18.07 Rama Bijapurkar - Becoming a trusted advisor

NUGGET CONTEXT Rama talks about the various elements that go into the personal brand beyond the pure technical capability that one brings to the table. She describes the notion of "balance tilters" which has an implication on how the bundled proposition is perceived by the customer. GUEST Rama Bijapurkar is India’s most respected thought leader on market strategy and India’s consumer economy. She has an independent consulting practice and works across sectors and organization types, describing her mission as “bringing market and customer focus to business strategy”. In addition to her consulting practice, she is on Boards of several blue-chip companies. She is a regular visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, her alma mater, and is a member of its Board of Governors. Rama has published several books - “We are like that only”, “Understanding the logic of Consumer India”, “Winning in the Indian Market”, "A Never Before world: Tracking the evolution of Consumer India” and “Customer in the Boardroom: Crafting Customer based Business Strategy" In our conversation, Rama talks candidly about how she has navigated the world of opportunity as a solo-advisor with a specific emphasis on how she has chosen a playground that uniquely leverages her strengths and passion. She also talks about the Executive to NED transition, shares her views on women leadership and her take on how people should think about careers given an explosion in the number of divergent paths that are ahead of people. This conversation was published in September 2017. We value your feedback on the podcast. If you have 3 minutes, please visit http://bit.ly/p2pfdback. HOST Deepak is a Leadership Advisor and an Executive Coach. He works with leaders to improve their effectiveness and in helping them make better decisions specifically around organizational and career transitions. He currently runs Transition Insight (www.transitioninsight.com) and works with leaders to handle phases of transition thoughtfully. He has worked as an Operations Consultant with KPMG in UK, Strategy Consultant with McKinsey in the US and as a Leadership Consultant with EgonZehnder (a Swiss Leadership Advisory firm) where he helped companies recruit CEOs, CXOs and Board Members and worked on Leadership Development. Deepak is a certified CEO Coach and is an alumnus of IIT Madras, IIM Ahmedabad and London Business School. His detailed profile can be found at https://in.linkedin.com/in/djayaraman DISCLAIMER All content and opinions expressed in the podcast are that of the guests and are not necessarily the opinions of Deepak Jayaraman and Transition Insight Private Limited. Views expressed in comments to blog are the personal opinions of the author of the comment. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Company or the author of the blog. Participants are responsible for the content of their comments and all comments that are posted are in the public domain. The Company reserves the right to monitor, edit, and/or publish any submitted comments. Not all comments may be published. Any third-party comments published are third party information and The Company takes no responsibility and disclaims all liability. The Company reserves the right, but is not obligated to monitor and delete any comments or postings at any time without notice.