Mangaluru: Santosh Goenka, the President and Chief Alchemist of Diagonal World, a media mentoring initiative, is the grandson of the legendary freedom fighter and Press Baron Ram Nath Goenka, the founder of the Indian Express Group and guess what? He will be mentoring Spearhead Media Pvt. Ltd., a Mangalore based media house that is growing by leaps and bounds in the minds and hearts of Kannadigas all over the world (it owns the popular digital news brands Newskarnataka.com, Newskannada.com and NKTv and the print publication Karnataka Today).
Team Spearhead is all excited as you too, our readers, well-wishers and advertisers must be to hear this good news. Growth with shine is what we all look for and we are about to get it! Ain’t that exciting? As Michael Jackson says – for you and for me and the entire media race!
The Business Circle
Santosh believes that India should fast forward economic growth by taking advantage of its youth. New Dimensions need to be explored to make use of emerging opportunities and media is one of them. Growth involves innovation. Once innovation is complete, implementation involves much more complex involvement. Santosh says, “For the benefit to have a wide reach, we need to create large circles of implementation. Revenue circles should be more in number and scale”.
Santosh told Newskarnataka.com that “present economic circles are capitalistic and the model is just a triangle at the first level and a vertical at the next.
Innovator, Investor and Business model are the three components in the economic harvest process. The investor supports innovator and later the revenue from the business is shared between the two. Later, after his initial struggle, he is eliminated much like a tree is cut and sold as wood”. Santosh believes that business must go from Triangles to Circles. He says that “the triangle into large circles by involving all the stakeholders in the process. Even the consumer is part of the large circle and transparency is the way to make it possible.”
He envisions a sharing model. “We need to reach out to Indian villages and search for ways and means to harness economic advantage from such destinations. Definitely, by giving everyone their due share, the economy will be able to sustain for a longer period” he feels.
Santosh told newskarnataka.com that Media has a lot to do in the process of taking leadership in the transformation of society. In fact, Media should be the front runners and torch bearers he averred. “There needs to be large democratic participation in media much more than in any other field. Reputed people and responsible people should make themselves largely involved in media initiatives. Crowdfunding is an idea but it should become a participatory process much different from the share capital back up”, he said. In other words, widen the circle of development. According to Santosh, in the ultimate analysis our effort should not be to make the world smaller, but the village bigger, better and world class by giving its people wings.
Plans for the Newskarnataka media group
In a brief interaction with the Newskarnataka team, Santosh said he would lay out a roadmap that will take the Spearhead Group to the next level in the coming days and would finalize the same during a tete-a-tete with the team in Mangalore shortly. His first task, however, would be to help formulate a new strategic vision and mission for the group that will guide the way forward.
Reactions to the announcement!
NewsKarnataka spoke to one of the major shareholders of the Spearhead Group CA Valerian Dalmaida. He was very excited about the development and said he was looking forward to the Company which he along with other shareholders had nurtured from infancy. He said, “I am sure it will benefit the company – and as a shareholder, I am committed to helping the management see through this transitory phase as it lifts its profile to the next level. I’m sure Santosh will help the company to take off from where it is – a low profile but well-appreciated media house with popular brands for Karnataka State and Kannadigas globally. The transition will be a moment of learning for all and an effective method of succession planning”, he said.
Asst. Editor Andrea Noronha, who was recently promoted to the post because of her excellent work, dedication, commitment and sincere work (which the group always does with the employees of such nature) told the team that she was excited with the development. “I am not fully aware of how it will impact the group, but I know for sure that it is a positive development. This is because having gone through Santosh Goenka’s profile sent to all of us, I know for a fact, that the group can only benefit from his experience and knowledge of the media industry. Besides, his eminent lineage will act as a natural magnet for the group,” she said.
The key to this entire project, of course, is the commitment, passion and inter-communication and intra-communication from the entire spearhead family of employees, stingers, reporters, contributors and shareholders. The rest will fall into place.
About Santosh Goenka
Santosh Goenka as already mentioned is the President and Chief Alchemist of Diagonal World, a media mentoring initiative, and is the grandson of the legendary freedom fighter and Press Baron Ram Nath Goenka, the founder of the Indian Express Group. He rose to the rank of the Executive Publisher for the division which he founded (Jan of 1994) and nurtured at the Indian Express. Earlier to this he headed the marketing function of the Indian Express Group at Mumbai and also was responsible for launching several of its editions in Western and Eastern India.
He attended the prestigious Stanford Professional Publishing Course USA (SPPC), in 1990. While at the Indian Express, he created one of the group’s most profitable properties, the Business Publications Division, launching over two dozen titles such as Express Computer, Express Pharma, Express Healthcare, Express Hotelier, etc.
In 2000, he embarked upon one of the most ambitious media projects, Strategic Newspapers – by launching over 63 titles in different verticals over a seven months period with a converging portal www.strategicnewspapers.com. Never before in the history of Indian Media has such a feat been attempted. He has over a hundred publication launches to his credit.
In January 2002, he founded a boutique advisory firm Diagonal Global.com, the only one of its kind, to facilitate media and entertainment organizations to leverage from his over two-decade experience in media. He later partnered with a Hong Kong-based firm BSG Asia to form a virtual global advisory, BSG India to help international media companies to set up offices in India. Today it has metamorphosed into a media mentoring and business facilitation firm, Diagonal World.
He has been the publisher and managing director of DVV Media India Private Limited; a company promoted by the DVV Media Group, Hamburg, Germany. He also is the Executive Director of Business India, India’s most credible magazine for Corporate India. He is also on board other prestigious media organizations.
Having experienced the highs and lows in the media business, today Goenka is set to catalyse the media world with his innovative ideas and fresh approach to the way media needs to function- the community way! According to him, Community Wisdom would henceforth drive media platforms!
Today, he is all set to play the role of a Media Mentor and Evangelist to several media-preneurs including the Spearhead Media Group and Business Alchemist to Businesses and Enterprises.
