On April 12, 2017, the Media world saw the passing of one of the greatest and self-made media baron. He was 73 years and died of heart attack at Ahmedabad. For all those of us who have worked with him closely during his formative years, the news came as shocker. The fragility of human race does not let you escape and it was his time to go. The loss is unbearable. But he has left behind legacy for his son’s to take it forward. Rameshji believed and stood by what he felt that the greatest gift that he can give to his children was to teach them the value of work. And in those aspects DB Corporation is in the safe hands of his son’s. The credit for the success of DB Corporation goes to the active support he got from Girish and followed by Sudhirand Pawan
It must have been in the year 1980’s when as a rookie space seller, I had the opportunity to workunder late Sri CH Viswanathan, a very popular Ad-Sales and Marketing Concessionaire those days. DhanikBhaskar had outsourced itsadvertisementrevenue to the company owned by this veteran. The maverick business man that Ramesh was often seen visiting the Advertising agencies’ meeting the Media Heads with CH Viswanathan. Many old timers will vouch for the fact that Ramesh Agarwal and played an important role in the streamlining the Advertising Revenue affair. The mantle was taken over by his son, Girish Agarwal, but some old timer still recalls their association with Rameshji.DhainikBhaskarNews –paper then was in its infancy when Ramesh Agarwal took over the helm of affairs of running the company. As a representative of anda tutelage of late C.H.Vishwanath, I had the honor of accompanying him to Advertising Agencies. In Mumbai, DhanikBhaskar then had its editions in Indore, Bhopal, Gwaliorand Jhansi. Very early in life I could see that he was destined to bigger things, his incessant passion and hunger for going beyond the normal. Year later he set up to have his first office at Dalamal Towers inNariman Point, paving way for his long cherished idea ofhaving an in-house Marketing Sales Team. Few years later, wemet at a function and recalled our by-gone days. What marveled me was his sharp memory and uncanny knack of recognizing people; unlikely rabble rouser and smile that assured comfort levels.
Nothing forRameshji was cast in gold; he toiled for the consolidation of the paper he inherited. His incessant passion to establish DhanikBhaskar to look beyond Madhya Pradesh paid off but not to deny his aggressive marketing style and a strategy where he adopted ‘the bull by the horn’ approach. These aggressive strategy paid off not only while facing onslaughts of then established players like Nai-Dunia(Indore),Navbharat(Jabalpur) in MP,but even when he entered Rajasthan in 1996 and Gujarat in 2003. Today DB Corporation publishes 7 News Papers, 48 editions and 128 Sub editions. The simple man with sharp analytical mind was probably the first to understand the potency of going Regional and unearth the propelling powerof local media/market. All these besides the foray in to Cable TVNetwork, Radio and Digital Media…!
Venugopal Nair is a industry veteran from Marketing and Advertisement-Sales Industry and career a spanning 25 years; having worked in News-Papers, Magazines, and mainline and Regional Broadcasting companies. He started off handling DhanikBhaskar and there has very fond memories and has been a witness to the meteoric rise of the group.
