In this conversation, Paridhi Bhatiya, a Creative, Culture & Business Strategist, reflects on her journey from leading diverse creative teams to mentoring modern marketing leaders. with experience spanning startups and legacy systems, she has shaped business outcomes and brand cultures through a human first approach to leadership. Known for building award winning teams and driving transformation with empathy, Paridhi bridges creativity, accountability, and vision with rare balance. Today, she helps brands and leaders scale with soul crafting ecosystems where innovation stays relevant, communities outlive campaigns, and culture becomes the true engine of growth.
1. You’ve led a 100+ member team across disciplines. What’s your playbook for aligning creative instinct, performance pressure, and long-term brand vision?
“Legacy is built 100 days at a time.”
My playbook is about balance: creative instinct to keep the work alive, performance pressure to keep it accountable, and vision to tie it together. But vision isn’t a cliché five year plan; it’s whether today’s decisions will still matter 100 years later. Legacy isn’t abstract, it’s built through the daily rhythm of choices, feedback, and intent. Teams often call me ‘the one who rewired processes,’ but the truth is simpler. I try to create a stage where creativity, pressure, and purpose all co-exist without suffocating each other.
2. How do you personally define innovation in content, especially in a world flooded with trends and AI tools?
“Innovation is about relevance, not novelty.”
Back in 2015, I led India’s first digitally crowdsourced Parle-G Ganesha, 9,400+ responses processed in under a minute. AI didn’t exist in content creation then, but the principle was the same: technology must serve relevance. Today, with AI everywhere, the real question isn’t “do you use it?” It’s: do you move faster than AI, do what AI cannot, or bring belief back to a system? Disruption is not about chasing every new tool; it’s about creating something that no one saw coming but everyone instantly recognizes as meaningful. Sometimes, that means spotting the need gap and solving a problem, not the loudest trend.
Read Here: https://www.afaqs.com/news/ooh/45721_parles-biscuit-ganesha-at-mumbais-lalbaugcha-raja
Watch Here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=364571134236199
3. What’s your method for telling enduring brand stories in a world that often chases weekly metrics?
“Content is architecture, not just advertising.”
For me, it’s never about one post/video; it’s about the community you’re building for tomorrow. Weekly metrics guide distribution, but enduring stories create belonging. Communities like UNILAD have shown us that stories outlive formats when they build identity and belonging. I treat content as architecture, not advertising. Campaigns may trend for a week, but communities transcend platforms. My method is simple: tell stories that don’t just chase the scroll but lay down bricks for a home people want to return to.
4. You’ve worked in systems both nimble and complex. What were your biggest learnings while trying to build a startup mindset within a legacy setup?
“Transformation is a dance, not a fight.”
Legacy systems bring discipline and depth, startups bring agility and risk. My biggest learning is that you don’t have to choose. The magic happens when they dance together. My role has often been about “accelerating new culture within an established ecosystem,” which really means creating choreography where old wisdom and new chaos learn each other’s steps. That’s when transformation feels less like disruption and more like evolution. The beauty lies in the dance, not in winning one side or the other.
Read Here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CK4BmwLBerI/
5. You’ve led work that has shaped culture and shifted business outcomes. What’s your process for identifying insights that move both hearts and numbers?
“Listen, because real insights make your heart skip.”
Gone are the days when focus groups were the only answer. Today, you can observe, ask, and engage with people in real time. Why shouldn’t a brand directly ask its community? We live in a creator’s world, feedback is everywhere if you’re listening. That’s where insights hide: behaviours you didn’t know existed, emotions no algorithm could predict. Those insights often make your heart skip a beat because they reveal the unseen. And when they also light up your spreadsheets, you know you’ve shaped something that moves both culture and commerce.
“You can conquer absolutely anything you set your heart on, because the world eventually moves for the one who refuses to stop walking.”
6. As someone who has built high-growth, award-winning teams, what are the non-negotiable qualities you believe modern marketing leaders must nurture?
“Raw ideas are where real magic begins.”
For me, the non-negotiable is creating safe spaces. Spaces where raw, imperfect, even half baked ideas are welcomed, because in that rawness lies real innovation. Teams thrive when they know there’s no single right way, only different ways. I’ve been called the “mother of dragons” leading more than 1700 crazy dragons in my career until now, but those dragons only flew because they felt safe enough to spread their wings. High-growth, award-winning teams don’t emerge from fear; they emerge when you let imagination feel safe, and mistakes feel like stepping stones, not scars.
7. Creativity and accountability can often be seen as opposing forces. How do you foster both within a young, diverse team without diluting either?
“Accountability should be a stage, not a cage.”
Accountability isn’t about KPIs and deadlines alone, those are outcomes. Accountability happens when people feel nurtured enough to create freely, wherever they are: on a mountain, in their kitchen, even in the bathroom. I’ve mentored over 1000 people, and my teaching fuels my training. Unlike a world of delegation and abdication, I believe in diving in with people. As I often say, I’m a nurturer before I’m a manager, I’d dive into the sea to guide someone. Nurturing creates comfort, and comfort births accountability.
8. With platforms, algorithms, and formats changing constantly, how do you personally stay ahead and help your team stay inspired and relevant?
“Sometimes my reels flop harder than expected, and that’s okay.”
Change is my playground. I experiment with new formats myself, sometimes I succeed, often I fail spectacularly. But failure is part of the fun. I also encourage my teams and mentees to grow their own platforms; you can’t preach relevance without practicing it. Staying ahead is less about predicting trends and more about living them. Diving taught me to jump head on without fear, and cooking taught me patience, both lessons that have shaped the way I mentor and lead teams.
9. Looking ahead, what’s your vision for the kind of content ecosystem you want to build?
“The future belongs to communities, not campaigns.”
The future is about belonging. Content should be a voice that stays and a feeling that evokes. Inspired by Gary Vee’s borderless communities and Diet Sabya’s fearless voice in fashion, my vision is to stop treating content as campaigns and start building it as architecture. Architecture that creates spaces where people feel identity, contribution, and connection. Campaigns fade, but communities become movements, and movements outlive metrics.
10. You’ve been recognised as a top voice under 40. What does that mean to you as a leader, a builder, and a woman navigating the creative industry?
“Don’t fear recognition, ask for it, own it.”
Recognition is not vanity; it’s fuel. To women who’ve been told they’re too sensitive, too weird, too different: don’t stop. Different is where disruption is born. I was inspired by watching women win, and if my recognition births more leaders, then it’s more than a medal it’s a baton. Recognition also builds connection, I’ve had strangers become allies simply because of it. Leadership is about connections, so don’t fear recognition. Always ask for it. It is yours to own.
11. You’ve built teams, grown business, and shaped culture. What’s the next frontier for you as a leader?
“Scale with soul.”
The next frontier is scale with soul. I want to build ecosystems that are technology first but human at heart. Spaces where AI is embraced without fear, but always balanced with humanity. Cultures where creativity isn’t a department, it’s the DNA. My legacy isn’t what I built; it’s what gets built after me because of the culture I leave behind. Content is the architecture of future communication. And like diving taught me to embrace depth and cooking taught me patience, leadership has taught me to leave ripples that carry others further. The future is built by those unafraid to fail, adapt, and imagine, and I plan to keep doing all three, and one day, publish.
As John Lennon said, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
