Before you pick a practice

Most people arrive here knowing something is wrong with how their market sees them, without knowing whether that is a positioning problem, a visibility problem or an execution problem. Those three need different work, different budgets and different people. Getting the diagnosis wrong is the most expensive mistake in this category, because a visibility programme pointed at an unclear position produces volume and no recall, and an execution retainer bolted onto a broken narrative just distributes the confusion faster.

Step one

Start with the sentence that sounds most like you.

Pick the closest. If two apply, the higher one on this list usually comes first in sequence.

I built the company. Outside it, nobody knows who I am.

A founder visibility gap. The business has substance the market cannot see, and every opportunity still starts with outbound.

For Founders

Founder Authority Programme →

Twelve months, four phases, roughly two hours of your time a week.

First ninety days

Positioning settled and written. Content pillars defined. Publishing engine live by month three.

All of For Founders →

Our product is good. The market still does not understand why it should care.

A positioning problem wearing a marketing costume. More spend on the current message will make it worse, not better.

For Brands

Brand Strategy & Positioning →

Eight to fourteen weeks to the position, then six months of rollout.

First ninety days

Category audit, perception research, position agreed, verbal and visual identity briefed.

All of For Brands →

We need the right ambassador and we are guessing.

A talent selection and rights problem. Most Indian endorsement money is lost in usage terms, not in the fee.

For Brands

Talent & Ambassador Strategy →

Six to ten weeks from brief to signature, then campaign.

First ninety days

Evidence based shortlist, risk screen, price benchmark, terms negotiated with rights fully specified.

All of For Brands →

Something is going to break and we have no plan for it.

A preparedness gap. Crisis work bought in advance costs a fraction of crisis work bought at midnight.

For Enterprise

Crisis & Issues Management →

Four to six weeks to readiness, then an annual retainer.

First ninety days

Scenario library, pre-approved holding statements, escalation tree, one board level simulation.

All of For Enterprise →

We are listing, raising or being acquired.

A capital markets narrative problem with a regulatory boundary attached. The public record gets read in diligence.

For Enterprise

Capital Markets Communications →

Twelve to eighteen months before filing is the honest lead time.

First ninety days

Public record audit, equity story alignment, quiet period discipline briefed to everyone who may be asked.

All of For Enterprise →

My name is the asset and nobody is managing it like one.

A commercial representation gap. Deals are arriving reactively and being priced on instinct.

For Talent

Entertainment Talent →

Ongoing, structured around your production or competition cycle.

First ninety days

Position agreed, existing agreements reviewed, commercial map built with realistic pricing.

All of For Talent →

We are entering India or the Gulf and our home market playbook is not landing.

A market entry problem. Usually pricing logic and partner selection, made before anyone tested the assumptions.

For Brands

India & UAE Market Entry →

Four to six months from engagement to launch.

First ninety days

Category sizing, price architecture, partner evaluation, launch sequencing.

All of For Brands →

Step two

Which of the three problems you actually have.

Almost every mandate reduces to one of these three. Buying the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in this category.

01

Positioning

You cannot describe what you stand for in a sentence someone would repeat. Six people inside the company give six answers. Symptoms look like a marketing problem and are not.

Fix this first. Everything downstream is cheaper once it is settled.
02

Visibility

The position is clear internally and invisible externally. You are known to customers and unknown to the market that decides your hiring, capital and partnership options.

This is the most common state for founders past product market fit.
03

Execution

Position and visibility are both fine. What is missing is a system that runs weekly without depending on anyone's motivation, and a conversion path from attention to pipeline.

The cheapest of the three to fix, and the most commonly bought first by mistake.

Step three

How engagements are actually structured.

Two to three weeks

Diagnostic

A paid diagnostic where we audit what exists, interview your people, and come back with a written view of which of the three problems you have. Ends with a recommendation, which may be that you do not need us.

Six to fourteen weeks

Project

A defined piece of work with a fixed scope and a written definition of done. Positioning, a research report, a launch, a crisis readiness build.

Twelve months

Programme

The founder authority arc, or an equivalent brand or enterprise programme. Four phases, quarterly reviews, exit points between phases.

Rolling, annual

Retainer

Ongoing reputation, media and issues work for organisations that need standing capacity rather than a project.

Worth saying plainly

When Influence is the wrong firm.

We would rather lose a mandate in the first conversation than three months in. If any of these describe you, the honest answer is that your money is better spent elsewhere, and we will usually say where.

  • You are pre product market fit. The position will keep moving and you will pay us to rewrite it.
  • You want guaranteed placements or a fixed number of articles a month. That is a media buying product and other firms sell it well.
  • You want agreement rather than counsel. We will tell you when the idea is wrong, which is the service.
  • You need pure execution volume at the lowest possible cost. A small embedded firm is the wrong shape for that.
  • You want a claim published that we cannot substantiate. We will decline and say why.

Step four

What happens when you send a brief.

Step 01

You write three sentences

What you are trying to achieve, roughly when, and what you have already tried. Do not send confidential information through the form.

Step 02

We reply within one working day

New business and talent mandates go to Shriya Mukherjee directly, not to a shared queue.

Step 03

A thirty to forty five minute conversation

Spent on your problem, not on our credentials. No deck.

Step 04

You leave with a diagnosis

Which of the three problems you have, which practice owns it, and an indicative budget range. If we are not the right firm, we say so and point you somewhere better.

Send a brief How we work

Frequently asked

Questions about fit.

Can I work with more than one practice at once?

Frequently, and it is often the right answer. A founder programme and a brand positioning project run well together because they share the same underlying position. What does not work is buying visibility from one practice while the positioning problem sits unaddressed in another.

Do I have to commit to twelve months?

No. Most relationships start with a paid diagnostic or a defined project. The twelve month programme exists because founder authority genuinely takes that long to compound, but nobody signs it before we have both seen how the work goes.

What does an engagement cost?

It depends on scope, market and speed, and you will get an indicative range in the first conversation rather than after three meetings. What we will not do is quote before understanding which of the three problems you have.

We already have an agency. Does this conflict?

Usually not. Influence works on position and counsel; agencies execute channels. Where there is overlap we will say so in the first conversation rather than discovering it in month three.

Do you work outside India and the UAE?

Those are the two markets where the firm holds real depth. We take work elsewhere only where the mandate is genuinely served by that depth, and we say so when it is not.