Expertise

Litigation Landscaping

Recently, the founders of a large Indian chemical company turned to Dilip Cherian for help. They had gone to court to prevent their company being taken over by a much bigger Indian defense conglomerate. The legal case was arcane—turning on agreements made on paper more than twenty years back between the paterfamilias and other personalities, but apparently never completely honored.

The legal issues were tricky; the communication challenges trickier. Both the hostile acquirer and Dilip’s client were listed—making it critical to comply with SEBI’s Listing Obligations and Disclosure Regulations. Messages had to be crafted that were relevant to the top management of the client company; employees; key clients; analysts who tracked the company for various funds and shareholder advisers; and the media, which was attracted to a “juicy” story with some “colorful” characters. Further, the hostile acquirers had their supporters in the business and national media, who also had to be handled appropriately.

All these stakeholders had to be managed in careful conjunction with the lawyers so that nothing that was said to any stakeholder harmed the legal pleadings before the High Court.

The court case and the coverage spread over weeks with claims and counter-claims that had to be rebutted. All this was done carefully and quickly. The key challenge was to identify the right media especially in the business press and then reaching them to carry the client’s message. Team DC ensured that the timing of this coverage supported the scheduled court hearings, while being available to both the general public and “decision makers”.

Dilip and his team rose to the task of getting favorable media coverage for the founders. There were sympathetic stories; effective reactions to the news planted by the potential acquirers; continuous coverage in the media of the issue, the dramatis personae, and the legal maneuvering, apart from appropriate messaging to all other stakeholders.

This is an example of Dilip Cherian’s effective and discreet impact that dealt with the trickiest challenges across law, judges, and lawyers; regulators; lenders and investors; companies and individuals; and the media.

Crisis War Room

When the country’s largest business house decided to go to war with one of its largest shareholders, that big shareholder turned to DC to try fight back against the corporate behemoth that he owned a substantial chunk of.

DC assembled a War Room that housed a mixture of superb experts who have been under his command previously. He then crafted a fight-back strategy. It was implemented using a mixture of traditional media, opinion pieces, well-crafted “leaks” and social media to make this into a David vs. Goliath narrative.

Our stories repeatedly touched the minds and hearts of Govt, business news readers, other investors and even employees of the rogue business house.

This battle for control turned into a full-fledged and long-drawn crisis for the Goliath. Their agency and corp-comms could never clearly articulate why they did what they did. We raised questions of how Our team was better than the previous team in the way it looked at big opportunities and tackled bigger challenges.

Sadly, only the untimely death of the protagonist ended this gripping saga; his many, respectful obituaries were informed by the content and frequency of the PR campaign that DC crafted, both in the immediate crisis and in its aftermath. A testament to a Crisis War Room, that had won the battles before us.

Policy Punditry

One of the world’s largest social media apps, growing at an aggressive pace, suddenly ran unintentionally into an enormous policy quicksand in India. Cornered , they turned to DC for urgent help in Policy Punditry.

The short-form video app, which had been stealthily on fire in terms of penetration into the usually ignored Indian hinterland, had run into a peculiar problem. A rash of copycat suicides topk place, on the back of extreme challenges and demonstrations of risky behaviour. It didn't help, that the victims purportedly filmed in their dying moments, turned their plight into content, that went viral. The result: agonized screams from aghast parents that rattlleed the doors of Parliament; of several state legislatures; and the Courts.

So a series of knee jerk policy interventions happened. From severe police diktats disrupting their fast growing business to arrest warrants for their global teams. Policy brakes, applied haphazardly, nearly killed the app, in its adolescent spurt of growth.

The strategic solution, to counter policy induced paralysis, was that was evolved, was designed to pivot on the apps other inherent strength. It involved a complete communications swap.

We recommended and implemented a swift switch, as far as the visible motivation of the app was concerned. In a series of quick moves, that app was converted, in its approach, into one that needed to be seen as the most viable new-age platform for India's fledgling new performers, now dubbed as digital creators. Thus the app was portrayed as a platform for young creators to commercialize and monetize their skills, their hobbies, and their primal brilliance.

This ability to spawn commercial but young and independent outfits, into micro businesses was made laudable to the Government.

This policy-visible trend required enormous efforts at the grassroot level to be credible. But, at the end of the day, the policymakers in individual states were soon convinced that banning the app would choke off a rare opportunity for thousands of young creators. This gave respite to the app and let it continue to grow.

Policy Problem. Innovative Solution. Communication Implemented. Success Realized.