In a bid to strengthen its leadership, Famous Innovations announced the elevation of Mithila Saraf as the CEO.
With this development, Mithila will be one of the youngest CEOs to helm an agency of such a stature. Mithila began her career with Famous as an intern and played multiple roles over the years, the last one being Business Head – Bangalore.
Through her strategic advisory, she was able to double Bangalore’s size in terms of revenue and triple it in terms of team strength. In her last 10 years at Famous, she has steered growth for more than 50 brands including Raymond, Mahindra, Titan, Van Heusen, Budweiser, Absolut, Jameson, Diageo, Unilever, etc. as well as for Famous as a brand itself.
Raj Kamble, founder and CCO, of Famous Innovations commented, “Mithila takes this role on the same day that she completed 10 years with this entrepreneur-driven company, and trust me it’s not easy working with an entrepreneur. She has been my partner since day 1, today she just gets the title. She joined the company with no salary as an intern and it’s incredible to see her journey today, leading 3 offices and our aggressive growth plans. In the last 10 years, I saw many Mithilas, but her signature is that she is always balanced, empathetic and very fair to everyone. Her work is her personal life and she makes people her family. While on the one side she’s been winning Young Business Leader of the Year, on the other she has represented India at Cannes as a Copywriter for 3 years in a row. This tells us about her sensitivity, insight and balance of the logical and the emotional. Everyone looks at Famous and thinks it’s all me, but that’s not true. Mithila and a few other people will now take this agency further than anyone imagined, we’re opening offices in Dubai and Malaysia soon and one day we will be in New York. My mandate for her is to make not just the most profitable agency, but the happiest agency. With this move, I get to focus more on doing what I am good at – the creative work – and I think the next decade is going to belong to us.”
Mithila Saraf shares her views by saying, “At Famous, we have never cared for titles much and that doesn’t change today. To me “CEO” is someone’s behaviour more than a role and the people thriving at Famous know this. This is an agency that has always believed in people’s passion, hard work, commitment and talent above all else. It doesn’t matter where you come from, how many years you’ve been in the industry or what your last title was. If you care about your work, bring your heart to the table and see your people like family, there is limitless opportunity for you at this agency. It’s incredible that Raj has created this culture, almost single-handedly, and I look forward to partnering him in taking it to the next level. 0 to 10 are survival years for any company, now we are secure with our fundamentals and the next decade is purely about excellent work, going deeper into strategy and creating fortunes and fame for our clients and our people. We have a stronger team of talent than we’ve ever had and we’re on the hunt for challenges and opportunities for all our clients.”
