for your partnership, support and encouragement - which culminates in this award - which fairly and naturally is dedicated to all of you. Looking forward to our continued journey together in the years ahead.