Prabhudas Lilladher – Transforming India’s Financial Services
Transformational Brands Chosen Category: Financial Services, Stock Broking
Selected as India’s Transformational Brand 2019, Prabhudas Lilladher is a path defining Financial Services brand that is transforming the glorious financial markets in India built on ethics and integrity.
Company Mission: To promote the financial growth of our clients through best-in-class research, cutting edge technology and ensuring adherence to regulations with utmost integrity.
Ethos of the brand: Do what is best for the client with integrity and transparency.
Total Number of Employees in the Company: 407
Countries the brand is present: 2 (India & Singapore)
The unique value proposition of the product: the functional, emotional and differentiating product benefits that have contributed to providing an enduring brand experience to customers?
Built on the qualities of trust and integrity, Prabhudas Lilladher has been powering clients’ financial growth since 1944. Functional benefits include our award-winning research, our unbiased advice and robust, cutting edge platforms to carry out transactions online or offline.
An experience of over seven decades in the Indian Financial Industry equips us with a unique long term view of the markets. The strong relationships – both on Retail as well as the Institutional side – that we have forged with our clients are a testimony to the priority we accord to doing what is best for the customer.
What are the physical, character and personality attributes of the brand that have evoked and inspired consumers’ self-expression and personal identity?
The brand is perceived as a trustworthy partner by clients. This is because at PL ethics and integrity take precedence over all other considerations. We do not rush to shout out our opinion but give it only after due consideration and analysis. The brand persona is of an erudite and friendly financial expert who helps people to grow their wealth by investing wisely and responsibly.
An insight into the brand marketing strategies that have effectively penetrated consumers’ psyche, established a meaningful relationship with the target audiences and ensured positive brand perception.
At PL we have 490+ franchisee partners covering the length and breadth of the country. In line with the adage “Think Global Act Local”, it is through these Progress Partners that PL conducts various consumer outreach programmes like Investor Seminars, Expert Panel Discussions and many more. Apart from these, PL Academy our education initiative conducts workshops centrally for investors and traders in various cities. These have proved successful with many attendees evincing interest to attend future events. Online we undertake regular webinars and con-calls with experts apart from daily morning calls. Our PL Blog has grown popular in a very short time for its relevant and detailed treatment of financial topics.
How has the brand extended its presence to the frontiers of internet advertising and social networking?
PL has a strong presence in social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Telegram is a recent addition to our arsenal of social tools to reach our clients. We were the first ones in India to adopt WhatsApp for Business when it was launched last year. Our view is that social media enables targeted communication to existing clients and future prospects. Social Media presence is no longer a “good to have” but has become a crucial success factor in attracting prospective clients, more so for the millennial TG. We undertake targeted advertising via Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Outline few key marketing endeavors in the past decade that you feel have been landmark initiatives in reinforcing the legacy of the brands’ promise to influence consumer intent and enhanced the brands’ propensity to drive affirmative consumer action?
A significant part of our business is Institutional Equities. For our Institutional clients we launched a ‘Thought Leader Series’ in mid-2012 to facilitate interactive sessions between India’s leading opinion makers from various domains like Macro-Economics & Foreign Exchange, Political Economy, Geo-political strategy & Defence, BFSI & Infra for PL’s Top Institutional Clients when that domain showed maximum salience from market perspective. Over a period of 3 years more than 250 sessions were conducted which helped clients with relevant information about their decisions on investments and asset allocations. This helped PL come across as a thought leader in the minds of the institutional investors.
Our annual Progress Partner Conference has given our 490+ franchisees the opportunity to learn best practices and to share business experiences. These informative conferences featuring luminaries from the world of investing & business, have bolstered PL’s reputation in the broking community and are much anticipated events year after year.
It is widely agreed that “Content is king” in the information age. To showcase our expertise while educating investors and traders about the intricacies of the markets, we launched PL Blogs in FY 2018-19. Owing to the high quality content that we publish it has been a resounding success with over 80,000 views in just a few months.
Our Research team goes beyond the cozy confines of offices to bring real grassroots research from across India. For instance, our Research Team regularly visits the Kisan Fair in Pune to get a feel of the actual state of farming community and recently undertook a 5 day visit to rural UP to get the true picture of the impact of various government schemes. The associated reports are well received by institutional as well as retail clients.
We’ve recently launched “Acumen” our unique newsletter which shares the wisdom and investment lessons of great investors like Warren Buffet, Philip Fisher and others. This too has been acclaimed by clients and peers.
How has the brand derived strength from innovation as a sustainable differentiating strategy adding to long-term brand equity? Please provide few instances of measures implemented towards this goal.
PL has a rich legacy of being at the forefront of change in the industry.
PL was the first broking house to computerize back operations and first to introduce doorstep service in the financial sector.
PL’s innovative conferences in Banking and Power Equipments led to a 4 to 5 appreciation in those stocks.
In 2013 PL launched an innovative product called InvestActive that combines discipline and balance to investor’s portfolios.
Currently PL is pioneering Algorithmic Trading in India with a dedicated Algo Desk providing hitherto unavailable AI & Machine Learning based solutions to clients for trading profitably.
What are the key leadership values that drives the brand.
Our 5 Brand values are –
Integrity: Adherence to ethical practices & integrity is paramount
Enterprise: PL is founded on the spirit of entrepreneurship and we encourage and enable our Progress Partners (franchisees) to achieve their entrepreneurial goals with our assistance
Ambition: Our ambition drives us to set higher goals and better ourselves each day
Responsiveness: Being responsive to customer needs and market dynamics
Expertise: We constantly invest in building people competencies and invest in expanding our research expertise
What type of employee satisfaction programs are conducted by your brand?
We understand that recognition and skill upgradation for employees is a key metric in employee satisfaction programs. Employees are encouraged to appear for certifications and examinations to upgrade their skill set along with guidance from senior members. Our in-house learning and development initiative PL Academy routinely conducts sessions for employees on specific areas like trading strategies, fundamental analysis and other important topics. Apart from these, periodically, employees who have delivered outstanding contributions to the team are felicitated by senior management with certificates and trophies.
We maintain a very friendly atmosphere at work and celebrate many local festivals and national holidays through innovative engagement initiatives. To promote employee wellness we organise optional Yoga sessions and health check-ups regularly to reign in stress and promote work-life balance. PL has one of the highest ratios of women employees in the financial sector.
How much does your brand emphasise on employee training & development, kindly elaborate.
At PL we believe that competitive advantage can only be gained when there is skilling and re-skilling of the work force. We conduct a systematic Training Needs Identification and Analysis (TNIA) and prepare annual training program. The entire exercise is detailed where we evaluate both the behaviour and technical competencies required and do a gap analysis and accordingly plan the training.
After training has been imparted, we assess the participants’ performance on the job by taking feedback from the reporting manager and arrive at whether the training has achieved desired objectives or not.
10. What are your brands most effective intangible motivational tools for employees.
We at PL believe that employee motivation can be enhanced by planned programs and also through creating an environment of mutual trust. The most effective intangible tool which we use in motivating employees is – job enrichment i.e. increasing the level of scope / difficulty of certain tasks so the employees are challenged and motivated to reach the next level. Besides, we at PL also promote shared values, shared vision and shared ownership which act as tools for employee motivation. Regular R&R sessions and other celebrations are conducted to boost employee morale. All these measures ensure there is a strong psychological connect between the employee & the brand.
Kindly elaborate on your existing & potential CSR activities.
PL is a long time supporter of Light of Life Trust which through its key projects Anando & Jagruti, reaches out to and empower people in rural areas of India through educational and skills development programmes. The Prabhudas Lilladher Charitable Trust has been involved with CSR activities like Education & Poverty Alleviation since many years. Apart from these, PL supports MCan Foundation in fighting Cancer and Sanskar Balmandir (education for underprivileged children) and Vishawakarma Kaushal Kendra (skill development programmes) We participate as a corporate team in several marathons while supporting various charitable organisations.
Which area of social responsibility is more significant for your brand
At PL we believe in the power of knowledge. Hence education is the most significant area of CSR for us. We believe that the best way to help underprivileged sections of society is to empower them with the skills and knowledge that they need to forge ahead on their own. Towards this end we support many organisations who actively undertake these initiatives for underprivileged children and youth in various parts of the country.