Shivakumar is a veteran of the research, communications and brand strategy space in India. In her 30+ year career, she has experience with quantitative and qualitative research. She was the head of Strategy Planning at JWT Mumbai before she started her own brand consultancy firm, Leapfrog Strategy Consulting in 2008.
She has been working with applied semiotics for marketing most seriously, since 2012. And with her team of semioticians and cultural analysts, has led projects in applied semiotics across a spectrum of client briefs – decoding packs, brands, categories and culture.
In the past 10 years, she has deepened her experience and knowledge as an applied Semiotician, also by co-founding Semiofest. She has also tried a wide range of methods and approaches to foresight and culture change - Scenario Planning, Mega Trends, reading Cultural History to develop a framework for culture change which was presented at the Semiotics Congress in Buenos Aires and interrogating culture as a source of permission/prohibition for consumer behaviour. She teaches applied semiotics at India's top communications schools to master's degree students.