“Successful people are 100% convinced that they are masters of their own destiny, they’re not creatures of circumstance, they create circumstance, if the circumstances around them suck they change them.” ― Jordan Belfort
In this article we come across leaders who dared to think beyond the conventions. Leaders who continue to be an inspiration for the budding youngsters entering the corporate world.
Managing multinational corporations like
Google , Facebook , PepsiCo , ThoughtWorks , ZS Associates , United Breweries and Atos to building own e-retail based start-up like
Iksula , these GIMites continue to bring pride and joy to their Alma mater.
We let their profiles do rest of the talking!
Ketan Hajarnavis (Batch 1997-99)
Director - India Business ,
Executive Consultant & Client Partner at ThoughtWorks
Ketan Hajarnavis leads ThoughtWorks domestic business in India as Director & Business Head.
He carries the responsibility for strategic and operational leadership, focusing on enterprise & service creation, business growth, operations and organization building, for the India Market. In addition, Ketan serves as an Executive Consultant and Client Partner for client development, consumer engagement, operational effectiveness and insights based service design . Ketan is a Visiting Faculty at GIM, and provides voluntary services at start-up accelerators and philanthropy foundations for organizational capacity building.
Ketan has been with ThoughtWorks since 2007. While at ThoughtWorks, he has served in cross-functional leadership roles such as, Market Principal for Europe, Australia & US, General Manager for ThoughtWorks Chennai, Practice Director for Consulting Services, Head of Global Offshore Demand and Head of Recruiting. Prior to assuming his current role, Ketan was Director of Markets & Portfolio, where he was responsible for market development, client relationships, strategic accounts, demand strategy, sales and portfolio optimization.
Before joining ThoughtWorks, Ketan was a Co-Founder & COO of an education technology startup, where he led the company through inception, market establishment, fund raising and a successful exit. He has also worked in various geographies across business advisory, technology product and services companies such as McKinsey & Co., Mindtree Consulting and Unimobile Inc.
Sachin Kapoor (Batch 2001-03)
Leader of Vendor Strategy and Operations at Google
Sachin is currently working with Google as a Leader of Vendor Strategy and Operations helping the organization derive efficiencies in the business of digital marketing.
He is leading global strategic initiatives in the area of on / offshore business management with a view to optimize business execution.
Sachin's prior experience of leading turnkey analytics outsourcing engagements and incubating Marketing and Pre Sales functions in top Analytics Consulting organizations brings key leverage in the area of digital marketing engagements. He was earlier leading Vertical Business Management for a couple of Industry Verticals at Google, where he was responsible for driving digital marketing strategies and helping large clients meet customer goals.
Prior to working with Google, Sachin worked extensively with the global offices of GSK and its Knowledge Centre at WNS where he was instrumental in helping GSK align its global Pricing and Market Access strategy with regional priorities. Sachin led a Pricing Analytics team and pioneered the concept of Affordability based Pricing strategies in dynamic Emerging Markets that helped create significant positive Top-line impact in several Emerging Markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and Egypt while also devising innovative price-defense strategies in mature European Markets.
Sachin has been recognized for bringing in multiple skill sets to different roles and has received awards such as People Star Award, Innovator's Challenge Award and Client Impact Awards for developing effective Business Strategies that positively impacted Client Revenues.
Samarjeet Singh (Batch 1995-97)
Director-Founder Iksula
Samarjeet specializes in setting up business units/initiatives with and around internet as a medium of delivery. Samarjeet is the CEO of Iksula-his company that he founded with a vision to add true value to clients through understanding of internet business process, cutting edge technology and trained / experienced people to deliver the service.
Currently Iksula has 125 people and 25+ esteemed clients in Internet Retail vertical. Iksula provides BackOffice Services (Customer Service / Order Processing / Accounting), Technology Services, Marketing & Analytics Services, and Content Services to its customers. Iksula was awarded 'Company of the year 2014' in the eRetail space, by Silicon India.
Earlier Samarjeet has been associated with ebay as their Head-seller Marketing and co-founded Yotak Human Resources Pvt Ltd. He has also worked at California Software Co Ltd and with Tajonline.com India Pvt Ltd. Samarjeet Singh has been recognized by the CMO council and the World Marketing Congress as the Best Digital Marketing Professionals in India.
He says, “I have always been involved in developing new business / initiatives and take them to the next level. I like the challenge and satisfaction from the same. I would love to keep taking these challenges in future.”
Balendu Shrivastava (Batch 1998-2000)
Head of Measurement at Facebook, India
Balendu Shrivastava is the Head of Measurement at Facebook, India. A student of Mathematics in Jamia Millia Islamia, Mr. Balendu became a part of Goa Institute of Management in the year 1998.
He has been primarily involved in primary as well as secondary market research, market segmentation and analytics. His other areas of interests have been digital marketing, brand management, advertising and digital research.
Mr. Balendu started his career at IMRB International where he worked for 13 years and was the Group Business Director of Telecom and Internet Research there. After that, he joined Facebook and worked as the Head of Global Media Analytics for one year before becoming the head of measurement.
Benzi Alex Mathew (Batch 1999-2001)
Client Relationship Director at ZS Associates
Benzi Alex Mathew is the Client Relationship Director at ZS Associates in San Francisco Bay Area. A Computer science graduate with a PG diploma in Advanced Computing, Benzi joined GIM in the year 1999.
He is primarily involved in business designing, IT strategy, life sciences, customer relationship and vendor management.
Benzi Mathew began his career as an associate consultant with Satyam Computer Services after interning with Wipro GE Medical Systems. He then worked in Cognizant Technology Solutions as a Senior Business Analyst, Life Sciences. He then became the Program Manager, Life Sciences US West and then the LS Practice Lead North West & Senior Account Manager, Life Sciences West. After spending these 9 years in Cognizant, Benzi worked as a principal consultant of Medical Devices at Wipro Technologies and then Director at Life Sciences Services of Dell before working at ZS associates as the director.
Perry Goes (Batch 1993-95)
Senior Vice President (Strategic Planning & Analysis)
at United Breweries Ltd
Perry has been working with United Breweries since June 2004. Mr. Perry Goes serves as a Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Analysis at United Breweries Ltd.
Mr. Goes served as an Assistant Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Analysis of United Breweries Ltd., where he joined on June 14, 2004.
He has over 21 years of experience. He served as Group Leader for Business Analytics at Honeywell Technologies Solutions Labs. Mr. Goes holds B.E. in Mech., and PGDBM in Marketing, Finance and HR from Goa Institute of Management.
Abhishek Grover
Vice President - Sales at PepsiCo.
Abhishek Grover is the Vice President Sales in PepsiCo.
He carries the responsibility of sales, business development and business strategy.
Abhishek is a B.com graduate and 2004 batch passout from GIM. Before joining Pepsico was an Area sales manager at Pidilite Industries, U.P. In August 2006, Abhishek joined PepsiCo as a Territory development manager. His core areas were sales and business development. Abhishek continuously moved up the ladder in PepsiCo and moved from Territory development manager to Vice President –Sales in just a span of 7 years. In between he also served as Sales manager, General manager- franchisee operations and general manager- sales. With more than 7 years of work experience , he is an expert in Sales and business development domain.
Murali Sathya
Global Alliance Director- Financial Services at Atos
Murali Sathya is currently Global Alliance Director (Financial Services) at ATOS.
Key Focus areas for partnerships include Digital Transformation, Risk & Compliance, Analytics, BI/Big Data and Infrastructure Transformation. His previous roles include General Manager & Market Leader, Atos India, Sales Director –Novell, Director Business Development, Syntel Inc & Regional Sales Manager – FICO Inc.
Murali Sathya is a result focused executive with experience in India & International Markets (South Asia and UK). He is a seasoned IT Products and IT services professional and brings with him a wealth of experience in sales & sales management positions. During his tenure with FICO, Syntel Inc, he has held several key executive positions and has vast experience in areas such as Sales, Key Account Management, SI Bids and Strategic Alliances. He was instrumental in launching FICO business in India. His core expertise lies in IT and BFSI, and brings with him strong leadership and domain expertise. He has established both product and services business in India.
So what role did Goa Institute of Management(GIM) have in shaping their careers ?
Ketan from ThoughtWorks says “GIM shaped my outlook towards a holistic appreciation of creating, building and operating high performance, purposeful and aligned organizations & communities. With a deep focus on learning, academic and practical rigor, the faculty at GIM used pedagogies and teaching styles that encouraged, instigated and provoked a systemic view of learning, assimilating knowledge and applying the same in a context driven manner. Over the years, that has helped me in shape my view towards entrepreneurship, leadership development, organization building, enterprise creation and formulating and executing strategy. I have had the good fortune of building and scaling technology organizations in new market situations across the globe, as well as leading change programs to revitalize organizations. ”
Sachin from Google reminisces,
“My first memory of GIM goes back fifteen years when I browsed through its website and being very impressed with its picturesque campus on the banks of river Mandovi, I decided to apply to the Institute while filling out the CAT Application! Little did I know that the next two years of my life would be filled with so much excitement, fun, insightful lectures, intense discussions, open ended quizzes and of course, lots of sun and sand!
I think the most valuable gem that I took away from GIM was an open mind and the belief that anything is achievable as long as you have a positive intent and are willing to take risks without bothering too much about the what-ifs and possible fall-outs. In my career so far, I have tried different roles in each of my professions and that has required me to learn from scratch every time I take on a new assignment, and this process of continuous learning and unlearning is what keeps me excited about everything I do and prevents me from falling into the complacency trap. I also feel that GIM as an academic institute promotes creative thinking as opposed to following theoretical frameworks and in such an environment, students feel encouraged to think radically, challenge the usual stereotypes and swim against the tide. In today's dynamic business environment, the individualistic and creative bent of mind with original ideas along with a thorough execution plan is critical to drive business growth and GIM equipped me to develop that mindset. In a sense, GIM reflects the true spirit of Goa - fun, free and forward looking!”
Here is hoping that these success stories continue to inspire us for many more years to come...
The Student PR Cell , GIM would like to thank Aakansha Tanwar , Paritosh Moghe , Neha Sharma and Mohit Gupta from the 2014-16 batch and the Alumni Association of Goa Institute of Management for their contributions towards the article.
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