Fractional Communications Counsel  ·  Gurgaon, India

Effective communication
is the backbone
of every strong business.

It shapes how investors perceive you, how customers trust you, how talent evaluates you, and whether the market remembers you.

I help businesses strengthen that backbone and build narratives that create real credibility, sharper positioning, and measurable growth.

Shilpi Shukla, Communications Counsel
Shilpi Shukla · thenarrative.ink
Crisis Communications Leadership Branding ESG Storytelling Reputation Management Executive Positioning Fractional CCO CEO Ghostwriting BRSR Communications Digital Strategy Crisis Communications Leadership Branding ESG Storytelling Reputation Management Executive Positioning Fractional CCO CEO Ghostwriting BRSR Communications Digital Strategy

Two decades on both sides of the story.

I am a senior communications professional with twenty years across journalism, corporate leadership, and strategic communications. Having spent my career on both sides: as a journalist who broke stories, and as the communications head who managed them. I understand what makes a narrative land.

My work spans crisis communications, ESG and BRSR storytelling, leadership branding, employer branding, reputation management, and digital strategy. I have worked with large conglomerates, scaling startups, and everything in between.

Today, I work as a fractional Communications Counsel, embedded enough to understand your business, senior enough to shape its narrative, and independent enough to give you unvarnished advice when it matters most.

I also continue to write as a columnist for ET Brand Equity, covering the business decisions hiding inside brand, culture, and communication, keeping me close to the live judgments brands are making in real time, not just the case studies that follow years later.

Academic Background
MICA, Ahmedabad  ·  XLRI, Jamshedpur
Corporate Experience
Vedanta  ·  Roposo  ·  India Today Group
Regular Columnist
ET Brand Equity
Core Specialisations
Crisis · ESG · Leadership Branding · Reputation
Location
Gurgaon, India  ·  Available pan-India

Three disciplines. Executed with precision, discretion, and twenty years of hard-won instinct.

01

Crisis Communications

When a situation turns fragile, speed and precision become everything. I help leadership teams navigate reputational risk: crafting holding statements, managing media, aligning internal communications, and rebuilding trust before the story gets away from you.

Rapid responseMedia management Reputation repairStakeholder alignment
02

Leadership Branding

Founders and CXOs need to be heard: on LinkedIn, in the press, on stage, and in boardrooms. I build the narrative architecture and content engine that turns a leader's ideas into sustained influence. Ghostwriting, positioning, thought leadership, executive voice.

GhostwritingLinkedIn strategy Executive voiceThought leadership
03

ESG & BRSR Storytelling

Sustainability commitments are only as good as the story around them. I help companies articulate their ESG and BRSR ambition in ways that resonate with investors, employees, media, and regulators, with depth, authenticity, and without sounding like a compliance document.

ESG narrativeBRSR reporting Investor relationsSustainability comms

A regular columnist with ET Brand Equity, writing on the business of brand, culture, and communication.

The Narrative
Dispatch

Updated as new pieces are published
May 2026
The Stories That Build Businesses, and the Silence That Destroys Them
Most companies discover their crisis communication strategy in the middle of a crisis. That is the worst possible time to find out you do not have one.
Read article →
May 2026
Why Most Executives Are Invisible, and What It Costs Their Business
The average Fortune 500 CEO has a smaller social media presence than a mid-level marketing manager. That is not modesty. It is a missed opportunity with a measurable price tag.
Read article →
May 2026
ESG Reporting in India: The Gap Between Compliance and Conviction
India's top 1,000 listed companies are now required to file BRSR disclosures. Most of them are doing exactly that, and almost nothing more.
Read article →

Fractional. Senior.
Direct.

I work as a retained communications counsel, embedded enough to understand your business deeply, independent enough to give you the honest advice a full-time employee cannot always afford to give.

No agency overhead. No junior team handling your account. Every brief, every call, every piece of writing comes through me directly.

Engagements are structured as monthly retainers, project-based work, or on-call crisis support, whatever fits your business and timeline.

01
Discovery call
A focused 30-minute conversation to understand your business, your challenges, and where communications can move the needle.
02
Audit & scope
I assess your current narrative, identify the gaps, and propose a focused engagement structure with clear outcomes.
03
Embed & execute
We work together, hands-on, no handoffs, no middlemen. You get direct access to senior counsel every time.
04
Review & evolve
Regular check-ins to track what's working, sharpen the strategy, and adapt as your business and its environment change.
Let's work together

Your story deserves to be told right.

Founders, CXOs, and leadership teams. Let's talk about what your business needs to say.

Start a conversation