The problem
When I joined SBI Foundation, communications existed as activity, not as a function. Content was being produced, but there was no shared ownership model, no documented process, and no framework connecting day-to-day output to a broader strategy. At a national foundation's scale, that's not sustainable: informal systems break the moment volume increases or a person leaves.
The gap wasn't creative. It was structural.
What I built
I started by mapping what a communications function at this scale actually needed to own, then documented it, deliberately in plain English, not consultant-speak, so it could be understood and used by people outside the team.
That became a Communications Function Ownership Note, followed by a RACI matrix covering 47 distinct functions across 5 roles, clarifying exactly who was responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for every piece of communications work. On top of that sits a Master SOP, 20 sections and 12 annexures, that turns institutional knowledge into a repeatable process rather than something that lives in one person's head.
From there, the work moved from infrastructure to strategy: a Strategic Communications Framework and Annual Communications Plan for the year ahead, and an Agency Governance Framework to formalise how we brief, evaluate, and manage external partners. Alongside this, I led a shift in how the Foundation presents itself externally, moving from a patchwork of individual programme names toward a single, consistent institutional voice.
None of this existed when I started. Before it, I'd also had to build the basics from near-zero: the Foundation's social media channels, its content pipeline, and its first brand standards.
What changed
The function now runs on documented process instead of institutional memory. Anyone joining the team, or any stakeholder trying to understand how communications decisions get made, has a single source of truth to work from, instead of having to ask around.
It also means the function can scale. Managing three simultaneous agency empanelments, running a national social media presence, and producing institutional content across eight thematic verticals, rural development, livelihood and skill development, education, health, women's empowerment, environment and sustainability, disability and inclusion, and sports, is only possible because there's now a system underneath it, not just effort.
Today, that system runs on a team of four and a multi-crore annual communications budget: proof that the governance built to survive a small team is now the same governance a larger one runs on.
Why it matters to me
I came into communications through storytelling: writing, video, the craft of it. This work taught me the other half, that a story is only as sustainable as the system that produces it. Building something that outlasts any single person's involvement is, to me, the more senior version of the same instinct that first drew me to this field.