Media

In thepress.

Selected writing by Vikram Limsay across India’s leading business publications, from BW Businessworld to The Hindu BusinessLine.

BusinessWorld

The US-China Geoeconomic Tug-Of-War

The US uses monetary power while China wields manufacturing scale, leaving other nations to seek alternatives.

Sep 2026Read on BusinessWorld →

BusinessWorld

From Demographic Dividend to Liability: Why India's Greatest Asset Risks Becoming Its Gravest Liability

India's demographic dividend risks becoming a liability as AI and humanoid robots reshape jobs, technology and manufacturing. The race to build is on.

Sep 2026Read on BusinessWorld →

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Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting2w ·

On invitation of "Chattisgarh Chamber Of Commerce" The vibrancy of T2 India & smaller states is unmatched #ManagementConsulting #IndianEconomy #Strategy #Growth #Legacy

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting4w ·

When organizations slide shouldn't graphs like "consumer confidence index" be seen together with "leadership incompetence index"? I find it amusing that when things go south there is an entire ecosystem of research agencies, rating agencies, media, PR firms etc. who with alacrity deflect outcome on consumer sentiment, disruptions and the like away from the leader who then takes the proverbial guilt free golden bridge to move on to another role ! Shouldn't highly compensated and celebrated professional managers not have the ability to envision changes. If nowhere else then at least in core areas like consumer behavior? Because in some consumer sectors, as large legacy organizations go down to single digit growth and that too through shrinkflation and price hike there are regional players and entrepreneurial ventures that are showcasing contrarian growth ! Some even hockey stock like. Or do we agree that professional managers are comfortable only during organic growth and out of place in difficult times when inorganic strategies can be the only savior? If that be the case, is it then prudent for entrepreneurs to be operationally blind sided by handing over everything to a professional? Or is it that, foreseeing existential disruption is an entrepreneurial function and not managerial? Ultimately entrepreneurs are the ones who lose their shirt. Defense forces where many leaders borrow quotes to wax eloquent has tough calls on accountability. Try abandoning your men, machine or weapons. And you are liable to be court-martialed. #strategy #Indianeconomy #managementconsulting Helicon Consulting

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting4w ·

As I mentioned in my last post. This Flipkart advertisement manifests the problem in advertising industry & why we do not see pathbreaking advertising. Earlier, both the client and someone like a Piyush Pandey would have known the historical & reverential context of BBD in Kolkata & trashed the ad in the concept stage before even thinking of contextualizing it to something as trivial. Next is what Flipkart? A 26/11 Fire Sale or a Jallianwallah Bullet Proof Offer ? Meanwhile Binoy Babu, Badal Da & Dinesh Bhai would be squirming in excruciating disgust. The three were 22, 18 & 19 respectively when they attained martyrdom by the way.

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Why aren't we seeing iconic advertising like in the past? I blame it on commodification of creativity. Intellectual & technological commodification. Key to creative communication that address a billion & half people in a country as large as ours is a combination of finding its common functional and emotional threads and deep functional understanding of your product & category. Both seem to have come a cropper in the creative profession over the last decade and a half with a few exceptions. Identifying common emotional threads of India is about knowing its demography, geography, its cultural sensitivity, its aspiration, its motivations. Creatively visualizing a communication that resonates involves deep understanding of the category, the business, the product and its functional propositions. Most creative professionals of today seem to have a media filtered view of India from behind the screen. I find few interested in dirtying their feet on field, gaining knowledge about creation of the product or service, understanding the supply chain or meeting consumers and assessing moments of truth. They operate in a virtual cultural bubble inside their screen. Far removed from reality. This gap is the core reason we don't see iconic advertising. The demand for commoditised creativity is so large that it has spawned a crowd of agencies dispensing volume over quality which is accepted. They seem to be less creative agencies & more aggregators of Gen Z digital manpower who operate basic software tools. The scenario is the same on the client side. For the marketing team an agency it is an outsourced manpower resource that is at their beck and call to produce layouts of little consequence. A brand is a sum total of all aspects of business, communicated clearly. Even if manufacturing, pricing, supply chain, sales etc function smoothly and the creative aspect falters no brand can ever be built. There is Canva for layout, Shutterstock for images, Claude for copy & a Runway for video. But no tool can replace visualization. That purely is a function of intellect, observation, interaction & sensory experience. #Brand #Strategy #Communication #marketing

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

#ManagementConsulting #Strategy #IndianEconomy

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Before sustainability, circular economy & recycling became modern buzzwords .. Us children at home were given one last chance before trashing a fused light bulb. To somehow connect the disjointed dangling tungsten filament ! If it had any hope, you managed sometimes. Bulbs life extended, family saved money & you earned a brownie point. Lesson learnt - frugality? Sustainability? Effort & reward? Happiness? .. All. Or Parvati Bai. She came around every few months exchanging useless old clothes for shiny useful stainless steel utensils with Mom. A barter that left, albeit after some haggling, both parties happy. Mandatory end was a parting chai for Parvati bai. Lesson - Circular economy? Waste to Wealth? Win Win Negotiation? ... All Strange are the ways of modern consumption economy. Propagate use & throw at individual level. Institutionalize the act of sustainability. Create scalable business model. Circular economy in India is a $20 billion annual business. From solid waste to bio waste to metal scrap to waste .. there is a goldmine under that trash business. Some robust lsited companies too. And hugely profitable. Don't trash the trash .. there is big money to be made down under ... #Sustainability #circulareconomy #indianeconomy #strategy #beyondobvious #managementconsulting Helicon Consulting

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Mission Critical Problems | Beyond Obvious Solutions

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Trapped between funding America's reckless overspending and its inability to live within its means and scared of subjugation to Chinese capacity, nations are caught between a rock and a hard place in the battle of two giants.They scramble to find options. Will antiquated rules based post war order give and make way for new? My piece in the BW Businessworld - link in comment #strategy #indianeconomy #China #US #BRICS #inflation #capacity

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi May Bappas blessings transform every impossible you encounter into boundless possibilities !

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

The news has a message for us in India perhaps. And its not just that Nike cant "Just Do It" anymore and Wipro wasn't really "Applying Thought" when it was required. The situation is more concerning than just that. Its about the direction and relative trajectories of IT sector in India and in the US. The MAG-7( Alphabet Inc. , Apple , Amazon ,NVIDIA & Tesla ) are adjusting their chairs and making space for 3 more, Anthropic , OpenAI & SpaceX at the S&P100 table. Other than Apple all seem to be absorbing the future. Nike, a lifestyle icon, a consumer juggernaut that defined brand power for decades has been edged out. Clearly the market is defining economic priority and it is AI first. Lifestyle can wait. In India the listed 5 amongst SWITCH ( Tech Mahindra erstwhile Satyam, Wipro , Infosys , Tata Consultancy Services , HCLTech & Cognizant ) seem to be sitting on shaky tripods at the NIFTY50 table. Wipro has already fallen off. And its being replaced by BSEIndia a trading entity. Not a tech entity or an innovator. The situation of others at the Indian IT table does look too good either. With consular applications of H1B visas falling over 90% in a year their labor arbitrage model has come apart. Add to that being blindsided in the AI race. Stock market is a barometer of economy and represents future confidence of value creation over current and past performance. It is lethal in its assessment & often correct. But more importantly if Wipro's replacement is a trading entity, and Nike's seat is taken by an AI company. what is the message for us in India? For IT entrepreneurs, policy makers & society. Where did we go wrong ? What should our priorities be in the tech sector. #Strategy #Futureproofing #BeyondObvious #Indianeconomy #IT

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

The toothbrush isn't the product .. the BUZZ IS ! Its a narrative first approach to branding that is the innovation .. not the technology behind the gizmodo ! Last week was the latest product launch buzz around the Rs.50K Dyson CameraJet toothbrush. An oral hygiene gizmo that can take over two million pictures of your mouth in a year as you accomplish your morning mandatory. It then trains an AI model that promises to identify cavities that no dentist ever can and give it a clean up spray that no floss ever can ! But isn't brushing your teeth a deep personal act. After all how vigorously you engage with your brush is linked to your morning emotion. You don't want complex unwieldy electronics to come in between. So is the product practical, is it required, will it rack up sales, will it launch the next revolution in flossing? But those are red herrings. Dyson doesn't need the toothbrush to be commercially viable. It needs it to be remarkable enough that we talk about it. And then that halo effect transfers to vacuums, air purifiers, hair dryers—the products that actually drive their revenue. It's not solution-first. It's not problem-first. It is narrative-first. Innovation creates a story. The story shapes how we perceive the brand. The brand equity drives sales elsewhere. Is the development cost then wasteful? Maybe. But is it strategic? Absolutely ! And who knows it may even be a fraction of million dollar conventional advertising. And adds to building the technology DNA of the company as an unhindered innovator. Take a bow Dyson ... A #BeyondObvious on the ball strategy .. Kudos ! #Dyson #strategy #branding #innovation #Gotomarket

Vikram LimsayFounder & Managing Partner · Helicon Consulting1mo ·

In one swift samurai-like swipe, India's much-touted demographic dividend faces the risk of being transformed into a demographic liability if we as a nation are not careful. The day is not far, if not already here, when India confronts this danger. Artificial intelligence and Humanoid Robots present the sharpest threat to what policymakers have long presumed to be a strategic asset ..... My piece in BW Businessworld link in comments #Strategy #IndianEconomy