Rammohan Sundaram is the country head and managing partner for integrated media at DDB Mudra Group, a part of Mudra Worldwide. With over 20 years of experience, his expertise extends from marketing, strategy and digital media to advertising and business development.
A multiple award winner, Sundaram has worked with brands such as C1X Inc, Jio, Yahoo, Tribal DDB, Madison, Monster, Microland and Indian Express across India, Middle East, Africa, APAC & US. He attended UCLA PGPX in 2019-2020 and shares his experience of the program.
Participant Profile
Hello, my name is Ram, full name is Rammohan Sundaram, but you can call me Ram. I’m from Gurgaon, which is very close to New Delhi in India. I am the country head and managing partner for integrated media at DDB Mudra Group, which is part of Mudra Worldwide. I was part of the UCLA PGPX cohort of 2019-20 and it was an awesome experience.
Why did you choose UCLA PGPX?
I chose this program because I wanted to stay relevant. I have been an entrepreneur thrice and I’ve sold two of our businesses in the past. But the rapid changes that are happening in the Indian market required me to refurbish all the knowledge. Some of it you have to unlearn to relearn.
That said, I did not want to just unlearn everything that I knew. Because all that knowledge came with experience, and some of it could be relevant in today’s world but a lot of it seemed irrelevant. So, I had to reinvent myself and I wanted to push myself as a leader by staying relevant.
India’s demography is substantially different from a lot of other countries in the world. It has the youngest population globally – 65% of India’s population is below the age of 30, which means that they come from a very different mindset in terms of how they think and how they plan compared to myself, someone who is 46 years old. And while I have been there and done that, I come from a different era. So, I thought it important that I understand how these people would reciprocate to what I might do as a leader. And that is one big reason why I did UCLA PGPX.
What insights did you gain through the program?
The biggest insight that I gained from UCLA PGPX is that fundamentals don’t change. The fundamentals are laid down whether it’s leadership, whether it’s marketing, whether it is financial models, and on top of that you create innovation and new methodologies. But those are all extensions of what has already been laid as ground rules. That is something that I think is very interesting simply because the way we now think with the changing needs of the market is way different than how we probably thought about it 10, 15, 20 years ago. And the best thing about that is the fundamentals are still the same and you continue to innovate as per the needs of the market.
How would you describe the program in one word?
If I had to sum up the value of this program for any individual in one word it would be – transformation. A transformation of how you think, a transformational journey towards being a better leader, a transformation as a human being – you will become a better individual.
The word ‘transformation’ can have many subsets depending on how you want to analyze yourself and what you get out of the program. And I realized several subsets under the word transformation. So, overall it’s been a transformational journey for me.