Ram Sehgal literally established Delhi as a premier centre for advertising in India – it was this foundation that later led JWT Delhi to become the largest office in India and among the largest in the world; he moulded ‘Contract Advertising’ into one of the finest agencies of the day in so much that it was fiercely independent and a worthy rival to its own parent HTA; he attracted and nurtured some of the finest talent to ‘Contract Advertising’
across disciplines; he lead Contract to be recognised as a powerhouse for strategy and creative; he led AAAI by establishing one of the finest training programs in the industry ever; he set the highest standards of professionalism that became the standard for generations that followed.
Under Ram Sehgal’s pioneering leadership, Contract set up a direct marketing division (Contract Direct, which later morphed into a social media and digital marketing solutions provider under a new name iContract) and also a strategic design and identity unit (Design Sutra) in the early nineties – well ahead of the curve and both, audacious (given Contract’s size at that time) and visionary (as many larger agencies followed with similar units, much later). Another big initiative of Contract that was lauded by the industry was the ‘Windows’ training program. Put together by Subhas Ghosal, Prof Subroto Sengupta and Ram Sehgal, candidates who were young and raw, but highly talented, were selected and put through a three-month classroom program. Such was the stature of the program that many big names of that time, including Piyush Pandey, agreed to be the guest faculty.
If his upbringing in the ashram at Pondicherry (and his continued involvement with social work there) has made him spiritual, his leadership of Contract made him spirited. And, under him, this was the start-up agency even before the term even became fashionable, skilled, agile, liberated and process-led.