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As brands navigate the ever-evolving landscape of content and consumer connection, the need for authenticity and agility has never been greater. At the ‘CTV Today, Tomorrow and Beyond’ e4m summit, the focus turned to how purpose-driven leadership can fuel both business growth and human impact. Venkatesh Naidu, CEO of Bajaj Capital Insurance Broking Ltd, took to the stage not with a deck of data or slides, but with a philosophy rooted in people-first leadership and purpose-driven business.
In his high-energy keynote titled “Purpose-Driven Leadership: Scaling Brands with Heart and Hustle,” Naidu set the tone early. “I'm a very simple person,” he said, before launching into a narrative that was equal parts reflective, humorous, and deeply grounded in experience. “I didn’t come here with slides, just stories and purpose.”
Naidu drew from his personal journey, one that began in a modest Bangalore household of nine, to outline how early lessons in sharing, conflict resolution, and empathy laid the foundation for his leadership style. “There was an MBA from Harvard happening right there in our two-room house,” he joked, highlighting the power of lived experience.
But purpose, he insisted, isn’t just personal, it must also be institutional. “We don’t just sell insurance,” he told the audience. “We secure dreams. We provide peace of mind.” Whether planning for a child’s education or a retirement, Bajaj Capital’s real job, he explained, is to help people live with security and dignity. “Imagine telling your team you’re here to fulfill people’s dreams instead of just selling health or motor insurance. That changes everything.”
Rejecting the traditional first-100-days CEO playbook, Naidu chose the road over the boardroom, visiting 50 locations and meeting 2,500 employees in his first 50 days. What he found confirmed his belief: “People aren’t complicated. We just complicate them in our minds.”
His core lesson? Great brands are built by teams that are understood, empowered, and emotionally invested. "We’ve embedded purpose into our digitisation, our training, our processes. Every decision we take is run through a simple litmus test: does this help secure someone’s peace of mind?" At a time when many leaders fall back on structures, Naidu makes a contrarian pitch: “Put people before the process. Ask them what matters. Then build your brand on that.”
If heart is what anchors Naidu’s leadership, hustle is what propels it forward. For him, hustle isn’t about speed, it’s about agility, ownership, and continuous improvement. “Perfect planning is overrated. I’d rather have imperfect execution that begins somewhere,” he said. From encouraging young frontline workers to ‘write their own cheque’ in life to embedding AI and digital tools with real, purpose-driven intent, his message was clear: don’t wait to get it perfect, just start. “Even Archimedes ran out naked. Your idea doesn't need to be flawless before you act on it.”
Naidu’s keynote didn’t deliver a traditional marketing playbook for Connected TV or content strategy. Instead, it reminded attendees that in an age of screens and streaming, what ultimately drives sustainable growth is old-school human connection, purpose, empathy, and relentless execution. “If you haven't defined the purpose of your business, your people, or yourself,” he said in closing, “you’re not building a brand. You’re just running a company.”
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