Our Story

Over the course of the past two and a half decades we have excelled in our work and been building sustained growth in revenue, reputation, and retention for our clients. We started in the fall just preceding the beginning of the millennium and till the start of 2024, the second quarter,  have been doing this silently in the backend, being seen, heard, and known within the client and close industry confines.

We have been away from the active hubbub of the social media and have refrained from any overt networking on our professional fronts till now.

While it has been a great ride, business has done great for us, and we have been happy with the luminosity and confidence within the relevant circles, we’ve been mulling over the appropriate time to come out in front and become visible. More than from a strong desire to do so, this decision came from what we have been considering more and more as a necessary reality for the nature of any business today.

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Glimpses : FOA in Action

Pre-Beginnings - The Genesis Dialogues

Genre/Scenario: Historical Documentary

Time of Day: Evening after-office hours, Retreating Monsoons season, Kerala (God’s Own Country), India 1999

Scene: EXTERIOR: Incessant heavy downpour with thunder and lightning
INTERIOR: of a rented single-room accommodation (~ 14' x 9')

The room, a car-porch in its past avatar, now serves as a modest living space for two young men in the prime of their lives. The room’s symmetry is split by a path (space) leading to the washroom, separating two dizygotic-twin beds. The boys, business school buddies in their post-mid-lustrum after college, are engaged in highly articulate, heavily involved, and immensely expressive (all limbs included) deliberations. Despite the limited space, the room buzzes with energy and animated conversation.

Discussion Subject and Context:

The spirited conversation flows seamlessly from one topic to another, ranging from seemingly meaningless banter to heavy trans-continental macroeconomic debates, from finding and addressing market gaps -to- solving the world’s business challenges, and everything in between. Despite the diverse range of subjects, one common theme remains – the shared ambition to create something meaningful and impactful.

As the evening draws to a close, the boys retire to their respective beds, their minds buzzing with ideas and possibilities.

Immediate issue:

Starting trouble; so every bedtime decision is to take a decision tomorrow; the usual culprit – PROCRASTINATION!

Reason:

Uncertainties and the relatively safe cocoons of adequately challenging and steadily growing jobs in established organizations; one of them, the flagship brand of the then globally ‘most respected company’.

This ”After-Office hours till Bed-time” scene has repeated every evening since hundreds of days in the past… … looks like eons now.

As usual, as this night falls on yet another evening of spirited conversation, their journey from B-school buddies to aspiring entrepreneurs is fraught with uncertainty, but their determination to make a difference remains unwavering. 

The stage is set for the genesis of a new chapter in their lives, one that will shape the future of their careers and leave a lasting impact on the business world.

Epoch

Genre/Scenario: Historical Documentary

Time of Day: Evening, circa Pre-fall of 1999

Scene: EXTERIOR: Clear wet evening after a drizzle from what’s left of the retreating monsoon
INTERIOR: The same old (car-porch) rented accomodation, a similar evening in the pre-fall of the year 1999 and the boys are engrossed in their usual spirited, animated discussions over steaming cups of coffee.
An incoming call from a contact from a national BTL marketing consultancy in Bombay (now Mumbai)

Telecon Subject and Context:

The caller whom they met years ago during B-school days at a P&G BTL campaign sought their help to look for a suitable agency to execute a high-decibel rural-marketing & brand awareness campaign for a top tobacco brand (India’s then leading) that was facing a major market exodus risk from a stiff competitor. Meanwhile similar parallel campaigns  would run in different regions across the country.

The telecon weaves through usual twists and turns, stresses on the company’s need for local reach and presence and becomes an intense brainstorming session with the company wanting the two friends to build a team and become the company’s extended marketing arm in Kerala. The boys in turn finally decide to man up and leave their safety cocoons. They take the plunge into the exciting, fascinating, and then-very scary world of entrepreneurship.

The idea is conceived and actions taken. It takes first form and shape in the next 30 days; FOA Business Consults (then Access Unlimited) is born by the end of the fall and towards the beginning of the millennium.

Genesis

Genre/Scenario: Historical Documentary

Time of Day: All day, circa winter of 1999-2000 (post-fall in Kerala)

Scene: EXTERIOR: Alternates between rural Outdoors, Festive Event Locations and a near-vintage, almost forlorn bungalow that is now bustling with people, energy, and activities (newly leased Project HQ - Campaign District (Alleppey). Hot and humid days.

First Taste of Blood:

The initial 90 days on their first project gave them a real early taste of the scary part of business, testing their resolve across areas of planning, budgeting, backups, preparations, compliances, resource crunches, glitches, oversights, delays, unexpected conflicts & mistakes, corrections, approvals, recruitments, training,  time management, project management and much, much more. All this then culminated in a powerful 80 days campaign that got them accolades as the best performer across regions in the nation; on multiple fronts of awareness impact, execution costs (less than a fifth of the original budget), market presence, and business results. The second best performer was a distant next. Also, by the end of these three months, the hitherto strong competitor brand was virtually “not to be seen” anymore in the district.

Early Days and Growth

Genre/Scenario: Historical Documentary

Time of Day: All day, circa winter of 1999-2000 (post-fall in Kerala)

Scene: EXTERIOR: Alternates between rural Outdoors, and a near-vintage almost forlorn bungalow that is now bustling with energy and activities (newly leased Project HQ - Campaign District (Alleppey).
Hot and humid days.

The beginnings and the growth:

It has been a fully eventful journey filled with an immensely rich experience of wonder, discoveries, challenges, validations, invalidations, solutions (every single time), et al.

The journey that started with a localized 80 day highly visible, exciting (and noisy), low cost (several times lower than the budget) BTL marketing campaign to effectively address a major challenge to our tobacco client’s leading brand from a strong competitor. We were adjudged the best performers across all regions.

This event also earmarked a major policy adoption in our company. We weaned ourselves away from the standard industry practice of charging a percentage of the project cost. In our very first project while the campaign idea was developing, we realised that the industry standard practice of charging a “percentage of project cost”-based-fee was replete with a major fundamental conflict of interest for the consulting company/agency. The higher the project cost, the better the agency fee. Inversely, the lower the project cost, lower our fee/income. In other words, it was not in our interests to keep the client’s costs under control. To us, that seemed ludicrous, preposterous and utterly unscrupulous; at the three together.

So we started the practice of fixing a conservative value-based fee in advance as a part of our estimate/quote. At most times this comes out equivalent to an honest percentage-based estimate, so it is never pricey for the client. From the time that this fee is approved, the connection between the fee and a client’s project cost is snipped, thus ensuring complete focus on the project and client interests thereafter. Hence every project undertaken by us sees a natural optimization of benefits to our clients (maximization of value and minimization of expense).

Our Cover Story Statement and our second Mantra enumerate our philosophy into clear and easily understandable practices that we follow to enable, ensure and sustain our culture of “your best interests”. 

“Client interests” is not the effect of our success but the cause of it!

The Journey

Genre/Scenario: Entrepreneurial Documentary (the Journey)

Time of Day: Circa 2001 - 2007

Scene: Offices in Cochin & Delhi, Workspaces in Mumbai, Coimbatore, Chennai and Bangalore

The growth (scaling up)

To keep the story short, what started as a Below-the-Line Advertising and Marketing company, took various forms on the way. To sum this up, the progression was like this…

From Sales promotions (access unlimited) in  1999 >>> Events and promotions by 2001 >>> Full Service Integrated Marketing Communications by 2003 (Access IMC P Ltd.). By mid-2004 the company’s operations were segregated under four quasi-independent divisions (CIIV)…

Contact: Direct Marketing and Demand Generation

Interact: Sales Promotions & Events

Impact: BTL Branding and Merchandising

ViewPoint: Consulting & Market Research

The progression:

While we were already undertaking marketing consulting assignments since early 2001 for and by demand from a few existing clients, we formally added Business consulting for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as a service in the year 2004. 

Market Research (from dip-sticks to extensive studies including periodic track and audits) was naturally a part of all our client initiatives and projects. Every client requirement has its distinct individual context and characteristics and demands a certain degree of customization/localization to best bring about its effective implementation/fulfillment. We started our first project with our own research for the same reasons and it turned out to be great for us and the client. Since then, every single assignment has been complimented by a study, before it’s execution.

By 2007, when we had built adequate capacities and unique high value strength areas like high data quality, high response quality and Analytics (the qualitative part that involves, findings, interpretations, inferences and forming considerations), we hived off the Research division as a fully independent entity called FindOrAsk Research. The idea was – Please visit us and engage with us to explore (Find) already available solutions for your questions and take away the answers. If your Questions turned out to be new you could ask us (Ask) and we would happily take up your problem as our own to solve it together. Hence Find or Ask.

The FOA Journey Continues

Genre/Scenario: Entrepreneurial Documentary (current)

Time of Day: Circa March 2024 Onwards

Scene: Digital Transformation, Visibility Drive and Outreach

Digital Transformation:

Since our inception in 1999, our technology adoption practices have been meticulously guided by a commitment to relevance and purpose. Each technological advancement has been carefully selected and seamlessly integrated, aligning perfectly with our strategic objectives and client-centric ethos. We’ve harnessed the power of cutting-edge technologies, not for the sake of novelty, but with a clear focus on enhancing our operations and services; it’s about leveraging innovation to drive meaningful progress and tangible results. As a trusted Business Consulting and Research Company, we prioritize strategic relevance, ensuring that every investment contributes directly to our clients’ success.

Outreach:

Watch out for us for we are already here for you. Just Let’s engage…

We are embarking on strategic outreach initiatives, mostly organic, as our goal is to widen our offerings in meaningful ways. First possible step is to establish a credible presence in the web-space to foster genuine connections, build trust, and ultimately, expand our reach and impact in the industry. We will then engage with our audience on all relevant digital platforms, be active participants and contributors, thereby creating and sharing value that resonates with their needs

Visibility Drive:

While thriving in the strategic depths of the marketing and business consulting world for over twenty-five years, our presence has been felt primarily through organic recommendations of satisfied clients and the reverberations of successful partnerships. Our expertise, values and practices have been our hallmark; yet our faint digital media footprint is a mere shadow of our true capabilities. This was was rather a calculated decision born from a mix of pragmatism and, dare I say, occasional short sightedness.

Now, recognizing the evolved landscape, we step into the light, not for mere visibility, but for meaningful engagement, and to proactively get out there and be available for all potential beneficiaries.

There is plenty of noise and we still want to stay away it. You’ll not see or read any frills and shine in our internet spaces, just essential fundamentals. It’s rather about showcasing our rich tapestry of experience and insight in a manner that resonates with our audience. It’s about genuine connection and trust. Something we have thrived on in closed confines…. we just want to spread the scope of that trust wider… In a way that reflects our integrity and invites others to join our journey of growth and innovation.

Watch out for us for we are already here for you. Just, Let’s engage and explore…

History

1999

Genesis

2004

Nationwide operations – Global Pilot

2007

FOA Business Consults

2011

Going truly global

2012 - 2014

Primary Marketing Research and Asset Assessment – Go Independant

2019

Pandemic and Turbulance

2024

Decided to Become Visible

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