The Prahlad Kakar School of Branding and Entrepreneurship (PKSBE) being the only Institute in India teaching branding and entrepreneurship. The college disseminates education in their diverse teaching methodology which balances the right amount of practical and theoretical knowledge.
From sky diving, shark tank activities to reptile sensitization, PKSBE makes the students prepare for the worst to emerge the real winners within them. It was started on 16th March, 2016. The brainchild to start a college started from 2014.
Founders of PKSBE:
Prahlad Kakar (Chairman and Founder): Prahlad Kakar started his career in advertising in 1973 in ASP Delhi. He then moved on to gain experience in feature films with his mentor and leading filmmaker Shyam Benegal. After assisting him on renowned features like “Ankur”, “Nishant” , “Manthan” and “Bhumika” between 1974 to 1977, he moved back to become an independent Advertising film director.
He is the Founder and Director of Genesis Film Production Pvt. Ltd., one of the leading production houses in India, which he successfully ran with his wife Mitali. Prahlad virtually invented a genre of television advertising in the years that followed. He has ruled the advertising world with his brand of irreverent humor, memorable brand building campaigns and has created Award winning commercials for the most reputed Corporates and agencies in India and the Asia Pacific region.
“To tell a story in 30 secs in the most engaging way possible” remains Prahlad’s raison d’etre for his continued passion for ad filmmaking, even 3 decades later. Known as the “Ad guru” he has been instrumental in changing the face of advertising in our country bringing in the appropriate “regional Indianness” and values into an urban context through his films, creative workshops, articles and interviews.
He has helped create memorable campaigns for brands like Pepsi “Yehi heh right choice baby! Aha” Gold spot “The zing thing”, Maggie “2 minutes?” Britannia “ting ting ti ting”, Limca “Zor ka Jhatka” and Maggi Sauces “Its different!”.
Some of Genesis clients include:
- Pepsico (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Vietnam, New York), Levers (India), Nestle (India and Pakistan),
- Britannia Industries Limited,
- Nestle,
- Videocon
- Proctor and Gamble (India,Vietnam),
- Sony Entertainment Television,
- Mastercard,
- Visa international,
- Fab India.
Through the years, these corporates have continued to communicate their brand stories with Prahlad making films that capture the dreams and aspirations of people. Memorable campaigns which created history and to date remain in the hearts and minds of everyone who grew up watching these campaigns.Prahlad has won several awards for technical excellence, Innovation and creativity in advertising over the years . Genesis won both Gold and Silver awards including “Campaign of the Year” for the Pepsi commercials at AAAI . His Public service films for Ceat, won awards in the New York Festival of Advertising. Commercials directed by Prahlad have also been nominated for Lions at Cannes.
Within 20 years of his career Prahlad Kakar earned himself a Lifetime Achievement Award by the IAAFA in the year 1999 and has got Genesis the top Production House for 2 years in a row for years 2003 and 2004 by Brand Equity. Prahlad’s aesthetics andsensibilities have found shape and form in the hundreds of films done over a career that spans over 38yrs.. His impeccable story-telling, centered around the product, has always been the key to his success.
Prahlad’s passion for the Ocean initiated him to start Lacadives against all odds. It is the first Scuba Diving School established over 3 decades ago in Kadmat, Lakshadweep Islands in 1993. Years later Lacadives has established its presence in theAndamans islands. Today he is expanding into the adventure and wellness space as he sees this as an ever growing opportunity across the globe.
Not without a conscience, Prahlad Kakar is the co- founder of Reefwatch Marine Conservation, which aims at creating marine-life awareness for students and adults across the sub-continent. Education, research, community outreach programmes for the fragile eco systems.
His passion for cooking led him to run signature restaurants and a tea lounge with his own brand of gourmet cooking .A staunch believer in living large, Prahlad Kakar’s passion for food and people has proved instrumental in his association with a variety of restaurants, enabling him to introduce diverse tastes and styles of dining to the city of Mumbai.
Today the innovative corporate, Ad guru, Branding Strategist, Chief mentor, is a Board member of some companies and is involved in providing innovative 360 degree solutions and brand building various products and services for leading Corporates. Creative workshops, Motivational and Leadership interactive sessions for students, middle management and top management executives in providing marketing solutions and focusing on the Company’s growth story. Including, SMEs, government agencies and Corporates to deal with current issues and future challenges.
He founded PKSBE, a Branding and Ad film making school so that he could take his experiences and mentor young minds to follow their dreams.
Mitali Kakar (Co-Founder and Director for Ad Film Making and Branding): Mitali Dutt Kakar, has been the driving force behind Genesis Film Production Pvt Ltd, since 1984 and is considered as one of the most experienced and resourceful producers in the advertising film production business.
Today, she is part of the core strategy team for corporates and SME’s along with her husband, Prahlad Kakar. She co-founded Reef Watch Marine Conservation, spreading marine awareness through education, documentaries and research.
Priya Menon (Co-Founder and Director of Marketing Communications and Outreach): If there is one person who can help people take a conscious decision about their life, it has to be the Director of Marketing and Communications, Ms Priya Menon. With an MBA in Marketing, she is an accomplished entrepreneur, life coach and celebrity talent manager.
Her story is every entrepreneur’s dream. She started her own corporate training company, over 15 years ago, specializing in leadership skills, CEO coaching and behavioral programmess for top multi-national companies in India. Her passion and flair for marketing earned her key projects with Infosys, Wipro, Godrej, Dell, Siemens, Deloitte, Cap Gemini, Volkswagen and JP Morgan to name a few.
Following a successful foray into entrepreneurship, she embarked on her second entrepreneurial dream where she ventured into Corporate Annual Events based on unique themes and curated celebrity keynote sessions for successful corporate events. Her clientele included top international cricketers, writers, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and Bollywood celebrities.
Her rich and vast experience of over 15 years in entrepreneurship, corporate training, corporate events and celebrity keynote sessions, makes her a valued member of the PKSBE family. She is the bridge that connects the students to the corporate world.
The magnitude of her knowledge and expertise is however overshadowed by her humility. You will always find her deeply involved in student initiatives and helping them channelize their potential for the greater good. She is to PKSBE students what a lighthouse is to the ship in stormy waters. She guides, nurtures and helps them find their way.
Reah Irani (Co-Founder and Director of Operations, PKSBE):Ms. Reah Irani, Co-Founder and Director Operations, is your ‘go-to’ person. She’s the one point of contact that makes PKSBE endearing. Her aura exudes calmness that in her presence one feels protected. It’s for this very reason that she counsels teachers, students and parents alike. Reah is the glue that keeps the PKSBE family of parents, teachers and students together. She is an indispensable human factor at PKSBE.
Reah believes education is the key to set dreams right especially when it is backed with passion. Her journey into the educational world of teaching started over 15 year ago after she completed her MBA in Advertising and started her very own montessori school for tiny tots. Her entrepreneurial venture in the arena of educating young minds has become a name to reckon with in the industry.
Her experience in educating students spans from pre-primary to post-graduation. She is completely aware of the educational system in India and abroad. At PKSBE, Reah wears different hats, that of a counsellor, a mentor, a problem solver and a guide. She’s the oil that every machine needs to run smoothly. Her exceptional experience with students has helped her carve a niche for herself.
Mr. Pratish Nair (Managing Director and Founder): He brings along his vision, passion and creativity to help students reach their ultimate potential. Armed with an MBA in Marketing and a certification from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK), he started out on his entrepreneurial dreams with nothing but encouraging parents, pure passion and courage.
His successful entrepreneurial journey ventures in corporate training, creatively curated events, logistics management, exports and filmmaking, making him a name to reckon with in the business. He has written, directed and produced several creative plays and short movies. To give wings to his passion he started his own film production house that produces Malayalam films. This stands as a testament to all the enthusiasm he puts into making a dream come true. Everything in his life is backed with passion, creativity and determination.
Like a beautiful tapestry, Pratish has interwoven his innate talents and skills to help others weave their own destiny. Terming him as a transformational coach would be to undermine his galaxy of creativity that streams from storytelling to movie direction to script writing to strategic activities for entrepreneurs and filmmakers. He is a creative powerhouse that has redefined the word ‘Corporate Training’. He infuses wit, scientific knowledge and deep insight into all his programmes to a style that is incredibly unique, almost like a biometric fingerprint. Pratish spends a large quantum of his time in the company of children who he believes are the purest form of creativity. He puts tremendous impetus to help people get in touch with their inner child. Over the past 14 years, Pratish has mentored over two lakh corporate professionals, creative artists, leaders, techies and CEOs to reach beyond their caliber.
PKSBE was started as an idea in 2014 by Pratish Nair, to start the world’s first school of Branding. Being a serial entrepreneur he discussed this idea with Priya Menon and Reah Irani, and they were excited to take this ahead, and thus the seed was sown. They approached India’s very own Ad Guru Prahlad Kakar to lend his name to the Institute and partner in this venture, which he agreed to along with his wife Mitali Kakar in 2015. Together with their expertise in branding, filmmaking, marketing communications, education, logistics and corporate training they structured a syllabus for two programs; Entrepreneurship and Branding Ad Filmmaking. PKSBE was officially launched on 16 March 2016. We are publishing an interview with Mr. Pratish.
Q.: What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Ans: The biggest problem we are trying to solve is trying to revolutionize age old education practices. We want to make it more practical, relevant and want the process of becoming more important.
Q.: What is your USP?
Ans: We are 80% experiential learning and 20% classroom interventions. We have no teachers but only mentors from the industry.
Q.: Tell us about the solution.
Ans: Our service is about hands-on, practical, relevant and most unique curriculum in this world. Where you get to not only, get mentored by the industry experts, but also jump out of a plane in South Africa, climb the Himalayas with Jamling Tenzing Norgay and deep sea diving in Andaman’s with Prahlad Kakar.
All the above mentioned experiences has been dove-tailed with a proper need in mind to create fearless entrepreneurs and film-makers. We used both digital and print medium announcing the world’s most unique curriculum designed for every person to become the one they want.
Q.: Please tell us about the investors (if any)
Ans: We don’t have investors, but we were supported by Dr. Velumani from Thyrocare in our initial stage.
Q.: What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learnings that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have at least one of them signed up?
Ans: We certainly believed that the market is awaiting a radical program like us and we’ve been lucky many have embraced with total trust and happiness. Our ideal customer is a person who believes in creating game changer is a possibility. We have certainly more than one.
Q.: What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
Ans: Our biggest failure as an entrepreneur is being a wishful thinker. We’ve learnt more about Murphy that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”
Q.: How did you get your first customer?
Ans: Print Ad
Q.: Is there any interesting success story? If yes, please write about it. ?
Ans: There are more than 7 success stories in the last 3 years both in Entrepreneurship and Ad Film Making and Branding.
Q.: What is the big picture of your institute?
Ans:The big picture of our startup is having other educational institutes adopting our kind of methodology, because we believe we alone cannot change the education system.
Q.: Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: Our competition at present is ourselves, because if we don’t evolve, we will die.
Q.: What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months?
Ans: Introducing newer, economical, engaging and enhancing short-term workshops/courses.
Q.: What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: JUST DO IT! Or JUMP NOW!
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Thank you. Best wishes.
Address of the Institute:
Ans: The Prahlad Kakar School of Branding and Entrepreneurship,
Whistling Woods International Campus,
Film City Complex, Goregaon East, Mumbai- 400065, Maharashtra.
