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If we take a close look at history, we will see a haunt of women who have gone beyond the norms of a male-centered culture and left their mark in the world. They fight against odds, stereotypes, age, limitations and that is why we see so many women with a great futuristic business vision in male-dominated societies or institutions. Today, women are working in almost all business verticals. With an innovative vision, outstanding management skills, and a desire to create something unique that lasts longer, women are leading from the front in all business sectors and adding contribution to the nation’s economy. In this special issue of the enterprise world, Inspiring Stories of Dynamic Women Business Leaders to Watch 2021, we bring to you the stories of women business leaders that have transmogrified the sectors with their exemplary dedication and hard & smart efforts. Featuring the cover story is Mallika Bajaj. This story is about one such leader and entrepreneur, who not only proved her mettle in the Media & Communication industry but also inspired many aspiring businesswomen and women entrepreneurs to not hesitate and take their step towards becoming a better self and prove to the world and their self that women are not weak in any aspect when it comes to running and handling a start-up or business. The future is electric! Electric vehicles are changing the way one looks at cars and also the face of motor vehicles, making the Automobile industry leap into the future. In the pages, reserved for the content from our editor’s desk, read out an article on how electric vehicles are presenting the future. YCook is revolutionizing the farm and food sector with pioneering steamed snack products. A woman with an innovative vision and passion to do something that makes a difference, Ms. Gayathri Swahar and her team of driven by passion professionals are making hard and smart efforts to provide the right food to consumers and empower farmers with technological innovations. Readout a story of Ms. Gayathri Swahar, Brand Custodian at YCook who is the backbone behind the company’s long-standing success. Her smart efforts have helped YCook to mark a place in the global food landscape. Do you ever dream of becoming a Millionaire? If Yes, then there is something interesting for you inside. The Habits of Millionaires! Readout an article from our editor’s desk and get motivated to pursue the habits of millionaires and become one! There is a lot more inside! Happy Reading!! Look to role models, if it’s been done before, you can do it too.
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This list is NOT a ranking. The companies on listed in magazine serve different aspects of the market, making ranking them in any order except revenue impossible and unfair. We try to bring a perfect platform for business organization to showcase their valued products/ services. Copyrights © The Enterprise World | 2019. All Rights Reserved. The images and content included in this magazine should not be copied, transferred or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording, otherwise, without proper permission from The Enterprise World. The Enterprise World solely owns all the reprint rights.
Leaders in Spotlight This issue of the enterprise world, Inspiring Stories of Dynamic Women Business Leaders to Watch 2021, features, Featuring for the cover story is Mallika Bajaj. Mallika and her companies, Little Yellow Beetle Apna Dr, and Ballistic Learning a Moodle Partner have been one of the pioneers in the Media & Communication, Innovation, Sustainability in Technology industry, providing a plethora of unique products/services with varied approaches that command their client’s high satisfaction ratings but also their utmost respect and loyalty towards them. YCook is revolutionizing the farm and food sector with pioneering in steamed snacks products. A woman with an innovative vision and passion to do something that makes a difference, Ms. Gayathri Swahar and her team of driven by passion professionals are making hard and smart efforts to provide the right food to consumers and empower farmers with technological innovations. Ms. Gayathri Swahar, Brand Custodian at YCook is the backbone behind the company’s long-standing success. Bhawna Khanna is an eminent leader in the field of architecture
and interior designing. Since her school days, Bhawna was highly fascinated with the beauty of tall standing buildings and beautiful structures. That’s exactly the time when an innovative, out-of-the-box thinker rose in the landscape of architecture. Read more about Bhawna’s journey and get inspired.
Think Ink Communications is a young and dynamic PR firm with media, entertainment, and lifestyle as its domain expertise. Co-founded by Radhika & Chirag Nihalani, Think Ink Communications devises and executes communication strategies that create visibility campaigns that deliver value and produce results. Give a read to an interview with Radhika and know more about Think Ink communications.
A visionary leader Nirali Shah Matalia, Vice President, Operations and People at Saama is setting examples and inspiring many career aspirants in the HR sector. Nirali Shah Matalia is an energetic and devoted person, culture, and change pioneer who has confidence in showing others how it’s done. She heads People work at Saama driving Employee Engagement, Learning & Development, Performance Management, Total Rewards, Compliance, Systems, Analytics, and so on.
Imarticus Learning is a technology driven educational institute that has immense expertise in transforming careers across industries such as financial services, analytics and AI, business analysis and core technology. In a talk with Ms Sonya Hooja, Co-Founder and COO at Imarticus Learning, she shared her journey till now and how Imarticus Learning is transforming businesses.
Priya Marwah, Founder and Managing Director at TYCHEJOBS is a seasoned ‘C’ level executive search consultant. Her career spans over two decades where she has worked on complex assignments across domains and geographies. Over the years, Priya has accomplished more than 100 successful leadership searches. Read out an interview with her and know more about TYCHEJOBS.
Frontier Market was started by Ajaita Shah in the year 2011 for providing rural India with products such as solar torches and lanterns of various brands from last-mile distribution points. The organization then partnered with rural shopkeepers who could sell these products to rural customers. Know more about the eminent woman business leader, Ajaita Shah and her journey through out.
Ajaita Shah Empowering women entrepreneurship in Rural India through Frontier Market
Priya Marwah Mallika Bajaj
A visionary leader in hiring space
Web Wonder Woman rooting for tech-tonic shift
FROM THE EDITOR
Electric vehicle - The Future Habits of Millionaires Are OTT platforms turning into garbage cans, providing a way for not-so-good content
Bhawna Kha
Adding new dim to the architectu interior designing
Radhika Nihalani
Nirali Matalia
A dynamic leader in the eld of PR
Empowering businesses and the people who drive it
Gayathri Swahar A foodie marketing leader behind the success of YCook!
Sonya Hooja Transforming careers across various industries
anna
mensions ural and g sector
CONTENTS
08 Jan 2021 Mallika Bajaj | Founder & CMO | Little Yellow Beetle
COVER STORY
Mallika Bajaj Web Wonder Woman rooting for tech-tonic shift
The changing world has brought many unique and startling products and services but also has provided strong and talented individuals in the form of businessmen/businesswomen and entrepreneurs who have not only taken the world of business by a storm but have also inspired to strive hard for what you want and never look back. Their success stories speak a lot about their hard work, dedication and expertise in their fields but also sheds light about their unwavering spirit, the determination to help and provide people with their company/start-up’s products and services and also take the responsibility of lifting their respective industry or sector as a whole. These leaders do not care about the competition in the market, because frankly, they do not care as all they want to do and beat is their previous self and prove that they can become better. These leaders not only command the respect, status and name among their respective industry/sector but among their competitors and the market and consumers, as they stand out and truly define what a leader is and how those aspiring to become a leader should be.
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| Cover Story
Mallika’s road to success, the inception of Little Yellow Beetle. Mallika has always been a media person by training and profession, living and working in one of the most culturally-diverse countries in the world, India. From the beginning of her formative years, her interest lied in the interplay of media, technology and society. However, her assignments challenged her to delve deeper into the people she met, and understand what made them – them. Mallika’s association with people with nextto-no access to information and 10 Jan 2021
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The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.
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This story is about one such leader and entrepreneur, who not only proved her mettle in the Media & Communication industry but also inspired many aspiring businesswomen and women entrepreneurs to not hesitate and take their step towards becoming a better self and prove to the world and their self that women are not weak in any aspect when it comes to running and handling a start-up or business. Mallika and her companies, Little Yellow Beetle Apna Dr, and Ballistic Learning a Moodle Partner have been one of the pioneers in the Media & Communication, Innovation, Sustainability in Technology industry, providing a plethora of unique products/services with varied approaches that command their client’s high satisfaction ratings but also their utmost respect and loyalty towards them. However, this story is not about Little Yellow Beetle, Apna Dr, or Ballistic Learning - it’s about celebrating the inspiring stories of one of the most dynamic, internationally awarded women business leaders, Mallika Bajaj.
technology showed her that such people didn’t just exist in history — they live and breathe around us. It showed her the two nations were living in one country, and one of them needed a voice that she decided to become. These repercussions were courtesy the same – basic human right/ necessity, or platforms enabling a voice and she started working on how she could contribute and give back to society. As she moved up, and within the divisions and onwards to setting up her ventures, be it the Little Yellow Beetle or ApnaDr, she continued to see adversity and a pressing need to contribute, with all of her limited capacity. Now, her team aims to innovate with purpose and consciously work towards creating kinder content with Little Yellow Beetle and ApnaDr by being relevant in the 21st century, maximizing the reach by enabling technology to effectively mend the broken ladder and hopefully be holistic as the society gears towards an innovative, succinct digital ecosystem. With a Master’s degree under her
belt in 2013 from the Mecca of Media & Communications — Goldsmiths, University of London, after a BA in the same fro mthe University of Melbourne, she learned through her communications with multinationals, banks and hospitals she was working with, at how terrible connected India was digitally, and she feels that’s where she hit her life’s crossroad. Back in India, people relied on tele-calling to communicate, and emails weren’t formal communication platforms back then. That’s when it dawned upon her and therefore, while on the one hand, she continued to remain ambassador for Goldsmiths University of London, and Member for the alumna Council University of Melbourne, she decided to translate her academic expertise to up India’s digital performance at the global level and moved back home — determined to Digitise India. Soon after, India had a Prime Minister who stepped in and made her and her team’s keywords his national mandate. They couldn’t have asked for a better advocate — an ideal mascot — for what Little Yellow Beetle and Mallika believed in. As with all start-ups and companies, setting them up is easy but keeping them afloat is the bigger question and hurdle, and along the way, an entrepreneur faces varieties of challenges and hurdles, which not only test their resilience but also the overall capability and mettle of an entrepreneur and the mammoth task that Mallika has been navigating through has been the need to juggle the manifold growth within new media and the dearth of knowledge, and its comprehension. Battling the
| Cover Story
12 Jan 2021
ego of ‘self-certified experts’ misleading innocents and wellintentioned on boarders, and reversing the digital damage done – the exercise is time-consuming, uncalled for and futile. Mallika and her team’s efforts have been centred around digitising the system, while parallelly, literally running a free-for-all school on what new media is, sustainability and the way forward. Mallika’s success story is one that needs no introduction and highlight but it's the Little Yellow Beetle with its innovation with purpose and being able to create kinder content, consistently. They strive for sustainability, but not at the behest of misleading their clients. From making an appropriate and timely judgement on their behalf to choosing the right platforms, communication strategies and finding them their audience, they take pride in having been able to sustain their clients by being relevant. The Little Yellow Beetle Little Yellow Beetle and its team, they believe and function by ideating and designing. All their clients need to do is provide them with any of the one – an idea, product, skill training, person, brand, furniture, automobile, sports academy, rockets, rice, healthcare, hats, mugs, real estate, robots, wedding cards, anything – and they will construct it for you. Once the design is done, they digitise it for the world to consume. Their other services include: · Social Media Marketing · Applications · Websites · e-Courses
· Online classrooms They do not use templates and take great pride in curating custom designs and using video and audio to impart e-skill and for e-courses. Little Yellow Beetle is striving day in and out for a day when every Indian will be able to connect, comprehend and consume technology on her/his palm, and not limit it to a luxury/utility. This farsightedness not only helps them stand out but also provide a notch above the competition in the market and help in lifting the Media & Communication industry as a whole. Little Yellow Beetle believes and works diligently towards learning, growing and maturing, every single day. They are now imparting training on newer trends for consuming content, skill training and how to supply large-scale content to help the masses selflearn, self-skill and sustainably grow in their genres. Right from the basics such as fine-tuning and finding better UI/UX for Content Aggregation Models (CAM), Sharable Content Object (SCO) and how they may relate to say Experience Application Programming Interface (xAPI) or cmi5, a standard for Learning Management System. This is in addition to being able to digitise narratives, and being story-tellers, which is something they have always loved and was entrusted by multiple Fortune 500 companies. More recently (during the pandemic) fortune 500 companies as Moodle partners, via Mallika’s company Ballistic Learning, Little Yellow Beetle and even ApnaDr. It all boils down to making technology more flexible for it to
be consumer-friendly, capacitybuilding; affordable, accessible, anywhere. Digitising healthcare is a priority (since pre-pandemic for them at ApnaDr) apart from eLearning. Creating kinder content to be able to innovate with purpose and leave behind narratives that our future generations can proudly and purposefully consume, curate and push forward into a better and digitalised future with no knowledge or facility being out from their reach at any location. Mallika’s professional journey, about the factors making her team unique and her valuable insights on factors businesses, should focus on after COVID-19 outbreak. Mallika has always vouched by the principle that it would take a concoction of hard work and the brightest, truly extraordinary designers, developers, innovators with exceptional intellect, passion and creativity to come up with newer, even better ideas to succeed, round the clock. What she didn't recognise when she set foot in the industry was perhaps the incredible power of faith – faith in the timing of things, in the universe, and most importantly in herself. She has learned a lot over the years, that the collective talent and ambitions of her team have changed the way netizens communicate — digitise and re-write their stories, one keyword at a time. Mallika and her team at Little Yellow Beetle and Apna Dr. have gone from being able to communicate with and provide healthcare to the last girl child, in that last remote village of India, to be able to engage her, and aim to have her take it for granted. Technology if used fittingly, can be empowering beyond belief – with
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If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.
that belief, she strongly feels that she is now comfortable, knowing it’s her cushion – her purpose and also her wings. She strongly feels and remarks that one of the key achievements of her entrepreneurial journey is her team. Starting from nudging her sister to drop her dream job, her mother to forgo her successful teaching career, spanning two decades, right down to the people they have hired, whom today they call their family – they’re her key achievements and buttress in running their business ventures. Content with a human touch. That’s their story and key achievement! Undoubtedly, clients coming out contented is delectable as that extra icing on the cake. But what keeps them rolling is seeing the teams motivated, despite tough times like the pandemic and sticking it out, pitching in that extra bit – that’s the definition of success to Mallika. Despite headwinds with power outages, limited bandwidth, no access to tech/design files/systems, the team worked overnight to recreate the magic from scratch only to better it, again, all the time. She remarks, she would be nothing without her team, and of course, clients who have always shown so much faith in them to be able to digitize their narrative. She feels beyond grateful for everything, each one of their team members, for building her journey, brick by brick. At Little Yellow Beetle, Apna Dr 14 Jan 2021
and Ballistic Learning, they have been demonstrating what’s possible when you put extraordinary heads together. Driven by a thirst for innovating with purpose, and consciously creating kinder content, the conviction to move not just fast, but keeping in mind sustainability, and the confidence knowing one’s skill set, they transform powerful stories and ideas into actions every day. Their team doesn’t need taking care of as they consciously look after each other, and to Mallika, that’s the only way to success – when humans work for each other, selflessly. Having said that, investing time in finding the right people – that is the key. It all boils down to who you invest your time in, and that decides the trajectory of your path forward. First and foremost, the acceptance that ‘we’re all in the same boat’ being wrong - because, we’re not in the same boat. Are we hit by the same storm? Yes. But some have yachts, some boats, some are great swimmers but a majority is drowning. As an innovator and tech entrepreneur, our efforts she reckons have to be more humancentric — where we are working towards a more inward-outward approach, instead of answering arbitrary questions, using data to find the right questions to answer which will invariably lead you to innovate with purpose, and consciously Creating Kinder Content.
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| Cover Story
Additionally, we don’t all need to turn our businesses online - 90% of the people are hapless at this juncture. Therefore, all the more pressing need to address yesterday, sustainability and the way forward — as an academic and service provider, more importantly as a citizen to the internet. She takes saying NO as a huge responsibility (which is new in her career) to businesses that haven’t figured their path out yet, keeping in mind internet mapping; that’s the whole point of distributed networks. She as has the globe lately learned that the more we use the Internet, the more glitches we experience. Mallika warns us, critical parts of the Internet still require a human touch. Some cables that need replacing or servers that need fixing, tasks that only human engineers can deliver. Often, as supply chains break down, cable companies are finding it hard to replace hardware or get hands-on equipment. India isn’t a major producer of optical fibre and other essential hardware, such as semiconductors, etc. An interruption in supply could mean that plans to install new broadband connections in rural parts of the world are put on hold. That could be bad for people in poorer regions who now find themselves cut off more than most. We have got to be more mindful, less egocentric and push forward.
| Business Story
AJAITA SHAH
Empowering women entrepreneurship in Rural India through Frontier Market
F
rontier Market was started by Ajaita Shah in the year 2011 for providing rural India with products such as solar torches and lanterns of various brands from last-mile distribution points. The organization then partnered with rural shopkeepers who could sell these products to rural customers. As time passed, customers started asking Frontier Markets for products beyond clean energy. So, the organization began expanding its portfolio to include digital services and other consumer durables. In 2015, the company adopted its gender module which is women-centric making it India’s largest women-led commerce platform driving a bottom’s lens for product innovation. At Frontier Markets, we’re building the future of rural India, today—giving rural customers the dignity and opportunities they deserve to create better lives. Growing at 200% YoY and demonstrating profitability for the last 4 years. Today we operate in 2,000 villages in India, with 20 micro-distribution hubs managing 10,000 Sahelis using our app called 16 Jan 2021
the Meri Saheli App, to facilitate access to products and services in Agri, digital inclusion, home appliances, clean energy solutions, since covid, essential services, and finance to over 350,000 households However, there were many barriers in 2005 for social enterprises. The social enterprise start-up space was dominated by male leaders who were in their 40s and came from successful careers in large firms like McKinsey and Citibank. Ajaita didn’t fit this profile. She was in her 20s and investing her own money into her belief that improving market access would allow rural households to acquire the products and services they need. She repeatedly needed to justify that risk to her family and society. In addition to social barriers, the lack of capital, network, and innovation prevented social enterprises from scaling up. Her solution was to establish the Frontier Innovations Foundation 2012, which connects entrepreneurs who are trying to solve the
challenge of last-mile distribution to a support network, donor capital, and development institutions. Ajaita incorporated an understanding of gender, innovations in financial services, and customer-centric product design to disrupt the existing system at the deepest level. Ajaita understands the challenges social entrepreneurs face because she experienced them herself, so she was instrumental in helping incubators like Villgro and Shell Powered understand barriers and develop solutions for young entrepreneurs. Now, at age 35, she is the CEO of a company with 15 years of experience, but she is a rare case. Ajaita imagines a world where young entrepreneurs’ achievements can match and surpass hers because they have a supportive and inclusive ecosystem from the start. The Journey Since the implementation of the gender module which is womencentric in 2015, there has been no
Ajaita Shah | Founder & CEO | Frontier Markets
looking back for the company. The company has seen immense growth and contributed towards generating employment in villages. Companies invested in women entrepreneurs to become service providers in their village. In 2018, leveraging digitization of rural India, ie: internet connectivity, the company had its next major growth by introducing its App – the Meri Saheli App – an app designed for those women – enabling them to become assisted commerce enterprises, or digital shops. Leveraging technology enhances the company’s ability to widen its product portfolio, boost its network of entrepreneurs, increase its customer base, and have solid Revenues. Growing at 200% YoY and
demonstrating profitability for the last 4 years. Integrating New Services in Agriculture and Finance for deepening impact on Rural Households. Differentiating us for our deep rural connect, strong gender lens, and strong financial systems.
Ajaita has committed to empowering rural women across the developing world through market-based business models, clean energy, technology, and inspiring women to push themselves beyond their societal boundaries.
The pillars of success Frontier Markets is a very strong leadership team led by Ajaita. Each person on the team comes from decades of experience working in rural India with over 100 years of experience in microfinance, rural marketing, rural distribution, telecom, and finance. Ajaita’s learning was that she would need a team of experienced people in rural India to truly be able to say everyone knows the pulse of the rural customer, where they come from, and how to serve them.
She has been a leader in driving socially conscious business models through partnerships and pushing “bottom’s up to leadership,” keeping the rural consumer in mind. After 7 years of success, and challenges, Ajaita started Frontier Markets as a need to build a new model for energy access, focusing on women entrepreneurs, market insights, after-sales service, and scale. She has an inspiring journey of risk-taking and respect for the knowledge and skills innately existent within poor communities.
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In her leadership at Frontier Markets, Ajaita has helped Frontier Markets be recognized on a global platform through awards like the Ashden Award 2015, Most Innovative Rural Marketing Enterprise 2015, National Geographic's Energy Challenge Winner 2013, Hogan Lovells Solar Community Award 2017, UN Seed Award Winner 2014, and more. An advocate for women-led, transformational leadership and rethinking how market-based approaches and social innovation organizations can better design for scalable impact, she has recently crafted a groundbreaking partnership between Frontier Markets and the award-winning, Barefoot College, to exemplify this vision. 18 Jan 2021
Their Offerings Frontier Markets is connecting India’s rural customers to products and services at their doorstep. They are solving the rural last-mile access gap through an assisted e-commerce platform which is run by rural women to market, sell, and service physical appliances, essential goods, and digital services in banking and finance. The company partners with product and service companies to aggregate a robust but targeted product basket of solutions consumer durables, financial services, and digital services targeting productivity, financial security, and aspirational impacts for rural customers. We have become a strong B2C access partner for their production
companies as the linkage to rural customers. Through our digital platform, they aggregate key customer and Saheli metrics to drive better customer KYC for partners, as well as insights to update our product basket, establishing strong cross-sell, upsell, and re-sell capabilities. Its after-sales service and fasttracking delivery, 48 hours delivery, and easy tracking make it different from those in the market. Looking Ahead In the next 5 years, Frontier Markets is planning to accelerate its network into new states, and further invest its technology platform with new product integration, digital marketing tools,
much like, well, Google. Frontier Markets’ team says, “Imagine how their influence in the value chain and access to data can be leveraged by brands – monetizing on insights at a much larger scale – ie: HUL - We know what HUL is trying to figure out – why does Ghadi detergent sell more than RIN? We know it’s not pricing – it’s availability – and it’s the changing trend of rural women wanting washing machines – this is oil. But also - We can see the opportunity to have brands competing for this customer When a customer comes to Saheli and says she wants to buy a fan, that information is critical for brands, and the power we see is that our platform will tell the customer which fan to buy.” – bidding for this customer – making them a marketing platform with real results of a business.
and AI bots for patterns development so that it can reach millions of more customers across India. At Frontier Markets, they’re building the future of rural India, today—giving rural customers the dignity and opportunities they deserve to create better lives. The company’s network of women and technology enables them to introduce, test, and scale new products, and innovative financial services to strengthen the future of rural Indian households. There’s a much larger opportunity here – they’ve essentially created a platform that allows monetizing customer behavior and purchase –
Frontier Markets is Ready to Scale. There is a high demand to drive income opportunities for women and deliver quality services to rural communities. They have partnerships aligned with womenrun organizations across 7 states of India. They are raising $6MN to scale from 10,000 Sahelis to 130,000 to reach 42 Million families in the next 3 years. Ajaita Shah - A 360-degree visionary leader FM’s founder & CEO, Ajaita Shah, has 12 years of work in microfinance and clean energy distribution. She has been a Clinton Service Corp, Echoing Green, and Cordes Fellow and has been awarded many accolades including Forbes, Business Week, CNBC, and Microfinance’s 30 under 30
Social Entrepreneur and Women Entrepreneur of the Year. Ajaita grew up surrounded by the love of my family and her Jain Marwari religious community in New York City, she holds her B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University. She is currently based in Jaipur where the company is based. Both Frontier Markets (FM), as an organization, and Ajaita Shah, as a leader, have been rewarded and recognized for the approach and impact created. Specifically, FM has achieved: • 2019 CNBC-AWAAZ Rajasthan Ratna Awards - Best Social Impact Start-up2019 Top 35 Under 35 Entrepreneur.Com Award • 2018 Sankalp Awards Winner • 2018 WTI (Women Transforming India) Award Winner (by Niti Aayog - Indian Govt.)2018 Digital Women Award Winner • 2018 I-Start Rajasthan Gold Rated Start-Up • 2017 Logan Havell Solar Community Leadership Award2017 Global Enterprise Summit Catalyst: Winner • 2016 Ashden Award Winner for Clean Energy for Women and Girls2016 CNBC-TV18 Young Business Women • 2015 L’Oreal Women of Worth • 2015 Innovative Marketing: World Congress • 2015 India Conclave Women Social Entrepreneur of the Year2015 Nasscom Social Innovation Awards: ICT and Solar Winner • 2015 Forbes Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 Business Week’s 30 under 30 award • 2014 Present Associate for the International Finance Corporation
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| Business Story
“Lighting Asia” Initiative2014 UN Seed Awards Winner • 2013 Most Innovative Model in Rural Marketing”, World Branding Congress 2012 National Geographic Innovative Energy Challenge Winner An advocate for women-led, transformational leadership and rethinking how market-based approaches and social innovation organizations can better design for scalable impact, she has recently crafted a groundbreaking partnership between Frontier Markets and the award-winning, Barefoot College, to exemplify this vision. She actively speaks at conferences for the US Green Business Council, Universities, Impact Investor Forums, United Nations representing SDGs, and more. She has been an active educator, collaborator, and catalyst in helping scale clean energy access globally. Ajaita serves on the board of Frontier Innovations Foundation, a non-profit focused on last-mile distribution support for clean energy companies. She is also an advisor to various social enterprises in India focusing on product development for the poor. She is an active member of the UN Practitioner’s Network, Asian Development Bank’s Energy For All Partnership. Ajaita Shah holds her B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.
global summits set up by the International Finance Corporation, World Bank, United Nations, and investment communities to provide an entrepreneurial perspective to address SDGs 5 and 7, to reframe thinking about the next level of evolution regarding gender and energy access. She is a board member for the Shine Campaign, a global initiative for energy access that brings together faith-based organizations and philanthropic capital and she is a long-term advisor of the Ashden India Collective and has designed initiatives for the People-Centered Accelerator (SE4ALL), which advances social equality and women’s involvement in the sustainable energy sector. How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique? We recruit locally – 80% of our team is from nearby villages that we operate in. We recruit with a gender-inclusive lens – wanting to give opportunities to young women and driving leadership of empathy from within. 100% of our salesforce are women. At Frontier Markets, Saral Jeevan Sahelis is paid commission on sales and service fees for undertaking repairs. They are also paid a fixed stipend for marketing as well as collecting customer data.
“Investing in Women is smart business and key to poverty alleviation at scale”
“We also provide them with demo units of high-impact products, and access to smartphones, internet, and our assisted e-commerce platform.”
She has also shared her knowledge and experience with youth, organizations, and forums for over a decade. She speaks frequently at
Frontier Markets further supports Saral Jeevan Sahelis through its locally-invested supply chain infrastructure, which includes
20 Jan 2021
branch offices and local field staff. The branch offices handle inventory management, sales management, a direct-to-consumer call center, and after-sales services. The field staff takes care of brand development, marketing campaigns, mentoring and training of Saral Jeevan Sahelis, and delivery of orders. Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight? My favorite quote from our Saheli “Before Frontier Markets, people knew me as my husband’s wife, father’s daughter, and now they know me as me. I have been seen for my work, and skills, and my power.” According to you, what are the main factors that businesses should focus on to be relevant in the market after the Covid19 outbreak? In response to COVID, Investing in AI Enabled Direct to Consumer Digital Marketing, Training Bots, and Fintech Integration. This a massive opportunity - A new way of developing a rural economy – through digital inclusion in supply chains, leveraging data capabilities for better decision making, innovative partnerships, and a market-based approach to elevate the potential to build rural last-mile supply chains in India Which is the most inspiring quote you have read? Women are leaders everywhere you look -- from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes: Nancy Pelosi
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Local account and risk operation support as well as 24x7 technical support in 15+ countries and regions.
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PRIYA MARWAH A visionary leader in hiring space TYCHEJOBS
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riya Marwah, Founder and Managing Director at TYCHEJOBS is a seasoned 'C' level executive search consultant. Her career spans over two decades where she has worked on complex assignments across domains and geographies. Over the years, Priya has accomplished more than 100 successful leadership searches.
Economics and Psychology and a Post Graduation in Business Management. She is a strong networker and a keen blogger.
Before starting on her own, Priya was a Partner with Stanton Chase International heading the Consumer Product and Services vertical in India and an APAC Lead for Pharma. Stanton Chase International is a global search firm operating from 44 countries with 86 branches worldwide. She has strong domain expertise in Consumer products & Services. She has two decades of experience in handling confidential and leadership assignments across functions.
It has been a tremendous experience to be on your own and it is a true test of your ability and capability. We have come a long way from an unknown brand in an overcrowded space but managed to create a niche space in leadership space in a short span of 5-6 years. Tyche Jobs Executive Search Consultants is today working towards creating a niche in the leadership hiring space and we have done some really big searches at CXO levels in the last few years and we are continuously striving to better ourselves each year.
Priya has done her Graduation in 22 Jan 2021
In this interview, she shared her journey till now and what is TYCHEJOBS is all about. • Brief us about your journey till now.
• What were the initial challenges you faced? Initial challenges have been to create your space in an unorganized sector with many searches, as well as recruitment firms. Getting into unknown industry verticals and creating your own space and of course, finding the right manpower. • Which was that point that triggered the growth of your Company? Commitment to 100% delivery model and growth in the economy, which of course has the highest effect on hiring. • How have the company’s graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics? We grew by almost 80% in our second year and since then we have grown at almost 50% YOY. Of course with slow growth at Covid
Priya Marwah, Founder & MD
www.theenterpriseworld.com 23
| In a Talk with...
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING. times, but things are looking up again. • What is the reason behind companies long-standing success? Commitment on time frame closures at competitive rates and great service quality to our clients • What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market? We focus on leadership hiring and while we work a lot in the consumer product and services domain. Our real estate and Education sector has also done well. Last few years we have also focussed on global searches which have done well even in Covid times. Our sector knowledge is deep and we closely track people movements and hands-on knowledge of the availability of Talent Pool • How do you decide to take Tyche Jobs a step further in terms of your products/services? By increasing our reach to clients globally, by many more sectors which we have not focussed right now and by building a stronger delivery team. • Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?
24 Jan 2021
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Yes we have plans to do a Global Tie-up with a search firm soon and perhaps also venture into a tech platform • Can you please brief us about your professional experience? Close to two and a half-decade of experience in Executive Search and placing leaders in many sectors. Building companies from scratch and building organizations by hiring the right talent in the shortest possible time • What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey? Fastest growing boutique search firm. Record 150 leadership roles in last few years • How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique? Giving them space to grow and focus on a 100% delivery model. We are a processed-driven organization and we closely work on data and databases. • Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight? The clients have been very supportive despite being a start-up. There have been key accounts that have been with us for years. We give them every possible service level at all times and we are very strong on our commitment to
delivery within the time frame. Clients have come back to us because our sector knowledge is immense and we have gone out to help our clients in times of urgency and need on mandates. • According to you, what are the main factors that businesses should focus on to be relevant in the market after the Covid19 outbreak? 1) 100% Delivery 2) Value-added services like mapping, outplacement, etc 3) Focussing on client need rather than your own need for a closure 4) Building new clients in India and Globally 5) Hand Holding you candidates even post their joining 6) Always keep a backup plan B ready • According to you, what needs to be done to promote women entrepreneurship across the country? 1) Tax rebates 2) Easy Capital loans • It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that? By not becoming the rat, focussing on what you are good at, and becoming a master of that. The rat race will never end. Smartness is not to try everything but focus on what you are best at and become excellent at that.
ENABLING TRUST IN A DIGITAL WORLD
| The Electric Future
Electric vehicl The Future T
he world of automobiles is progressing fast and the possibilities it unfolds are equally unique and exciting. The fans and motorheads are always looking towards the next model of cars, the nest design, the next leap or the next revolution, etc. and the good news is that the wait is finally over. In comes the era of electric vehicles. The name might not sound that interesting and you all must have a ton of questions already but that does not keep the fact away that electric vehicles are rolling out already and changing
26 Jan 2021
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the face of the Automobile industry as a whole and bringing a revolution that will not only bring innovations and possibilities but also thrill and excitement that motor enthusiasts are always looking for. Electric vehicles are changing the way one looks at cars and also the face of motor vehicles, making the Automobile industry leap into the future. Electric power or Horsepower? The most asked question regarding electric vehicles is the efficiency, the safety and most important of all whether it will be able to deliver the same or better performance and engagement as the petrol or diesel-run engines provide. Electric vehicles are not efficient as they use batteries which provide a good range, making them more efficient than regular engines but also the maintenance is cheaper as batteries need to be replaced after few years which also costs cheaper than maintaining regular cars which require time to time service and other maintenance costs involved. Electric vehicles also perform better as compared to regular cars as electric cars have better torque and power output and that too in a linear fashion which not only replicates a much better performance but also is packed with a host of features which keeps the drivers engaged and tension-free, such as park assist, self-driving feature, lane assist, etc. Electric vehicles are being promoted by the governments of many countries due to their impact on the environment which is far less than the pollution emitted by regular cars, also electric cars produce less to no sound which affects the noise pollution and brings down the level of pollutants in the respective cities, etc. Also, the price of electric vehicles is competitively placed with the regular cars to attract more customers also there are subsidies provided on electric vehicles by many governments across the world due to their added social benefits, etc. Thus, electric vehicles are shaping the future of the Automobile industry and their success throughout the world is encouraging more push towards electric-run vehicles and also using its applications in producing other transport vehicles such as busses, trucks, heavy machinery, etc. to shift to a more efficient and much powerful electric engine. Full charge or surcharge? The dawn of electric vehicles has started and the results so far look promising and also delivering more than the calculated social benefits. Electric vehicles have received a lot of views from both the positive and the negative sides. Electric vehicles are a lot more efficient and better performance than regular engines but it cannot be commented that regular engines have their advantages too. In the developing countries, the lack of charging stations, etc. is an important factor for these electric vehicles to run and sustain and thus, it becomes a greater challenge for the countries and their governments to look out for the same and install or make plans to achieve this goal. The future of the Automobile industry looks promising and exciting but will the electric vehicles lead the flag of this vast and important industry is the answer everyone is looking forward to unveiling.
“You have to have a better car. It’s not just the ideological decision of buying an EV. It’s about buying a better car.” – Daniel Kirchert www.theenterpriseworld.com 27
| Business Story
Bhawna Khanna Adding new dimensions to the architectural and interior designing sector
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ifficult journeys often lead to beautiful destinations. And having one such trajectory of life, Bhawna Khanna, from being a dreamer to a market leader in the architecture and interior designing field, is one such inspirational example for many budding designers out there. Since her school days, Bhawna was highly fascinated with the beauty of tall standing buildings and beautiful structures. That’s exactly the time when an innovative, out-of-the-box thinker rose in the landscape of architecture. However, before a happy ending, there is always a plot-twist that makes the story even more interesting. While she was pursuing her Bachelor’s in Architecture, the
Bhawna Khanna Founding Director Studio Astrid
28 Jan 2021
recession hit the world and made things pretty difficult for the freshers to get a job. But what makes you weak also makes you stronger. Many obstacles tried to put her down but she bounced back higher every time. After her graduation, Bhawna got a job in an architecture firm but that was not the last stop for her indeed. One day, while coming back home from work, Bhawna thought that something was missing in her career; there was a lot that she hadn’t explored yet. “Am I just meant to draft designs and follow the same old patterns for every project?” she asked herself and the answer was “No”. After tossing all night on her bed, a new morning came with a new goal for her - to start her designing studio, where she can experiment with designs and spaces. Even for her family, it was hard to believe in her as for a newly graduated architecture student with no contacts in the field it would have been difficult to get business. A place called home is a dream for many, and Bhawna believes that it is every person’s right to make a dream place that speaks for them and gives them peace and happiness. And, to transform those dreams into reality, the Architect incepted Studio Astrid in Delhi that offers the most unique architectural and interior designing consultation. With over 6 years of expertise in the field, Studio Astrid amalgamates their practical approach to manage space and the big dream lists of its clients to make their dreams come true.
Instead of doing a baby shower for women, we should focus on a business shower, where we have these informal meets to get our friends started with networking and marketing their start-ups.
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In 2016, she just started with a bookshelf, did many furniture assignments in 2017, word of mouth led her company to interior consultation and turnkey projects in 2018, followed by architectural and set designing projects in 2019 to date. In 2018, her first interior project also got featured in a lifestyle magazine and was awarded in 2018.
Cutting through the complexities To chisel a beautiful statue, you first need to hit the rock, which is what counts! Similarly, when starting a venture, you face challenges, which is the seed you sow for the success of your organization.
We believe that everyone faces challenges on their way to dreams, but tackling them with innovation and efficiency sails your boat!
Getting into the field where there are no prior connections to establish a network is a tough task. Bhawna also faced many challenges in her early days with which she tackled well and became what she is today, a dynamic woman business leader! She says, “Being a young woman entrepreneur, it is challenging to leave your mark in society. Initial challenges were getting leads via different platforms, coordination with labor, vendors, and clients, and synchronizing everyone on the same point.”
Founding Director of Studio Astrid says, “Every assignment is vital and we carry it with utmost dedication and sincerity, from installing a small book-shelf to a space crafted to perfection.” What Studio Astrid Offers?
Studio Astrid’s quirky and fresh solutions are cognitively ahead, more experimental, and polished than any other service provider in the space. Studio Astrid’s designing experience is eccentric and proactively delivers the highest level of joy to the clients. Team Astrid provides a comprehensive plethora of services
www.theenterpriseworld.com 29
| Business Story
that include Architecture and Interior Design consultation, Vastu Consultation, Set Designing, Furniture Designing, and Turnkey solutions. Studio Astrid also offers painting and wall arts to add the story to your walls. What makes Astrid different is their belief- “Anything but Ordinary”. Each space is unique and important for them and it is catered with utmost dedication and sincerity. Bhawna says, “No matter how much we do, we always find it less. The driving force of perfection takes us forward. We now do turnkey projects and everything, from structure to linen, is executed with our team of expertise.” Studio Astrid is planning to launch customized theme-based cutleries and crockery’s for their projectbased clients. Over the years, they have always seen clients finding it difficult to pick interior-based products in the existing market, so the studio has decided to customize different products for them. Bhawna Khanna - An Experienced Creative Director Bhawna brings to the table + 6 years of extensive Architectural experience across the Residential and Commercial sector that has equipped her well with strong Project and Design Management skills. She is an experienced Creative Director with a demonstrated history of working in the design industry. Having strong deposition to challenge the status quo to make things work more effectively and 30 Jan 2021
Success isn’t overnight. It’s when every day you get a little better than the day before. It all adds up. ~ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson efficiently. Bhawna has a bag full of achievements collected in her career throughout. In 2018, Bhawna was awarded the title of the young entrepreneur of the year by Spark Excellence awards. In 2019, her project got featured in Fashion Wave magazine. In 2021, her story got featured in Storyofsouls.com, In 2021, her article got featured in Delhi Magazine and is still counting. “In the post-Covid-19 situation, working with utmost quality and dedication in your work will lead you to survive and accelerate your growth,” Bhawna shares. The work culture at Studio Astrid and their client’s experience At Studio Astrid, they believe teamwork leads to dream work. In the studio, they all are like a family; they accept and respect each other’s viewpoints and perspectives. Team Astrid’s trust and dedication towards each other
make them strong and unique. Team Astrid doesn’t believe in the rat race. They believe in improving work each day by learning from their success and failures. Their services and standards differentiate them from the competition in the market, making them a leader, commanding the Architectural and Interior Design sector with their expertise and extensive knowledge. Bhawna and her Studio Astrid are highlyrespected among their highlysatisfied clients and their competition. Studio Astrid has uncountable and different experiences with each client. To highlight the one, it’s their very first client, for whom they designed a bookshelf. “Keep up this dedication and work and you have a way to go”, this word from their very first client inspired the studio to design unique things and innovate.
INNOVATION, BEYOND IMAGINATION
We focus to provide solutions that offer a unique user experience and a unique way of using the different videoconferencing and meeting applications while maximizing interaction and collaboration.
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RADHIKA NIHALANI A dynamic leader in the field of PR Think Ink Communications & Think Talkies
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hink Ink Communications is a young and dynamic PR firm with media, entertainment, and lifestyle as its domain expertise. Their approach is to present thoughts that are fresh & unique, that build credibility, acquire trust and retain the market position of its clientele. In a short span of fewer than four years, they have partnered with over 40 brands. The company’s key clientele includes ALT Balaji, Saavn, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Star India's Hindi Movie Cluster (Star Gold, Star GoldHD, Movies OK), Ronnie Screwvala (founder of the erstwhile UTV Group), Neerja Birla, Terence Lewis, Culture Machine (South East Asia’s leading digital content company), One Digital Entertainment, Indus Vox Media, Spectra VR amongst a host of others Co-founded by Radhika & Chirag Nihalani, Think Ink Communications devises and executes communication strategies that create visibility campaigns that deliver value and produce results. 32 Jan 2021
Think Ink Communications’ deep understanding of the media gives it an edge to advise on ideas that will work best with the press and get its clients maximum visibility. In a talk with Radhika Nihalani, we discussed the current industry scenario and how Think Ink is transforming the sector. • Brief us about your journey till now. Born and brought up in Delhi, I moved to Bombay to find myself a career in public relations. I started in the Corporate Communications team at Blue Dart. While the job taught me so much and in hindsight, I couldn’t have asked for a better training ground, I was inclined towards the madness that comes with entertainment ... I switched gears and joined Wizcraft to be a part of the PR team for IIFA and the Unforgettable World Tour. From then, I was hooked to entertainment PR and there was no
looking back! I worked at various places before I took the big leap to start my entrepreneurial journey with Think Ink • What were the initial challenges you faced? The initial challenge we faced as a company at Think Ink was fighting the grey hair syndrome. Every time we went for a pitch, there was a silence in the room when they realized that the company was headed by a young woman! We are now seven years into the business, I am not so young anymore .. we still do feel it sometimes .. but we don’t let it come in our way. We believe being young and dynamic is our USP and we wear it with pride. • Which was that point that triggered the growth of your company? Like I said; initially, some big brands were worried about trusting
Radhika Nihalani Founder & CEO
www.theenterpriseworld.com 33
| In a Talk with...
FAILURE IS A COMMA, NOT A FULL STOP. their PR with a young team like Think Ink. At this time three brands showed faith in us - Reliance, Star Gold, and Zindagi Channel..that was an important turning point for us. With such illustrious names in our roster early on, our confidence grew manifold and we knew we were on the right track. • What is the reason behind the company’s long-standing success? Ideate and innovate have been at the core of everything we do, since the start. I wish to believe they have held us in good stead. Being in the service industry, we have set high standards for ourselves and we work towards achieving them constantly. • What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market? We provide media relations and positioning strategies to the clients we work with. Our key differentiators would be able our ability to come up with ideas that not just garner visibility but help build long-term brand value and our commitment to service excellence. 34 Jan 2021
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• How do you decide to take Think Ink Communications a step further in terms of your products/services?
main factors that businesses should focus on to be relevant in the market after the Covid19 outbreak?
The effort is to keep upping the benchmarks set for ourselves consistently delivering value.
Innovate, innovate and innovate. Never stop finding opportunities they exist everywhere.
• What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
• According to you, what needs to be done to promote woman entrepreneurship across the country?
I would say the key achievement has been to build a culture in the company that lets people thrive..one that’s open to mistakes and learnings, one that allows growth. • How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique? I think the culture of a company is very important and since its inception, we have paid a lot of attention to it. Culture is not about organizing fancy dinners or offsites - it’s about the love and attention that goes into every detail of your employee engagement. An employee must feel that the company is as much his / her as it is the owners..and if you think of it, that is the case. It’s the people that make the place. • According to you, what are the
I don’t think one should categorize or promote entrepreneurship basis gender. We should promote entrepreneurship for all, and in my opinion, one of the better ways to do it is to speak freely and openly about failure. We fear failing way too much which massively impacts our risk-taking capabilities. The more we talk about failure, the more accepting we will be of it, the more we will be willing to take risks. Entrepreneurship is a journey full of ups and downs and one mustn’t be afraid to fall. • It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that? Set yourself a different path!
www.royaleneld.com
| Strive to grow
Habits of Millionaires T he word millionaires sound thrilling, exciting and one that everyone wants to be called but the efforts, hard work, dedication and much more qualities that one needs to instil in their selves along with the many sacrifices one needs to make is what makes one a millionaire. The common thing people often neglect or fail to see among all the millionaires is success, as every millionaire is successful no matter their career field or industry, they work in. The life of millionaires sounds lucrative and everyone desires it but one if aiming for the same needs to know and learn the qualities and habits that make one a millionaire. A millionaire is not judged by the amount of money, houses or cars they have but their success and most important of all their impact and contribution on and to the world as a whole.
personality, it’s the actions and most importantly it’s the habits that defines and makes one a millionaire. Millionaires dare to take risks and know what they are stepping into with complete knowledge and are ready to face any repercussion and if you put in the adequate hard-work and dedication, the sky was never the limit. Habits are what makes and forms a person and one should always make sure their habits are in line with their interests and the person that they wish to be. Millionaires are readers and always ready to learn and are not afraid to ask what they do not know as no one is all-knowing and they have no shame in accepting they don’t know. Millionaires never forget to exercise and always eat healthy because they know the importance of good health and its impact on their professional and personal life.
It’s not about the DNA but you.
Millionaires hang out with other successful people because it is a true success is contagious and they volunteer to surround themselves with good people plus you never know where you can find an idea for a new venture. Millionaires are
always positive and spread positivity and are forthcoming when it comes to mentoring and helping others. They believe in setting their dreams and pursuing their own goals which are set by them for them and not for anyone else but them. Millionaires are always up with their etiquettes and are always found helping others succeed. Millionaires are the ones who break away from the heard, they give and make time for their selves, to think, to read, but that time is their sabbatical with themself. Millionaires always keep in touch with their mentors and are never afraid to ask for help. Millionaires never give p and most importantly they are always seeking feedback because they believe in positive constructivism and enhancing themselves every single day.
Money comes and goes! Millionaires are not born and we all have heard the stories from rags to riches, yes luck does play a part in the success but as mentioned it just plays a tiny little part. It’s the 36 Jan 2021
Millionaires do enjoy the status, fame and name but one should never forget that they worked hard for it and are doing it much more now to keep it that way. They sleep on time and for a good 7 hrs. and
wake up early with a clear and focused mind. One can learn these habits, they sound easy but everything comes with a price, with a sacrifice, and if one wants to stand on the same stage, in the same hall of fame, then the choice
has to be made. It’s what people do, their actions and the choices they make, define them and their life. One always knows what it takes to be successful, how to become the best version of yourself and be the person you always
wanted to be. In the end, the question remains the same and always will be, do you have what it takes to make those choices and sacrifice?
Rich people believe “I create my life.” Poor people believe “Life happens to me.” – T. Harv Eker
www.theenterpriseworld.com 37
| Business Story
MS. GAYATHRI SWAHAR A foodie marketing leader behind the success of YCook!
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n this digital era, everyone is running in the race to achieve desired. This race has fastened our day to day life; many times we even skip food. In this fast-paced digital era, it has become strenuous to get healthy food at right time. But, what if we say you can get fresh, tasty and healthy food within few minutes? Amazed? YCook’s range of steamed food products never fails to amaze everyone with its out of this world taste, and freshness. Nature has the cure for everything. And so, YCook is committed to delivering truly good food, just the way nature intended.
India is one of the most natural food producer nations in the globe. Our economy revolves around agriculture and so in the boosted digital economy we are struggling and striving hard to get farmers involved in the cycle and contribute to the national economy.
making hard and smart efforts to provide the right food to consumers and empower farmers with technological innovations. Ms. Gayathri Swahar, Brand Custodian at YCook is the backbone behind the company’s long-standing success. Her smart efforts have helped YCook to mark a place in the global food landscape. Gayathri, a humble marketing professional is transmogrifying the sector with her expertise and passion. The Company YCook’s journey started with a simple vision of “Good food for all” and with a continuous obsession with “good food” has helped them to be the pioneers of the steamed snack space, a new category in the food space. YCook’s technology allows to naturally steam whole grains, without the need for any preservatives or additives creating a shelf life of 1 year without the need for refrigeration.
The company started its journey with the Technopreneur grant from the Government of India and this allowed them to understand in detail the process of thermal sterilization and also all the latest advancements in Packaging. They started retailing products in the market in 2012. They also realized when working with natural products such as Ycook’s, consistency is of paramount importance. Since they have not altered the natural product in any way, say for example not making flaking it, pounding it, the quality of input = quality of output. This led them to focus on creating a strong backward integration with the supply chain. All, that they pack for their consumers are exclusively grown in partnership with farmers. All of their farmers are trained and comply with Global GAP (good agricultural practices) ensuring that their product is free from any pesticide residues. The company is now a BRC, HACCP, FSSC22000 certified along with Halal, Organic, and Kosher certifications, they are also USFDA registered.
Ycook is revolutionizing the farm and food sector with pioneering in steamed snacks products. A woman In essence, YCook’s products are with an innovative vision and passion IT’S STEAMED - Not fried, not baked, just steaming goodness. to do something that ON-THE-GO – No refrigera on required NO NASTIES – When god made it so perfect makes a difference, why add anything? Ms. Gayathri UNIQUE AND DIFFERENTIATED RETORT BEAT SEASONALITY – Year long availability Swahar and her PROCESSING different fresh consistency of seasonal vegetable team of driven by HEALTHY, CUSTOMISABLE CONSISTENCY – Grain a er grain, pack passion a er pack CONVENIENCE – One ingredient, many dishes professionals are 38 Jan 2021
Ycook’s products are currently available in 26 cities in India and 9 countries across the globe. They have the same quality standards maintained for both
www.theenterpriseworld.com 39
Gayathri Swahar | Brand Custodian | YCook
| Business Story
domestic and international markets. YCook’s ‘Tadaa’ range of steamed products is now addressing the needs across the chain of consumption. • For the consumer on the go YCook offers a snack range that is not fried, not baked, just naturally steamed without any preservatives or additives. A snack that is convenient to carry on the go, because it is storable under ambient conditions and does not require any refrigeration. YCook’s range of steamed snacks is also naturally gluten-free, low GI, high fiber, and in many cases rich in protein. The current range includes Steamed Sweet corn on the cob, Sweet corn kernels which come with 4 optional flavorings, steamed chickpeas, steamed peanuts with flavoring options. • For the consumers in the kitchen Today’s range of steamed ingredients offers consumers the ultimate cooking convenience without any compromise of health, taste, or pride (of cooking). • For the retailers The ambient storage with a oneyear shelf life becomes easy to store and retail • For the farmers Everything that is packed for consumers is grown exclusively for YCook in partnership with their farmers and hence they offer traceability to consumers as well. Their farmers are also trained and comply with the Global GAP ensuring the product is pesticide residue-free. The farmers have a full marketplace for their products 40 Jan 2021
along with assured buyback at prefixed prices. The Germination A business, in whatever sectors it may be needs to face some initial challenges that make it ready for the future. YCook also had some obstacles in their path of growth with which they dealt very well and created a unique place in the market. By the time they finished the project with the Technopreneur grant they were ready with recipes for more than 30 products, their initial challenge was to prioritize that to do a phased launch. The company took the route of working with multichain modern trade one chain by a chain instead of a city by city approach. That gave them good momentum. The time they cracked the transparent pouches with consistency in quality, they were picked immediately by modern trade stores and consumers started picking the products and growth was more organic. The company’s first investors, Omnivore partners, had given them the much-needed push not only in terms of investment, but also in terms of encouragement to push their presence into the international market with all stringent quality norms and certification, and helped them stay grounded and create a socially responsible organization. Ycook – Creating healthy paths for national growth There was a latent consumer need for truly healthy and on-the-go
snack/ingredient, Tadaa’s range of products addressed that gap. Their continuous R&D on bettering their products has also helped YCook to be one of the leading food brands.
YCook’s Plethora of mouthwatering steamed snack products Team YCook feels very happy to be the pioneers of the steamed snack revolution in India. It is a revolution in the snack space with their Steamed Snack range. YCook’s all products are: • Fully Natural – The company has chosen to work with full grains like peanuts, chickpeas, etc wherein all of nature’s goodness is intact • Naturally steamed – Their technology allows us to steam the products and make them free of any microbes and hence have the much needed nutritious and wholesome snack. • No preservatives needed – All of Ycook’s products are just natural, with no nasties what so ever. • State of the art technology – Company’s differentiated retort process allows them to steam and pack without the need for any preservatives. • Convenience and on-the-go – Ambient storage product. You can now carry a pack of steamed peanuts and enjoy the nourishment anytime you need. YCook has just launched the
steamed sprouts filled with natural goodness and loads of phytonutrients and antioxidants. They have started exporting steamed jackfruit for certain countries, a superfood known for its anti-diabetic effects; also they would be launching an entire array of steamed ingredients for the kitchen convenience. Now your nourishing home-made meal is only a pan and a couple of minutes away. Gayathri Swahar - A leader, powered with a passion for innovation Gayathri is an observant marketing professional very grounded in consumer needs. She is the passionate architect of the brand and is a lover of the company and its products. In the spare time, she loves cooking and is an avid foodie herself. To her, cooking is love made visible. Before her entrepreneurial journey, she worked in the area of consumer behavior, guiding companies to build brands in her various leadership roles at Nielsen, including leading the Consumer Neuroscience practice of Nielsen in India. Even in the corporate roles, she was lucky to have been exposed to many intrapreneurial roles and also have the opportunity to create a patentable product. She says, “I believe that businesses and their leaders should focus on staying positive and motivated. Situations around can be disheartening, there can come times when you feel you are in a sinking ship, but when the going gets tough, only the Tough can get going.
Next is to keep abreast with the pulse of the consumer, consumers are rethinking their habits in terms of food, in terms of their basket (what to buy), in terms of their mindsets, etc. It is important to have your products in sync with the current needs.” The healthy work environment at YCook The “good food for all” vision runs through the organization. In every way, each employee helps them to realize that vision. Every YCook member is encouraged to create their own “Tadaa” Moments; one small betterment every day across the organization is what makes YCook unique. Gayathri’s Take on woman entrepreneurship Confidence along with awareness of the opportunities open to girls/women needs to be instilled young, starting with the school curriculum and making way up to college. In most cases, the social cost thrust on women becoming an ‘entrepreneur’ restricts them and forces them to stay a ‘wantapreneur’. Strongly believe that there is a need to rethink our school curriculum in the direction. She says the following trio helped her lot to be a successful entrepreneur
• Ending each day recounting what you have achieved in that day and the things you need to be thankful for. • Surround yourself with a good support system so you are not at a loss on the day you need say childcare support. • Finding something that will energize you helps to create more energy. Invest in yourself (health, upskilling, hobbies, etc) for this is not a sprint, it is a marathon. The Key Achievements • President of India Award for the Top 3 Food startups in India, during the World Food India 2017 • Listed among the Top 20 most innovative food companies in the world by AgFunder, only one from Asia. • Sankalp Award for Impact in Agriculture space – Sankalp Global Summit 2018 • “Most Inspiring Agri Startup” 2018 – FICCI • Best 10 Food and Confectionary Companies 2018 – CEO Insights • Business Leader of the Year 2018 – Best Agro-food Brand of the Year • Health Brand of the Year – Food – India Health and Wellness Summit and Awards 2017 • Star award - MSME award for Innovation Excellence - FKCCI – 2017 • Finalist – Best Innovation Food – Gulfood2016
All FRESH PRODUCE ARE GROWN by us with partner farmers so quality is controlled right from the seed and soil to Agricultural prac ces
2832 farmers enrolled 1453 actively working
17259+ acres farmed
Our farmers comply to Global GAP ensuring ZERO PESTICIDE RESIDUE produce 86273+ tons of fresh produce harvested
43.14+ Million units of products sold
34,517 tons of free fresh fodder distributed
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| In a Talk with...
MS. SONYA HOOJA Transforming careers across various industries Imarticus Learning
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marticus Learning is a technology driven educational institute that has immense expertise in transforming careers across industries such as financial services, analytics and AI, business analysis and core technology. Having educated over 35,000 individuals, they have also pioneered the concept of professional degrees, “Prodegrees” in collaboration with global giants such as IBM, KPMG, Genpact, Rise Mumbai by Barclays, Moody’s Analytics, Motilal Oswal along many others to revolutionize learning by allowing aspirants to acquire skills demanded by the industry. Since its inception in 2012, Imarticus has evolved into the preferred sourcing, training, and skill development partner that caters to the human capital and upskilling needs of over 120 firms, which include leading KPOs, global and domestic banks, consulting, technology and
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analytics firms such as HDFC Bank, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Aditya Birla, KPMG and Accenture amongst many others. In a talk with Ms Sonya Hooja, Co-Founder and COO at Imarticus Learning, she shared her journey till now and how Imarticus Learning is transforming businesses. • Brief us about your journey till now My journey as an entrepreneur began with Imarticus Learning back in 2012. I am happy to have devoted so much of my time, effort and soul into making Imarticus the success story that it is today. Along with my Founder, Investors, Stakeholders & entire bunch of Imarticans, we have built an internationally-recognized professional Education brand from
the ground up. In less than a decade, our organization has positively influenced thousands of lives and careers along the way, much to the benefit of India's citizens and growing national skilled workforce requirements. Being a woman business leader has undoubtedly brought with it unique workplace challenges and tribulations. However, by staying focussed and motivated to exceed expectations and perceived limitations, and with the support of my amazing family, co-workers and employees, I have been able to make huge strides, both personally and professionally, during my relatively young entrepreneurial journey. • What were the initial challenges you faced? We decided to establish Imarticus Learning at a time when the phenomenon of professional
Sonya Hooja, Co-Founder & COO
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| In a Talk with...
IF WE ARE GOING TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION, WE HAVE TO ENGAGE THE PROBLEMS.
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- MAJORA CARTER education was just about gaining massive traction, so the industry competition was building up. Just like any other bootstrapped start-up we had to bring in everything we could within our capacity. To create a niche for ourselves, we had to identify the professional specializations that we could significantly contribute to, with our flagship Investment Banking Certification Program (CIBOP) initially leading the way for us in terms of business and revenue growth. We invested, developed and drafted the program’s curriculum and method of training delivery, to ensure that CIBOP would be exactly what aspiring Banking & Finance professionals need to become job-ready and launch successful careers. • Which was that point that triggered the growth of your Company ? There are several, but I would rate the immense success of our Certified Investment Banking Operations Professional (CIBOP) program, our expansion into Tech and Analytics professional training, the close business partnerships we have forged with world-renowned organizations and institutions, and the rapid tech adoption to address the recent surge in demand for 44 Jan 2021
online tech-enabled learning, as some of the key trigger points for business growth. • What is the reason behind the company’s long-standing success? We have managed to identify the exact industry skill gaps, particularly in future tech skills, and train young professionals to meet the talent requirement of the corporate world. Evidently, this has resulted in a phenomenal placement record, giving us the reputation of perfect education brand for ‘Future Tech Skill Education’ & employment. Besides this, the fact that we have consistently delivered on our promises to our students and business partners, be it in terms of quality of learning, facilitating job placements and expanding our portfolio of educational offerings to cover rapidly-growing industrial specialization, is what has kept Imarticus Learning in good standing. • What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market? We focus on ‘New Age Careers’ & ‘Future Skill Careers’. Essentially, we provide keen learners and
corporate clients with world-class tech-based professional training programs that comprehensively cover future skill subspecializations in Finance, Technology, Analytics and Marketing, empowering their industry knowledge and transforming them into wellrounded highly-skilled professionals. While the competition is intense, we have had great success by distinguishing ourselves as a New Age tech-driven institute for professional learning with a proven track record of helping students launch rewarding careers. • How do you decide to take Imarticus Learning a step further in terms of your products/services? Evolution is natural, and we always strive to improve on our services and standards the more we learn in real time. As things stand, our next moves to further our reputation and business interests will be bolder than what we have done in the past. We are actively expanding our operations and penetrating new international markets like the Middle East, North Africa, Singapore and USA. Our products and services will be modified to
suit these markets accordingly.
professional experience for me.
• Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?
• What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
A host of them. Soon, we will be launching MBA in Fintech, MBA in Investment Banking. On the Tech front, we are planning to introduce programs covering Cloud Computing & Cybersecurity. We have strong plans to further develop our ISA (Income Share Agreement) programs. Besides this, we are building a strong portfolio of products in collaboration with leading Indian & global universities. • Can you please brief us about your professional experience? My professional history includes stints as a Senior Analyst and Consultant at Accenture, a Business Analyst with Lehman Brothers, and the role of a Project Manager at ACS. I have been the Co-Founder & Director of Imarticus Learning since 2012, and I haven’t looked back since. I would also like to highlight the wonderful experience I had while conducting workshops with the Prime Minister’s Office in Singapore, teaching Key Consulting, Problem Solving and Project Management skills, which would then be applied in their Advisory operations. My 7-month role as a Consultant for the Government of Brunei, wherein I provided Advisory services for the country’s Tourism and Education Ministries, was another life-altering
much more will determine how successful a business can / will be.
Playing a major part in the incredible journey that Imarticus Learning has had in such a short period of time is the highlight of my entrepreneurial journey so far. I believe that everything that I have accomplished and all the career milestones that I’ve lived through would not have been possible without my Imarticus family. • How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique? We are very selective with our employment methods, and those who join us tend to stick around for the long haul. In return, I make sure that every deserving employee is routinely rewarded with a fast track career growth that brings along handsome earning potential.
• According to you, what needs to be done to promote women entrepreneurship across the country? I believe Women entrepreneurship is the sure shot way to break all the glass ceilings. It’s encouraging to see so many women stepping up to be entrepreneurs. India as a society has taken great strides, particularly in the new millennium, realising the need for 50% of the population to be treated as important as the other 50%. Today, we have several incentives by the Government to help women entrepreneurs. Besides monetary incentives, what would encourage more women to take the plunge in my opinion is special incentives for women from every walk of life including those from the Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and socio-economically backward regions. • It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that?
• According to you, what are the main factors that businesses should focus on to be relevant in the market after Covid19 outbreak? If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now: Technology drives everything in the business world these days, and companies should willingly embrace cutting-edge tech solutions to remain competitive and offer their customers the best possible service / product they can realistically deliver. The ability to leverage the power of New Age Tech like AI, ML, RPA, Blockchain, Data Science, Data Analytics, Cloud Computing and
Work-life balance. Despite being entrepreneurs, we as an organisation encourage each one of our staff to strike an optimal balance. As for me, I believe in eating healthy, clocking the right amount of sleep, investing in physical & mental fitness and most importantly, spend time with our loved ones.
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| Entertainment
Are OTT platforms turning into garbage cans, providing a way for not-so-good content?
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ast year when we all got locked in the home, we all were in a continuous quest for some good entertainment to pass the crucial time. To have some good time without stepping out, people preferred watching content like movies and shows on their mobile phones, laptops, and TV screens. As the lockdown stretched legs, people’s hunger for good content went on increasing and they shifted to OTT platforms. When we get hungry, we might think of having anything eatable. And as the audience says, content creators and OTT platforms served them anything that just consumed data but failed to make their moments.
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The closed theater doors inspired people in the entertainment business to think of new platforms to present their ready content. In the last few years, OTT platforms (Over the Top platforms), started taking place of DTH due to their large library and freedom to access it at any time and most importantly at an affordable cost. People in the entertainment business took the opportunity created by lockdown, presented their content on OTT’s with win-win deals, and tried to save their business. People say some movies or shows are so pathetic on OTTs that if they were released in theaters, there might be a hard-hitting silence at box offices.
In India, the mainstream film industry is called Bollywood, regional film industries like Tollywood are the main areas where films get produced. It is said that the production houses having a strong network in the industry, publish their content on popular streaming apps regardless of content quality. When we talked with some young film enthusiasts, they said, some Hindi web shows are getting popular just because of the trending web series wave, if the same shows get released as a film franchise, they will face huge losses. Entertainment is a huge business, more than 9 million people in India earn their bread and butter by working hard to entertain people. The pandemic closed theaters and stopped the production of content making all these people jobless. In this context, if projects get released on OTT platforms, it can help all those workers financially and morally too. The harder getting business equations in the film industry are unfortunately forcing production houses to ignore the content quality and think of profits only. But as we know, content is king! OTT’s productions called
Originals are ahead in the content race as they work on analysis, keep an eye on viewers changing mindsets, etc. Are OTT platforms turning into the trash cans providing a way for the content that can’t mark its good presence on the box office? This question has many answers as an audience have different taste of the content. In India, there is no such classification as masses and classes as masses turn into classes if they got served with good content and in a celebration mood, classes turn out into masses and enjoy their life at fullest. A real question that arises here is, if originals from these OTTs have better content quality, why do they publish not-so-good content from different production houses? Don’t they care about their brand identity? If we dig deeper, the marketing strategies for Originals are much advanced and innovative than the partnered content, ensuring that the platform will remain in talks and crack major profitable deals with bigger production houses for their not-sogood content.
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| Business Story
I nd sheer joy in helping people realize their potential. When you choose a career that enables the success of your teams and organizations; you must play the role of catalyst & achieve your success by enabling the success of others. I love supporting and coaching people managers to help them manage their teams in the best possible manner. My goal is to touch as many human lives as possible and try my best to make positive impacts in their lives. -Nirali Matalia 48 Jan 2021
NIRALI SHAH MATALIA
EMPOWERING BUSINESSES AND THE PEOPLE WHO DRIVE IT
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he unlock process has started across the globe, all the businesses have restarted their processes, in an attempt to get the economy back on track. And this process calls for new amends, change in policies, changes in work culture, and also people. In this scenario, the HR department is playing the most important part in any organization to revamp and motivate their workforce in context to accelerate the growth. A visionary leader Nirali Shah Matalia, Vice President, Operations and People at Saama is setting examples and inspiring many career aspirants in the HR sector. We at The Enterprise World magazine feel delighted to feature Nirali Shah Matalia as one of the most Dynamic Women Business Leaders to Watch 2021. Nirali Shah Matalia is an energetic and devoted person, culture, and change pioneer who has confidence in showing others how it’s done. She is a major supporter of living by corporate qualities and an impetus for change for learning and developing organization. She heads People work at Saama driving Employee Engagement, Learning & Development, Performance Management, Total Rewards, Compliance, Systems, Analytics,
and so on. She likewise heads Operations front like Risk Management, Immigration, Travel, lawful, Facilities, etc. Nirali has a post-graduation as well as Bachelors in Business Management and have worked in Healthcare, Technology, Banking, and Retail ventures. Preceding moving to the USA, she has worked at Planet Health, Adani Hypermarket, and so forth in India. Nirali Shah Matalia has successfully reinvented the role of the HR @ Saama to build a hightouch culture of very involved and progressive HR function which is actively engaged with Saamaites for both career coaching as well as for day-to-day growth conducive work environment. The Journey There are memorable milestones in the last 18 years working at several organizations starting from successfully setting up & heading new chain stores during my retail career to being able to drive & lead numerous changes at Saama – be it career progression or employee engagement models or HR system implementations or legal & risk management strategies. No doubt, reaching these highest points was surely accompanied by some of the toughest deals such as a complete
career restart from scratch, while moving to the USA from India back in 2005. She says, “The unconditional encouragement from my family throughout my career, amazingly supportive leaders and colleagues at Saama made my journey throughout possible!” Nirali has been instrumental in setting and leading a culture of providing meaningful career paths to the employees. The span of work was ranging from career progression framework creations to devising policies and procedures to helping both managers and leaders to align their goals and aspirations. She says, “My philosophy is very simple for engagement. If your workplace does not have fun and employees don’t enjoy what they do, it would be devastating to both organizations as well as employee’s personal growth. So keeping ‘work hard, play harder’ in mind, has nurtured a culture of collaboration and fun.” She is a firm believer in diversity and inclusion as the right thing to do and not by force. For example, instead of shortcuts like giving mandates of diversity hiring, she would consciously choose a difficult path of influencing the mindset of leaders to address diversity concerns from root levels,
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| Business Story
minimize unconscious bias & influence inclusion as a choice made by pure willingness. She believes in seeking inspiration from everything, be it other wonderful human beings or splendid nature! She feels God’s every creation has something unique to offer to us and it is up to us what virtues we pick. At the same time, she is equally selfmotivated to bring her goals to completion. With her continuous learning belief, she doesn’t have one idol, but she seeks inspiration for different things from different people - from Swami Vivekananda to Sheryl Sandberg to Indra Nooyi just to name a few. She gets inspiration equally from her mentors, family, friends, and colleagues. About Saama Saama dominates the industry with its position as a global leader in the solutions and analytics space. Their offerings deliver unparalleled results and experience as Saama focuses on enterprise development and growth. As an organization, Saama Technologies went through a complete transformation from a traditional consulting firm of 40 odd associates to a ‘solutions & analytics’ organization of close to 1150 people leading data & analytics space. When a company goes through such a transformation, HCM plays a crucial role; because it is a company like a close-knit community. For a people company like Saama, it is all about changing mindset & evolving the right culture to be successful in the transformation. 50 Jan 2021
“I find myself to be privileged to be in a position to head people function which enabled me to carry out sound pioneering work in leading that change from the front.”, Nirali Commented. Now, the company is at the forefront of being able to reduce clinical trial time saving millions of dollars and getting treatment early to the patients! The company takes pride in having measurable organic growth in its diversity and inclusion KPIs year over year. The pillars of success The company is driven by its corporate values and they firmly believe that their long-standing success is a result of their adherence to the guiding principles they have set. To name a few: Saama’s entire leadership team and all their people are committed to work and deliver upon the great vision set by CEO Mr. Suresh Katta. So this talk about their value ‘Accountability’. Additionally, they believe in ‘customer delight’ and take pride in solving their hardest problems. ‘Constant Innovation’ has been at their core and the team Saama has always stayed ahead of the curve due to this mindset. For them, ‘Inclusion’ is a way of life and the company treats their employees, stakeholders, and customers with respect, integrity, and dignity. There are no compromises on the ‘Excellence’ at both individual and corporate level.
Saama’s comprehensive plethora of top-notched offerings Saama’s unique and innovative solutions are cognitively ahead, more advanced, sophisticated, and easier to use than any other service in the space. In addition to Saama’s Life Science Focus, Saama Analytics offers solutions to various other industries as well such as Pharma, Insurance, High Tech, CPG, etc. that includes Operations Insights, Clinical Insights, Risk-based monitoring, Claim Analytics, Sentiment analytics, and so on; however, what makes Saama unique is their speed, specificity, and outcome-driven approach in all of their products and solutions. The company’s bestin-class offerings have proven explicit and transparent ROI in terms of saving their clients millions of dollars in terms of both direct costs as well as time. Nirali on the global market after pandemic scenario No doubt, as humankind navigated through totally uncharted territories in 2020 and losses are innumerable at a Global scale, however, I believe the COVID-19 outbreak also has been a great teacher. It taught us to adapt and survive, it taught humankind to be flexible and humble and it taught us that the show must go on. I think, the way of working has surely changed and so does the future of the workplace. Some products became obsolete during pandemic v/s some businesses came up with innovative products/services. Businesses must learn to be agile and nimble even in the post-pandemic era and they will have to keep constantly reinvent themselves.
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