Ms. Vasudha Jha, Director at Kirkos, talks on Corporate Communication at VGSoM

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It was a fresh start yet again for the students of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, with this academic year’s inaugural guest lecture organized by the Corporate and Media Interaction Cell. The guest who addressed the students this time was Ms Vasudha Jha.

Ms. Jha is currently incumbent as the Director at Kirkos- the consultancy which was started as a communications effort to create a circle of change.

Ms Jha is a communications professional with an experience of almost two decades in the Communications and Public Advocacy industry. Having worked across industry verticals specializing in reputation and image management, corporate branding, public relations, policy advocacy, crises communications and communications measurement, she brings with her a love for strategic, high impact communications campaigns. In some of her previous assignments, Ms. Jha led the Public Affairs team for the agriculture biotechnology giant, Monsanto. She also headed the corporate communications teams for Star TV in India, World Gold Council and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. She won the prestigious employee award called the ‘Star Game Changer’ for leading the communications team during the Star Plus rebranding. During her tenure with the world’s leading PR firms like Burson Marsteller, Vasudha has worked on top rung clients like Coca-Cola, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Johnson Johnson, USAID (for HIV/AIDs projects with Johns Hopkins University); Zebra Technologies, Singapore Tourism Board, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Wockhardt Hospitals, to name a few.

The session was on Corporate Communications. The session turned out to be a very interactive session with an abundance of information shared among the batch. Ms. Vasudha covered an extensive range of topics right from communications in corporate industry to Crises communication. The point that communication is the very essence of learning was re-established. Relevance of communication in a global environment was also touched upon. She articulated that the whole aspect of communication can be summed up to the 5Ws – Who, What, Whom, Why and in What way. She extensively explained about the barriers of communication and iterated that it’s the lack of trust which forms the major barrier for communication. Then she talked about the importance of building corporate reputation, how to develop it and why it is the most valuable asset of a company. She supplemented all her ideas with examples which brought about the concepts more clearly. Corporate communications, its difference from ordinary communications were explained. Another topic which was stressed upon was CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility. Why CSR activities are considered important and how it can build the reputation of a company was well expressed.

In effect, the inaugural guest lecture organized by the CMI cell of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur was a grand success with the students benefitting a lot from the session. The amount of knowledge gained from an industrial interaction is always paramount and this guest lecture reiterated it.  

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Ms. Vasudha Jha, Director at Kirkos, talks on Corporate Communication at VGSoM