currently heads advertising, marketing communication, corporate communication, CRM and the direct sales channels including telesales, feet-on-street and e-commerce for ICICI Lombard General Insurance. He joined the company in 2002 as Vice President Business Development and was initially also involved with building the non-motor retail business, developing alliances and launching new products including Health and Travel Insurance. He has been responsible for defining ICICI Lombard’s corporate brand image and has focused on innovative and cost effective branding solutions. He has championed an ‘RoI’ led approach to communication be it on TV, print, radio, outdoor, online or sms by linking marketing spends to customer response. Kartik brings a strong business orientation to his work and believes in differentiation through innovation. His development of outdoor properties for ICICI Lombard such as traffic barricades and gate boards has been seen as unique, innovative and clutter breaking. Kartik was also instrumental in developing ICICI Lombard’s online platform on www.icicilombard.com which was the first in the industry to offer instant issuance of insurance policies without the need for paperwork. Based on continuous feedback and insights from customers, this initiative has evolved into a unique business model with real time fulfillment through an integrated approach combining the electronic channels of internet, chat and telephone. This is the only sustainable channel within the general insurance industry that is based on consumer ‘pull’ rather than product ‘push’. Kartik also drives public relations and the corporate communication function and under his ownership, ICICI Lombard was ranked by Business Today as India’s biggest newsmaker in the press for the general insurance category, topping visibility and image scores for the last two years.
Prior to joining ICICI Lombard, Kartik worked with KPMG Strategy Consulting in London and Mumbai. During his stint with KPMG, he project managed assignments in Europe and India in the areas of business strategy, e-strategy and process re-engineering across a range of sectors including telecom, consumer goods, real estate, auto, industrial goods and media. His focus was on aspirational strategy anchored around transformational change with the intent to change the game and change the rules of the game in his clients’ industries.
Kartik started his career with Cadbury India in Sales and Marketing and has managed key brands and sales territories registering annual growth up to 50%. As a brand manager he re-launched Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Eclairs and also launched Googly as part of Cadbury’s foray into sugar confectionery. Googly became the second largest brand in the hard boiled sugar confectionery segment in the first year of its launch. Subsequently as brand manager of key brands such as Perk, Picnic and 5 Star, Kartik handled the largest chocolate portfolio both in terms of volume as well as value, successfully delivering 30% growth. He subsequently anchored the market research as well as media function for Cadbury India in 1999 managing a media budget of Rs.40 Crore.
Kartik is a British Chevening Scholar. He has been recognized with the Pride of the Industry Awards 2009 and was awarded Best CMO of the Year in the General Insurance Category by the CMO Council in the 1st CMO Awards 2009. He completed his B.Tech degree from IIT Mumbai in 1991 and his PGDBM from IIM Kolkata in 1993.
