Many people today ask what it takes for a company to thrive in times of crisis. And it’s clear that Smita Rajgopal Poliak, the founder of the highly successful creative agency SMITTEN®, has the answer.
In the middle of the 2008 recession, Smita was opening the doors to her creative agency. Yet as the market battered businesses and agencies everywhere, Smita was flourishing. And in 2020, a year riddled with a worldwide pandemic, SMITTEN® is having one of its best years ever even in times of so much uncertainty. After conquering two worldwide economic crises, Smita hopes that her business can serve as a template for other businesses to thrive against all the odds.
For Smita Rajgopal Poliak, growing even in the middle of a crisis entails building a reliable team. With multifaceted and talented people at the helm, SMITTEN® continues to prove that they can grow even in the middle of an economic downturn.
SMITTEN® is an international communication and design firm with over twelve years of experience. The company specializes in building company identities and rebranding. Joining Smita on the SMITTEN® core team are Neethi Nair and Sruthi Prabhakar. Neethi heads marketing and creative for India operations, and Sruthi is the company’s art director for India. The company’s slate of minority women, with the leadership of Smita Rajgopal Poliak, is proving that gender and race have no part to play in the race to success. And in a time where women empowerment is a rising social issue, the company stands as proof of the strength in pure talent and dedication regardless of background.
Today, SMITTEN® has expanded all across North America, the Middle East, and South Asia. The company focuses on providing design and brand management services, focusing on creating concepts and developing content for some of the world’s biggest brands. Some of SMITTEN’s notable clients include the United Nations, Absolut, Panasonic, Hilton Hotels, The British Council, Unilever, Audio Technica, Logitech, and the Olympics, to name a few.
Smita Rajgopal Poliak hopes that her agency will be a beacon of hope, especially to the world’s underdogs. “I want people to have hope,” shares Smita. “It’s been a solid year for my company. We have had some of our biggest milestone projects debuting this year. If good things can still happen to my business, I have faith that it’s happening to others too. I find comfort and inspiration in the positive news and stories and I’m grateful that mine is one of them. The reason for our success has and always will be the people. We’ve thus fought to keep all of our team on, comfortable and safe through these challenging times. We’ve even gone on to hire because we recognize that finding the right talent and attitude is what’s key to making our business tick and stick!” Through all the turmoil, Smita shows that anyone with resolve can succeed in tough times, and she hopes that more companies will realize that too.
Smita Rajgopal Poliak is a designer with an excellent aesthetic eye. Smita studied marketing and finance at the Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies in Pune, Maharashtra. She started putting her creative abilities to work even while in school. She would later conceptualize and develop a placement brochure that would go on to become the first runner-up for the international India Brand Summit in 2006. After graduation, Smita went to work for Beyond Design as an art director. In 2008, Smita took a leap of faith and started her agency, SMITTEN®.
Smita Rajgopal Poliak is passionate about her work with the world’s leading brands. The creative professional hopes to continue working with some of the most iconic companies, building out brands and identities for some of the world’s leading companies. And with her dedication and talent, the SMITTEN® team is on their way to creative industry greatness, proving that even a group of minority women can conquer an industry in the middle of a worldwide crisis.
To learn more about Smita Rajgopal Poliak, visit SMITTEN®’s company website and her LinkedIn account.
