MARKET MAVERICK

For FCB Group India CEO Dheeraj Sinha, music makes life easier, and writing is the best way to get clarity of thinking

- Nandini Keshari

Curious as a child, living in the small town of Bihar Sharif, Dheeraj Sinha-now the chief executive of FCB Group India, a marketing company spent a large chunk of his days looking out of the balcony of his house. It was the main market of the town outside his house. From his vantage point he would observe how the marketplace operated.

The shop owners opened their shops every day, brought out the same products, dusted them and hung them outside for people to see even when customers went to 12 different shops only to bargain and reject them. He was amazed by the resilience, perseverance and patience of the shop owners.

That childhood interest later took him to Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), via Shri Ram College of Commerce where he studied economics. At MICA he met people who he termed as “cool” as they had tattoos, listened to Western music and played the guitar. He wondered how he would fit in an environment which was so posh.