Where is Prashant Kumar?

Prashant spent many years running IPG Mediabrands in Malaysia and Asia, and then sold his own ‘consulgency’ Entropia to Accenture via Accenture Interactive in Southeast Asia in mid 2021.

He has been off the grid since he left Accenture Song in mid 2024. MARKETING Magazine tracks him down to see what he has been up to…

What are you up to these days? 

Reloading. Reloading. To live well is to discover oneself in many dimensions. To try find the whole you, that’s been encoded somewhere secret and deep inside, when you were little.

Is life boring you, after advertising? 

Life is a hunt and self is the treasure. Advertising is an attitude, really. You carry this wherever you go.

For an urban streets project, I dived deep along with urban planners. There was deep engineering in it, and high culture and imagination too.

Conceiving an end-to-end sewage system is critical engineering, but also about cultural norms and behaviours. Life is seldom boring, if you live it as an attitude.

Are you writing more books? 

Why torture people. It took me 20 years to learn enough worth writing about. Thank God, people liked it – it’s now being taught in University College of Dublin and IIM, Kolkata.

For the second book, let’s just say, I love myself, but not that much.

I heard you are involved in heartland politics in India? 

I think Aristotle called politics the most noble of professions. I am spending a year dialling the nobility part, as a heartful pay back to a country I love much.

Using its vast canvas to make a tiny difference. Acting on my convictions, not ambitions, really.

Do you see AI reducing the number of people in agencies? 

Yes. But there will be agencies which will add people to make AI work – babysit, coach, police, validate, explain, take accountability for.

Maybe they won’t identify as agencies, as Agentic AI become the new agents.

Are you attending Cannes Lions this year?  

No. It’s a great place to catch up with friends.

But if you want to hunt lions, go to the jungle and not the zoo.

How does it feel going from agency to consulgency to total freedom? 

Thrilling. Building IPG Mediabrands from no. 9 to no. 2 in seven years. Building Entropia from zero to Accenture’s largest acquisition in SE Asia. Grateful and happy.

As for freedom, well total freedom is highly overrated. You actually only go from one matrix to another. You take the blue pill instead of the red pill. The shift is fun though. It expands you.

The most important need is the need to be needed. Lightness of being can be unbearable. Deep humility is the first step to any degree of freedom.

What you need really is thrill (without pill). And that needs a healthy tension.

If there is something you could change in the world, what would it be? 

Big picture, nothing really. The world is perfect – in all its imperfections. And the latter creates a relentless case for change.

And that makes life worth the life. And gives us the thrill that comes with the sense of agency and impact. I am a stubborn optimist. What’s not to like?!

Are you an active venture capitalist now?

No, not really. When I had capital, I ventured. Designed an interesting portfolio for myself. Locked myself into long-term plays so I can forget about money.

Now I derive my ROI from seeing SpaceX raptors tear the skies apart. Joy on Investment is more important than Return on Investment.

JOI and ROI, not the same. There is only so much you can think about money.

Are you in India, Malaysia or in transit to elsewhere?

Somewhere in a dynamic equilibrium. Cursed by my need for meaning. And thrill. And connection. And joy.

You expand. Then you refocus.

Life for me is a helical ascent into ever expanding and converging cycles. (But the axis is n-dimensional, so you never truly fathom it).