The question I was asked most often was, “What do you do here?” or its variant, “What does your job entail?” It became so common that I developed an almost automatic response: “I run LaLiga’s operations in India.” Contrary to what many of my colleagues think, many well-educated, well-travelled, and world-wise Indians have no idea what LaLiga is. So I often had to clarify that “LaLiga is the professional football league in Spain, where Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Atlético de Madrid play.” This usually helped focus the rest of the answer as my interlocutor began to get a sense of who I worked for. I usually continued: “My job is to promote the LaLiga brand in India, to make it better known.” And if my interlocutor didn’t know us, I would follow up with: “The fact that you don’t know what LaLiga is confirms that we still have a lot of work to do.”

Sometimes, when I thought it appropriate, I elaborated further: “By promoting the brand, we seek to increase the number of fans who follow us.” What for? I asked myself rhetorically: To improve our commercial profile and increase revenue in the market, where does that revenue come from?...

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