My Days with Dainik Bhaskar

An organisation grows primarily because it has the collective will to grow. When I say ‘will’, it does not just mean the will of the owners or the management. To me it means the will of the owners, the management and the entire human resources of the organisation. This collective will becomes the force behind the growth of an organisation. The next important thing in an organisation’s journey is the proper utilisation of its men and resources, the willingness to learn and adapt according to the need of the situation and proper management of time. A combination of all these factors helps an organisation grow big.

Dainik Bhaskar, a very small Hindi regional newspaper of Madhya Pradesh
until eighties, has now become an organisation worth more than Rs 2000 crore because it created a perfect blend of man and
machine and man and ideas. It wrote a success story because it kept its managerial eyes and ears open and took decisions when it mattered most.
One such example would be Dainik Bhaskar’s recent decision to go to Jharkhand and start its editions from Ranchi and Dhanbad. Dainik Bhaskar has always wanted huge circulation figures. This was probably one of the main reasons why my suggestion in one of the informal meetings with the Managing Director Sudhir Agarwal was turned down in late 2004.

Sudhir Agarwal is a man with keen sense of business, market and editorial functioning. He had explained to me that the state was taking shape and it would not give the numbers the newspaper wanted. Perhaps he was right in the context of year 2004 when the state was just four years old. As compared to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, Jharkhand of 2004 was not equipped to give a huge circulation figure to all the important players in the Hindi newspaper business. But six years later, Dainik Bhaskar took a conscious decision to go to Jharkhand, perhaps because the state could give the numbers and business both.
There may be another reason why the paper decided to go to Jharkhand in 2010 and not in late 2004. In my understanding of the organisation, it first allows a product to establish its monopoly in a particular market and once it happens, Dainik Bhaskar declares an all out offensive against the product. As the days pass, it adopts all means and methodologies to break the monopoly of the product. That is probably the biggest thrill of being with Dainik Bhaskar. One gets the kick of fighting.

From the initial market survey to designing of the product as per the need of the specific market, it is always a life on a fast track in Dainik Bhaskar. It is an established fact that Dainik Bhaskar launches its edition in just 33 days, which includes construction of the building, installation of machines, designing of the product, dummy run and putting all the post machine systems in place. It was amazing to see things happening at such a fast pace. The Managing Director of the company is known for taking quick decisions. In my three years of association with the paper, I do not remember even a single instance when the decision at the highest level was put on hold or delayed.

I was more than impressed by one decision which involved an expenditure of huge amount of money. That was year 2006 and the occasion was American President George Bush’s India visit. I was shortlisted to interview the President in the White House on the eve of his visit to New Delhi. I got the confirmation from the US embassy a few days before the President’s visit. I needed fairly good amount of money to buy the tickets and get other formalities completed to reach Washington DC on February 23. I also required money for my stay and to meet other expenses. For this I sent a mail to Sudhir ji with a request to sanction the money and within half an hour I got a call from the accounts department to collect the money. Surprisingly, it was more than I had asked for! I was highly impressed, not because I got more than what I asked for but because it took him less than thirty minutes to sanction the amount. It was much later that I realised that the ability to take quick decisions was one of the main reasons for Dainik Bhaskar’s success. The paper’s growth should also be attributed to constant monitoring of the editorial department by Sudhir Agarwal. He would not only come forward with valuable suggestions but also encouraged the editors to help him take a decision. He would also expect his resident editors to monitor the layout of the first page of the important newspapers of the world.

Dainik Bhaskar is very generous when it comes to contributor’s payment. The edit page writers are given topics on day to day basis and are paid at par with the industry. Editorial conferences are held at regular intervals to take policy decisions on content, layout, language, market-size, payment and the market’s editorial requirement. Another striking feature of this place is the individual rapport and understanding that the management and Sudhir ji establishes with every editor. It helps both ways. While the editors understand the mind of the management, the management is also aware of the hurdles that the editorial department might be facing. This particular style of functioning never allows the trust deficit to prevail.

In fact, the process to establish this rapport starts from day one. The management never hesitates in approaching its prospective employees. The moment one meets Sudhir ji, he starts believing that Dainik Bhaskar is the ultimate destination for him. Actually the first call from him breaks the barrier and after the meeting the trust develops. This is what I think is the core strength of Dainik Bhaskar. The management’s ability to pick the desired human resource quickly, to take decisions when it matters most and the constant analysis of the strength and the weaknesses of the product and the people are some of the important factors that contribute to the huge success of the organisation. The ‘speed’ in Dainik Bhaskar’s jargon is the biggest thrill both for the management and the employees. One needs to admire the success story written by Dainik Bhaskar.