PLAY
Making notes · September 2026
Apurv
Nagpal
I make things. Teach things. Write things. And occasionally have opinions about things.
Entrepreneur. Educator. Writer. Traveller. Movie buff. And a lifelong believer in curiosity.
On my desk, right now
Things in motion.
READ
BUILD
TEACH
Innovation, Live!
A course I built from scratch—and have taught at IIM Ahmedabad since 2014.
Explore what I teachWATCH
Movies, travel & more
Films worth arguing about. Places worth getting lost in. Usually reviewed with family.
WatchEXPLORE
WRITE
Eighteen Plus
Best-selling bedtime stories for grown-ups—plus the Duets follow-up with 18 co-authors.
See my booksTHE PREVIOUS LIFE
Six countries. One CEO chapter.
P&G → BAT → Reckitt → SABMiller → CEO, Saregama. Useful miles before the next adventure.
Explore my workDifferent worlds. Same curiosity.
Teach
Innovation, Live! Since 2014.
A course I designed from scratch and have taught at IIM Ahmedabad since 2014, to the PGP II and PGPX students. Not cases about innovation — real briefs, real companies, real decisions, argued out live in the classroom. I also taught Written Analysis and Communication, an iconic IIM-A course, to PGP I students for four years.
“I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think differently.”
— with apologies to Socrates
Inside the classroom.
Three sessions from Innovation, Live! — student teams taking on live briefs.
Innovation, Live! · Tata Motors
The Tata Motors brief
A student team works a live brief from Tata Motors, all the way to the pitch.
Innovation, Live! · MakeMyTrip
The MakeMyTrip brief
Travel booking, reimagined by a team with four minutes to convince the room.
Innovation, Live! · JS Aisle
The JS Aisle brief
A retail idea taken from first insight to a working proposition on stage.
Workshops I run for companies.
Built around a live brief from your team, not a slide deck of theory.
Fundamentals of Marketing
2–3 daysAn interactive workshop through the basics, building a deeper understanding of marketing principles.
Who it’s for: Marketing freshers, or people from sales, finance and manufacturing
Innovation Workshop
1–3 daysWorking with people inside the organisation to generate ideas against a specific brief set by the CXO.
Who it’s for: Any function, plus suppliers and agencies — chosen for attitude
Clarity & Decision-Making
3–4 intense daysPeople often delegate decisions upwards even when empowered. Based on an iconic IIM-A course, this one forces decisions in real situations, with clear reasoning — and sharpens communication along the way.
Who it’s for: Middle to senior managers, all functions
Social Media Strategy
1–2 daysMost organisations agree social is the future, then stop at a budget line and a hire. This builds an actual strategy and ideas against a live brief.
Who it’s for: Marketing teams, agencies and external influencers
Travel & sport
Every continent. Every World Cup since ’98.
Books
Bedtime stories for grown-ups.
Eighteen Plus
Bedtime stories for grown-ups: racy, funny short stories made for the nightstand.
See my books
Eighteen Plus Duets
Eighteen stories written with eighteen first-time female co-authors—and one very outnumbered editor.
See my booksThe previous life
Two decades. Six countries. One CEO chapter.
Multi-category, multi-cultural — lived and worked in six countries, in global and operational roles, ending as CEO of Saregama (formerly HMV), one of India’s premier entertainment companies. Open any chapter for the detail.
tap a company to read the full story
1993–1997
P&G
Marketing Manager, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka
1993–1997
P&G
Marketing Manager, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka
Marketing Manager, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka
Ran the marketing agenda across two markets, having started out as Assistant Brand Manager for Personal Cleansing and Haircare.
Assistant Brand Manager, Personal Cleansing & Haircare
Part of the team that launched Pantene Pro-V in India and later Bangladesh. Led the salon programme in India, worked on a global innovation for the Indian market with the R&D team in Japan, and on Ganga and Vigil, the soap brands of P&G Godrej.
1997–2000
British American Tobacco
International Brand Manager
1997–2000
British American Tobacco
International Brand Manager
International Brand Manager · 1999–2000
Led Pall Mall globally after a successful stint launching it in Russia, and helped integrate the Rothmans brand of the same name following the merger.
Group Brand Manager · 1997–1999
Launched Pall Mall in Russia and took it to a very high market share within months, against a well-entrenched Philip Morris. Later managed the local brand, Yava.
2000–2006
Reckitt
Marketing Director, Holland
2000–2006
Reckitt
Marketing Director, Holland
Marketing Director, Holland · 2005–2006
Joined the Netherlands team in the thick of a retailer price war. With no sales director for part of that time, supported the GM on that side too, and helped reverse the decline of a key brand.
Head of Innovations, Automatic Dishwashing · 2003–2005
Headed innovation for Reckitt's flagship category, working with R&D and key markets to build a ten-year new-product pipeline — including the now-launched Quantum platform.
Category Head, Fabric Softeners & Ironing Aids · 2000–2003
Led this $150mn category for three years, shortly after the Reckitt & Colman / Benckiser merger, with a run of innovative launches and a shared category vision across key markets and R&D.
2006–2008
SABMiller
Marketing Director, India
2006–2008
SABMiller
Marketing Director, India
Marketing Director, India
Responsible for brand marketing and marketing services, plus sales functions including Key Accounts, Modern Trade, Presence and Activations. The gap to the leading competitor narrowed significantly during this time.
2009–2012
Saregama
Chief Executive Officer
2009–2012
Saregama
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer
Saregama, part of the RPG group, spans music (a library of over 300,000 songs), TV production, devices and films — four of them produced during my time at the helm.
2014–now
IIM Ahmedabad
Visiting Faculty, Innovation
2014–now
IIM Ahmedabad
Visiting Faculty, Innovation
Visiting Faculty
Teaching Innovation, Live! to the PGP II and PGPX students — a course designed from scratch. Also taught Written Analysis and Communication (WAC) to PGP I students for four years.
Different worlds.
Same curiosity.
A little context
Curiosity has been the through-line.
After two decades across six countries with P&G, BAT, Reckitt and SABMiller—and a final corporate chapter as CEO of Saregama—I followed the questions that kept pulling me forward.
Today that means creating games and comics, writing, travelling, watching films, and teaching Innovation as Visiting Faculty at IIM Ahmedabad.
Contact
Ideas, invitations, arguments about films.
Teaching, speaking, collaborations or a good puzzle theme—write to me and I’ll reply.
From elsewhere
Latest from
around the web.
Movie reviews, travel films and passing observations—usually made with the family.
Movies, travel & more
See more videosNotes from the road
See more on Instagram