Digital First Magazine – March 2022 – India Edition – Women Leaders in Business

INDIA EDITION

First Stop for Digital, Technology and Business Insights

L E A D E R S FUTURE OF

CYBERSECURIT Y KEEPING

MARCH 2022

D ATA SAFE & SECURE

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Digital First Magazine March 2022

Digital First Magazine March 2022

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www.digitalfirstmagazine.com

March 2022

Vol - 3 Issue - 3

Women Leaders Special (India Edition) Editor in Chief

Dr. Manoj Varghese, Ph.D

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Anuja Mulmule Suchita Gonsalves

Anna Elza Roshni Rajagopal Nikita Thakur

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Art and Design

Ajay K Das Manjunath R Rohith Poojary

Sales & Marketing

Suchithra S Reshma Ashokan

Arati Waghmare Rupali Mohankar

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Digital First Magazine March 2022

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SPECIAL EDITOR’S NOTE

Breaking the Bias

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en and women were created together at the beginning of time. But, with civilisation, knowledge and development, the roles of each gender transformed into something that has become oppressive, biased and noninclusive. What women have faced over the centuries has no limit. For centuries, women have had it worse than others in the job market. Everything from being independent to having a conversation with someone of another gender has intentionally or unintentionally become biased.

A recent video emphasises how women have been systemically disadvantaged, showing that everyday products that everyone uses like soaps, shampoos, and razors are costlier when it targets female consumers. Stereotypes have become so ingrained into people’s minds that a woman is looked down on for not playing an ‘appropriate’ part in society. There’s more.

Even today, women are paid lesser than men for the same job.

But, as the world moves to the future, there has been a shift in gender roles and a move to a more inclusive world. From our interviews and opinions from women in the tech industry, we can see a change in gender equality in the tech industry.

Today, I believe that we have come to a stage where gender is acknowledged but has not become a defining characteristic. More companies are looking to have an inclusive work environment, giving opportunities to everyone, not only to be represented but also to have new and innovative perspectives. In many cases, companies have thrived on diversity and shaped them to become leaders in their industry. As CEOs, CTOs and CFOs, women have proven to be a driving force in these companies, especially in India.

But, this can only be seen in office spaces. This needs to overflow to the society at large, and it aches to say that we still have a long way to go to make it happen. But, for now, let us be glad about the corporate world for taking the step forward toward an inclusive society and breaking the bias. We have to start somewhere, and I believe that the workplace is a better starting point than any other. To this end, we have identified leaders in the field who have the best practices for inclusion. So, dive in and see how far the Indian corporate sector has come.

opal

ajag R i n osh

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Roshni Rajagopal Assistant Editor

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ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc.

Former Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Former Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Mamta Thakur Former CEO (ASEAN), Arc Skills

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Chief Human Resources Officer, Former Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

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Digital First Magazine March 2022

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com Dr. Manoj Varghese, Ph.D

Senior Director - Global Partnerships, Advisory & Consulting - Connecta®, Head of Advisory Board Higher Education Digest® & K12 Digest®, Adjunct Faculty Assumption University, Former CIO - Athena Education, Former Global Director Technology - GEMS Education

CEO at BMR Innovations, Ex Senior General Manager at Panasonic, LG, The Hindu, TATA, Author: Moment of Signal & The Roaring Lambs, Motivational Speaker & Leadership Consultant.

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DigitalEducation First Magazine Higher Digest November 2020 March 2022

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ANJNA BHATI, Co-FOUNDER, BLUEPI TECHNOLOGIES

VIJAYASHREE NATARAJAN, SVP- HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, OMEGA HEALTHCARE

INNOVATION IN TECH AND LEADERSHIP

DIGITALLY TRANSFORMING THE HEALTH SECTOR

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DIVYA JAIN, Co-FOUNDER OF SEEKHO

SUJATHA KUMARASWAMY, CEO, MERITTRAC SERVICES

AIMING TO TRULY DEMOCRATISE HIGHER EDUCATION

UPHOLDING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Digital First Magazine March 2022

C O N T E N T S

14 CHANGING THE GENDERTECH BALANCE RENUKA THAKUR, HEAD OF PRODUCT BUYER & STOREFRONT, BUKUKAS – LUMMO

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PUJA JOSHI, Co-FOUNDER, INCLUZON

EDTECH IS ESSENTIAL TO THE ASPIRATIONS OF PEOPLE IN TIER I TO III CITIES

UNDERSTANDING THE EDUCATION INDUSTRY THROUGH A NEW LENS

SARITA DIGUMARTI, CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER, UNEXT LEARNING

I N VMIYE W Digital First Magazine March 2022

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HOW TO IMPROVE WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN INDIAN GAMING INDUSTRY PRATIKSHA NAGORI, HR MANAGER - STRATEGY & COMPLIANCE, SUMO INDIA STUDIOS (PART OF SUMO GROUP)

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COMMUNICATION IS KEY: EXPLORING DIGITAL MARKETING IN 2022

USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE ADVERTISING WORLD SALONI MITTAL, FOUNDER, THE CREATIVE NOSE

MOUSHUMI PAL, FOUNDER, WOODPECKER MEDIA

COMBINING FITNESS WITH TECH: BUILDING TOWARDS A FUTURISTIC HEALTHY LIFESTYLE RHEA NIHAL SINGH ANAND, Co-FOUNDER, FLEXNEST

72 82 CREATING SMART BUSINESSES WITH DATA ANALYSIS SWATI JINDAL, Co-FOUNDER, EASYECOM

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C O N T E N T S

HOW REGULATING DIGITAL ASSET TECH AND WEB 3.0 WILL POWER INDIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH KRISTIN BOGGIANO, PRESIDENT AND Co-FOUNDER, CROSSTOWER

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SHOPPING IN A POSTPANDEMIC WORLD – ADAPTING TO IMMERSIVE TECH NIDHI SHARMA, Co-FOUNDER & CEO, ABBY – A LIVE SHOPPING PLATFORM

KULA STUDIO FASHIONTECH: A VIEW INTO THE FUTURE OF CLOTHING PRIYANKA TAYI, FOUNDER & CEO, KULA STUDIO

54 68 HR TECH 2022 – TRENDS TO LOOK OUT FOR

BY GEETA L, COO & Co-FOUNDER, ASCENTHR

EX P E RTOP I N I O N Digital First Magazine March 2022

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ALKA KAPUR,

Principal, Modern Public School I believe women are gifted with unwavering resilience and extraordinary emotional intelligence, which when coupled with practical skills and knowledge makes them a formidable force in any industry they set their eyes on.

The responsibility of women’s empowerment does not rest solely on the shoulders of men. Women need to step up and understand that they are as much powerful and deserving as their male counterparts. I feel that a woman’s capacity to get to the pinnacle depends on her ability to retain a high level of self-esteem and confidence. Also, with a clear vision and the burgeoning of digital resources all around, I am sure a woman can achieve her goal by honing and developing her skills. So, I will advise all the women to keep hustling until they turn their dream into reality, as the road to success is never simple.

DR. MEENU KUMAR, Founder, Cosmo Arts India

Every time a woman raises her voice in defence of herself, it is repeated by a multitude of other women in similar situations, as I believe in the expression “women empowering women.” That is why my ‘She Shakti’ Campaign is all about Women’s strengths, such as nurturing, sustaining life within their wombs, performing several duties, and sometimes sacrificing on their own wants. Women are already strong, but they are often unaware of their own potential. So now, I think all we have to do is liberate ourselves from society’s shackles and fight for our lives. We have to be the Daring Feminist, because it’s at times very hard to take a stand , it’s hard to raise voice , It’s actually Hard to be Hard !! I strongly believe and endorse the fact that every woman has the right to be herself, make her own decisions, and spread her wings to achieve her goals.

ANUPAMA KADAMBI,

CXO, Chief Experience Officer, GOFRUGAL It is important to promote people who are accountable, innovate, proactively identify and resolve problems. We were able to boost our renewals significantly. The book ‘Effortless Experience’ & ‘Power of Moments’ was an eye-opener for me. I kept listening to podcasts on design and customer success like Creating Customer Success, Customer Success Leader, UI Breakfast UI/UX design and product strategy. Wearing multiple hats & being cross-skilled gave a lot more perspective. My vision is to build a customer-centric organization as the success of a company depends 50% on customer success and the rest 50% on employee engagement and their success. Behind great experience is a streamlined process. It is the responsibility of the CX teams to improve experience thus building/re-building trust with the customers. I may not have reached the destination, but I am making progress every single day. The journey so far has been rollicking!

ANINDITA BANIK, CEO, SmartWinnr

My journey as a woman entrepreneur, in taking SmartWinnr to the list of top 50 global sales products, has been challenging. My role involves selling to sales leaders of large organisations. Initially, there were times where I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously. However, I realised that when you’re passionate and knowledgeable, people start to listen and then respect you. My advice to fellow women entrepreneurs is to be confident. You’re as good as anyone else. And don’t ever apologise for having high ambitions!

IN MY

VIEW

Changing the GenderTech Balance Renuka Thakur, Head of Product - Buyer & Storefront, Bukukas – Lummo

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uilding tech products, like building any consumer product requires a deep understanding of consumer needs. Most tech companies build products that any gender can use. Any company that is building a gender-neutral tech product should empathize with the needs of both genders. A company with a skewed gender ratio would most likely not address the needs of its consumer base effectively.

Therefore, it follows that having a balanced representation of genders at all levels of an organization is vital to its success.

Apart from connecting with end consumers, we also need to look at what each gender brings to the team environment. Just to take one example of how we can strengthen teams, let’s look at working styles. Women tend to be more flexible and are good at multitasking. Men tend to be more focused on completing tasks one at a time. Having a good mix of flexibility and focus would add value to any organization.

In my career, there have been many occasions where I was the only woman in a team or the only woman on an entire office floor. In more recent times though, I can see changes. There are more women in tech as a whole and in leadership roles. At Lummo (my current

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Women tend to be more flexible and are good at multitasking.

Men tend to be more focused on completing tasks one at a time. Having a good mix of flexibility and focus would add value to any organization

RENUKA THAKUR

Renuka has a decade of experience in the software industry, having worked in cross-functional roles across several countries. She is driven by building products that positively influence people’s lives. She strives to give back to the product community through speaking engagements and mentorship programs. She now heads the buyer and storefront product development team at Lummo in Bangalore, India.

At Lummo, she builds software solutions for entrepreneurs and brands in SEA to build their strong brand through D2C channels, accelerate their growth, and serve their customers.

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Coming back to the gender gap in technology, what are the core problems that need to be addressed, and what steps do we need to take to solve them?

1. Work-life balance for working mothers - The Covid pandemic has been a challenging time for all workers, but it has been particularly hard on working mothers. With most organizations going remote, working mothers now have to juggle office, caring for the kids, and performing household chores. There are multiple issues here. The first issue is about how society prescribes certain tasks for just women, exempting men. The second issue is around organizations providing support for working mothers. The first issue requires a shift in thinking in society as a whole. The second issue can be addressed by having organizations provide benefits for working mothers and fathers. For example, a certain number of childcare leaves as part of the holiday package can help parents share responsibility, instead of the burden falling entirely on mothers.

2. Gaps in the leadership roles - A McKinsey study titled “Women in the Workplace 2019,” noted that women account for 48% of entry-level hires but only 38% of first-level managers, which reduces further at the senior management levels. I have been lucky to have had 3 women managers, including my current one at Lummo. From my own experience, I can vouch that having women in leadership positions helps because it broadens the perspective of the organization and brings in complementary strengths It also sets a great example for young women that leadership roles are not restricted to any particular gender.

company), we have taken multiple measures to reduce the gender gap and have successfully hired women on all levels.

The changes in gender representation that I have seen in the workplace are part of society’s broader improvements. However, there is a huge scope of improvement in terms of equality of access to education at all levels, access to jobs, and equal salaries for women performing at the same level as men. At the root of all these issues lies the issue of gender roles and rewards, as defined by society. As long as we strictly demarcate roles for a particular gender, inequality will persist.

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3. Using an inclusive language at work - Language plays an important role in how we think and function. By always referring to the third person as “he/him”, or using words like man-hours during work estimation, we are subtly excluding women and creating a perception that they are not as important. Although mostly unintentional, this can be psychologically damaging to women. Of the three issues we’ve discussed, this one is relatively easier to address because it requires just a small change in behavior. However, it can have a large positive impact.

In order to address the gender gap in tech, we need changes at multiple levels - changes in society as a whole, changes within tech organizations, and changes in individuals. Only a concerted action at all these levels will unleash the full potential of women, bring a huge positive impact to organizations and make society happier and more productive.

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Digital First Magazine March 2022

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LEADER IN FOCUS

DIVYA JAIN Co-Founder of Seekho

Aiming to Truly Democratise Higher Education First Magazine 18 Digital March 2022

We are very excited with the dynamic nature of this technology as it will automatically tailor for the new skills required in work

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fter finishing a Masters in Management from Cambridge University (UK), a Law Degree (L.L.B.) from the University of London and a graduate degree in B.A. (Honors) Economics from Hindu College (Delhi University), Ms Divya Jain, the co-founder of Seekho, a neo career school, worked in investment banking at Citigroup and has been a business consultant with Ernst & Young. Being exposed to such a vast array of experiences in different fields and cultures gave her the fuel to become a successful entrepreneur.

“I envisioned and conceptualised Safeducate when skill development still existed only in dilapidated government polytechnics and new industries like logistics had yet not recognized the importance of trained manpower. I set up over 150 centres across states, in partnerships with governments and universities,” shares Ms Divya on her first entrepreneurial journey. Her startup, Safeducate was awarded government contracts worth over $30 million, in progress. But, due to the COVID-19 situation, the company had to temporarily shut down 150 of its training centres across India displacing thousands of students who had been enrolled across various skilling programs. Soon enough, after tying hands with her co-founders, Ajeet and Arihant, who have helped build multiple successful tech startups in the past decade including HealthKart, 1MG, Joe Hukum and Freshworks, decided to start Seekho. Launched in 2021, Seekho is India’s first career accelerator that combines learning, mentorship and employment, seed-funded by Sequoia’s surge fund. Seekho

helps students upskill and get the right career opportunities to move ahead in life. Seekho is a neo career school that doesn’t just personalise learning journeys but creates real results. So far, 350 mentors have engaged 500K+ young professionals on the platform, and aim to enable 1 million users by the end of 2022.

Ms Divya was born into a business family, who nurtured her into becoming the entrepreneur she is today. Her grandfather received the Padma Shri for his work in setting up and promoting the Jaipur Foot, an artificial limb, especially for landmine victims. Giving back to the community has always been a strong part of Ms Divya’s upbringing. At a very young age, she was given the opportunity to join the family business – Safexpress, India’s largest logistics service provider, but decided to build and lead Safeducate, a logistics skilling platform. 11 years ago, skill development existed only in dilapidated government polytechnics, and new industries like logistics had yet not recognized the importance of trained manpower. Ms Divya spent the last decade travelling across the country and working with India and its students at the very grassroots level. Over the years, she was successful in setting up over 150 centres across the country, under different governments and various universities to help students upskill and get the right career opportunity to move ahead in life.

“The post covid world allowed me to explore the new digitally connected world and then I joined Arihant and Ajeet to launch Seekho, India’s first career accelerator that combines learning, mentorship and employment, seed-funded by Sequoia’s surge

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fund,” says Ms Divya. The co-founders of Seekho have been disruptors and innovators with each venture and have made an impact in different spaces/ industries. The mix of multiple expertise and the experimentation the three of them have done has brought a deep understanding of their customers.

“We are obsessed with our customers and have gone deep to understand their pain points and woes. We realised that for a country like India multiple format video content was key as was live instruction,” Ms Divya shares. As a videofirst learning community, Seekho has multiple video format offerings including live classes, long format and short videos.

As she took on this company, she was driven to provide better opportunities for students in the country. “Despite having one of the largest youth populations in the world, a plethora of colleges and learning opportunities, most young people do not have the skills that businesses today need.

Fewer than 17 per cent of our graduates are immediately employable. There is a massive gap between the CV of the candidate and the JD of the employers. Businesses on the other end are struggling as they have no measurable way of hiring the right people for the right jobs,” shares Ms Divya.

She realised that there was a need for a centre like Seekho to help students to acquire skills that help them be job-ready.

The company helps GenZ in taking the professional leap by providing mentorship, learning and earning opportunities, all on a single platform. The platform was launched keeping three stakeholders/pillars in mind, users, corporates and mentors. Seekho is the first and at this point, the only platform in the JobTech space that is bringing all three stakeholders together on a single platform.

Seekho uses technology to truly democratise and change the face of higher education, seeking to disrupt and innovate job-led education in an affordable, fun and gamified way.

Seekho recognises that between graduating and starting work, there is a sizeable gap filled neither by the educational institutions who claim to prepare the seeker nor the employers who select. The Seekho App is the first step for a student to start their journey to supercharge their careers. The app is video first and students can access learning series which consist of short videos, long videos and cohort-based courses.

Over 300 industry experts and mentors contribute to creating this incredibly relevant social learning platform. Seekho has 10 academies, which have been created and structured around the highest demand, high pull areas of our knowledge economy today. Users can subscribe to these academies with Seekho Select subscription.

Seekho gamifies learning journeys, leading to real career outcomes thus making it rewarding for the learner and the community. Every milestone completed on Seekho earns Karma Points. These points can be redeemed on live classes, and also move the learner up the talent board. The

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platform also has one-of-a-kind live community events, like SeekhoX, which is a series of live sessions that showcases thought leaders sharing their learnings in a fun way. The first session was headed by Mr Ankur Warikoo, the lineup of mentors includes Ranveer Allahbadia, Papa CJ, Raj Shamani, Prashant Tandon of Tata 1mg to name a few.

Seekho cuts across industry experts, learners and recruiters to create value for the world of work. Today, there is an obvious shift in how GenZ is preparing for their career dreams and also how recruiters wish to hire the right talent. The future of education is very dynamic and personal. The ‘One size fits all’ formula doesn’t work for the next generation and the current education system is not adequate enough to prepare you for the future of work. Seekho’s AI answers critical questions for users like picking the most fitting mentor, choosing an apt study buddy, the pace of learning, and the relevance of online sessions. The technology at Seekho provides learners with a curated learning path that is personalized to their learning needs and style.

The machine learning algorithm identifies ways to achieve career goals for a specific starting point which is defined by parameters as per current resume and assessment results. It also takes pointers from the user’s learning activity both inside and outside of a live classroom to understand their behaviour. At scale, Seekho’s AI will be able to take a user from one career goal to another through a curated learning journey consisting of live classes, assessments, reading material, recorded videos, competitions, workshops and mentorship. “We are very excited with the dynamic nature of this technology as it will automatically tailor for the new skills required in work and working towards a future where the AI will not only suggest a learning path but also a career path which will maximize one’s career satisfaction and earning potential,” shares Ms Divya.

Ms Divya says that five years from now, Seekho wants to disrupt the upskilling space with their innovative subscription model and truly democratise higher education. As a part of this vision, it is imperative to take Indian talent to the world and

expose them to emerging and developed global markets.

“Since we have attained our PMF, understand the speed and scale required to blitz scale, it is very essential for us to build an outcome-driven platform for millions of job seekers across the globe which not only helps them get a job but also partner with them as they grow in their careers,” she states. In turn, Seekho aims to become the only player in this category to establish a full-stack frictionless corporate hiring solution by connecting three key stakeholders i.e. learners, mentors and corporates on a single platform, a one-stop global brand that makes youth employable by constantly upskilling and staying relevant in this VUCA world.

Ms Divya surely has the spirit of leadership within her. She likes to believe that she is a champion of Seekho as she roots for her team and community. “I have always been a proponent of skilling and wanted to build a skillingemployment platform, which led to the launch of Seekho.

The insights I’ve gained can surely bring a positive change at Seekho,” she shares. Ms Divya is an active contributor to policymaking across ministries and Niti Aayog and was also named among India Today’s 50 most powerful change-makers under 50. She has been a social entrepreneur, working relentlessly for the past few years on changing the upskilling landscape of India and democratising higher education.

Ms Divya says, “Being an entrepreneur in India is a challenge in itself. Being a startup entrepreneur is like trying to build a plane while it’s flying. Being a women startup entrepreneur is building this plane while it’s flying while one of its wings has probably caught fire. As a society, we are still struggling to give women their rightful place in the workplace.” She believes COVID-19 has been a great equalizer and normalized that home, as well as life, can coexist. “My advice to fellow women entrepreneurs trying to make a hole in the sky is to look at both macro and microlevel problems revolving around education and create a sustainable business around them,” shares Ms Divya.

Being an entrepreneur in India is a challenge in itself. Being a startup entrepreneur is like trying to build a plane while it’s flying. Being a women startup entrepreneur is building this plane while it’s flying while one of its wings has probably caught fire

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EXPERT’S OPINION

Shopping in a Post-Pandemic World – Adapting to Immersive Tech Nidhi Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO, Abby – A Live Shopping Platform

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-commerce was a blessing in the times of the pandemic providing access to essential purchases running our households and some discretionary purchases to still make us satisfy the shopping itch and soothe the rather gloomy zeitgeist.

With Lockdowns, the only safe option available for shopping was the online medium, accelerating its adoption as well. Buying something meant picking up the phone, right?

10 years of e-commerce growth compressed to 3 months after the pandemic was reported in the US. Increase in Online Transactions went from 15.8 to 23.3 per cent for UK; China (from 20.7 to 24.9 per cent), the US (11 to 14 per cent), Australia (6.3 to 9.4 per cent), Singapore (5.9 to 11.7 per cent) and Canada (3.6 to 6.2 per cent) as reported on a UN Story Let’s look at the two most important prongs to the above outcome – Shoppers and Brands bringing technology to the helm Shoppers: This fast forwarding to the online world was experienced by all and sundry across countries, cities both urban and semi urban. In India, thanks to the logistics infrastructure, the reach is estimated to be about 95% of the pincodes and the digital payments ecosystem bringing a lot of shoppers into the fold.

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Nidhi is the Co-Founder & CEO of Abby, A Live Shopping Platform. Abby is a platform for Live Shopping, an ecosystem for Brands, Shoppers and Shopping Experts real-time

facilitated

by

interaction

2-way between

Shoppers and Experts & LIVE Product Demos. Abby is striving to make the online shopping world more fun and immersive resembling the offline shopping experience. Nidhi was one of the leading Home Shopping Anchors in the country and sold a variety of products LIVE on TV across Brands like Lenovo, Samsung, Bajaj, Philips, Jashn, W, Satya Paul, Tanishq, Sunsilk & many others. Her biggest LIVE show clocked sales of approx. INR 97 Lakhs in less than 3hrs! She was in the Home Shopping Industry for 8+ years, hosted 2000+ LIVE Shopping Shows and a cumulative GMV of INR 100+ Crores.

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Shopper behaviour changed dramatically which felt almost overnight to be driven by essential purchases but was rubbing off on discretionary purchases as well.

It is important to note the motivations behind shopping for these segments: Non-discretionary or essential categories are close to survival – lesser new brand trials and more loyalty Discretionary – Celebratory, Enhancing Social Identity, Defining their worth Let’s check-in with Smita, a 32 year HR professional in Pune and an urban family of four based in Delhi with working spouses and teenage children and see how their Shopping formula changed upside down.

Pre-Covid Shopping formula was a carefully balanced mix of both flavours – Online and Offline with set tracks for almost every category: Grocery: Monthly from Big Basket and things I need for today’s lunch from local Kirana wala Fashion: Myntra for repeat purchases of familiar products like leggings, US Polo Tees, discovery of unique products which otherwise would need her to go through 20 stores on feet and tire her out Date with Zara, H & M at least twice a year for the yummy sales loaded with the adrenaline rush of discounts and oodles of newness in the wardrobe.

Beauty: Lookup, get inspired online, experiment a little sometimes with buying instantly while at other times go to the beauty section at Shoppers Stop and swatch it before hitting ‘Buy’ Electronics: Learn about the products online but do go to a Croma to check out a demo piece Mall Time: For the social experience of it, for the glitterati, fragrances and energy, to experience the city’s very own ramp where you check out what’s intrend like IGTVs in the physical world. To interact with the floor assistants, see ‘Add to Carts’ of fellow shoppers in the real world.

Terms like Showrooming and Webrooming or ROPO – Research Online and Buy Online or Vice versa are real and make it very layered Online Shopping Experience largely stood for product discovery, comfort and convenience and Offline Shopping Experience stood for a rich social and emotional experience.

Shopping Formula Post-Covid: From the carefully crafted online-offline mix with devised hacks, Shopping during the pandemic went online every day, multiple times a day from several apps. Apps which became as necessary on the Phone as the Speed dial list for close family.

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While essential purchases are easy repeats, let’s look at what it entailed for discretionary purchases.

Statista says nearly 70% of shoppers read 1-6 reviews before making a purchase.

Shoppers browse 20+ products before making an online purchase. And if each product browsed meant scrolling through 5 Product images, that’s a tedious browsing of about 100 Images for 20 Products. Added to the fact that the medium will feel lonely and robotic, under time pressures, this could seem like a chore more than the power of the wand which makes everything accessible to you.

In the post pandemic world, a large tendency of ‘picking up the phone to order’ remains pushing the online purchases for discretionary categories as well. And the credit goes to the seamless unbroken experience displayed by the e-commerce platforms who rose to the occasion Brands: Let’s look at some key trends which emerged strongly.

D2C Brands: Google’s Year in Search Report 2021 highlighted a 533% rise in search interest for D2C Brands in 2020. Great news albeit translates into high competition.

Social Commerce: Product discovery through the modern-day billboards viz. Instagram, Fb, other content platforms inching to commerce with millions of influencers.

In today’s world almost everyone is an influencer and can be bucketed into– nano, micro, macro, celebrity categories According to Statisa, Social commerce attracted more than 50 PE/VC deals which will translate into more buzz for Shoppers. Social Commerce GMV was estimated to be around USD 1.5-2 Bn in FY 20 with a CAGR of 55-60% Live Commerce: Incepted in China with Taobao in 2016 and in 6 years has grabbed a giant nearly 10% share of e-tailing market and a 3x rise in 2020 to about $170 Bn. Brands can leverage the trends above to move shoppers in their funnel from awareness to conversion with least friction. E-commerce acceleration, rise in D2C Brands have translated into rising customer acquisition costs. It’s become a non-negotiable to meticulously juxtapose these channels to their marketing funnel to drive connection, community with shared values and trust. This will boost customer LTV and conversion rates.

Immersive technology becomes pertinent here.

Offline Shopping is the most immersive, with heightened application of all five senses on the physical plane and emotional energy with the community appeal.

Can Brands use technology to make Online shopping immersive and closer to offline experience than ever before?

Technology For Immersive Shopping These are technologies that Brands can bet on to be ahead of the pack and garner shopper love.

Livestreaming: With 350-400 million video-watching user base in India alone and affordable access to the internet, live streaming will take away shopper time spent on TV or platforms with static content.

Live Shopping is a powerful interactive medium with a community experience rather than clinical.

Shoppers see the product in action, have the power to participate and ask questions in real time. However, to execute this efficiently Brands need to go Live on the right platform where the user intent is centred around shopping rather than lazy content consumption. Blended with the right expertise on Live Selling this can result in conversions upto 30%.

Brands today have built distribution at a significant cost and effort but these followers are not engaged with the Brand optimally. Live Shopping can be a great solution.

3D, AR/VR: For easy visualization, product understanding on the digital medium virtual try-ons can become very popular. Walmart is using Augmented Reality for better inventory control. Lenskart is allowing users to try new frames virtually. Some of the other notable trials of this are Amazon Salon – try virtual hair colors before deciding on the one for you or Sephora which allows to try beauty products virtually.

Voice/Vernacular Search: Google India saw 270% increase in voice search as reported by Think with Google. Slang Labs is one of the Indian startups evangelizing this path. Voice assistant apps showcased a massive adoption with 5-6 million monthly active users as quoted by a bain report NFTs, Metaverse and Digital-to-Avatar Brands: Metaverse can enrich the customer’s shopping experience and make it more personalized, immersive, and real while sitting on their living room couches. Nike, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger are some of the marquee brands leading this space.

Technology can only become powerful with the right application. Ultimately a seamless integration of these for the right stages of the Brand funnel will sublime a clear winner which the shoppers will surely reward and rejoice.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Communication is Key: Exploring Digital Marketing in 2022 Moushumi Pal, Founder, Woodpecker Media

Founded by Moushumi Pal, Woodpecker Media is a 5 year old company with dynamic, dedicated and a hardworking team that will stop at nothing to provide their clients the desired results. Her forte lies in strategizing communication plans basis the essence of a brand with a strong focus on media management aiming to create focused visibility and awareness. For her, reaching success means going a long, difficult way, but in the end, talent, hard work, and dedication gives happy customers and great stories of success that everyone can learn something from.

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The majority of the content we consume on our social media platforms has been fine-tuned by AIs to keep us engaged for longer!

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f you’re a budding digital marketer or an experienced one, you’ve probably looked into the latest digital marketing trends at some point! Professionals who want a career in digital marketing must keep up with the latest digital marketing trends in the industry. With the rate of change increasing year after year, every digital marketer must constantly invest time and energy in upskilling and learning. Knowing the inner workings of algorithms, new changes, or features gives you the first-mover advantage and allows you to create the most effective marketing campaigns for you and your company.

As the new year begins, digital marketing enthusiasts all over the world have begun to search for and observe the latest trends.

Previously, voice search optimization and artificial intelligence were formidable concepts, but these latest digital marketing trends are now among the top concerns for most business owners.

We’re talking about the Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2022 and Beyond, with references and citations to all of the research and articles we read to curate this learning experience. The trends fall into several categories, including search, social, website, lead nurturing, and others.

We’ve also covered a few digital marketing trend predictions for 2022, which will dominate the industry this year. So make sure you read all the way to the end.

Here are the Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2022: 1.Artificial Intelligence in Marketing This is the most important Digital Marketing Trend on our list. The world has been buzzing about how the Artificial Intelligence wave will eventually take over every aspect of your life. We haven’t realised it yet, but the transformation has already begun. Sixty percent of internet users have already interacted with an AI chatbot for query resolution across multiple apps and websites.

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The majority of the content we consume on our social media platforms has been fine-tuned by AIs to keep us engaged for longer! This technology is so incredible that it is expected to be a $190 billion industry by 2025, and digital marketers have a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on this cutting-edge tool. AI is a complex algorithm that teaches itself by analysing massive amounts of data about a specific field or topic and learning the patterns that work best. The AI’s learning capabilities enable programmers to introduce effective changes in outcomes by allowing the AI to use the techniques it discovered works best.

There are numerous examples of AI already performing previously unimaginable tasks, such as content writing for JP Morgan and Chase. Persuado, an AI-powered content writing assistant, has been implemented. AI can perform a variety of tasks and act as an extension to any digital marketer who understands how to use it. It’s lowcost, precise, and extremely effective. With so many large corporations adopting these tools, every team must devise a strategy for incorporating AI into their arsenal of tools.

2.Augmented Reality Augmented Reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment in which objects in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information.It is made up of three basic components. a combination of real and virtual worlds real-time interaction and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. While virtual reality creates a buzz and gets everyone excited with grand sci-fi ideas, augmented reality is far more marketable. Experts predict that AR will continue to outperform VR in terms of market share.

3.Optimization of Voice Search There are several reasons why Voice Search, a feature that we all received with our smartphones around 2014, is exploding this year. First, smart speakers are becoming more popular. 20% of households have purchased a smart speaker such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home. The adoption of fully voice-controlled devices is an important indicator of how people have begun to adapt to this new behavior.

Second, Google claims that their Voice Search has a 95 percent accuracy rate. The ease of use factor for voice search has increased as search precision has increased.

With improved accuracy to match what you ask for, and the ease of using your voice to get results, the process has become more personalized and appealing.

Third, and most importantly, it is predicted that by 2022, voice results will account for 50% of all online purchases. This represents a $40 billion opportunity for

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To communicate with businesses or brands, 63 percent of people prefer messaging on chatbots. This virtual support provides excellent customer service, which means that a business can eliminate repetitive tasks digital marketers to capitalise on. With so many growth indicators pointing to the rise of voice search, preparing your website for voice search will be critical in the future.

4.Chatbots Chatbots are expected to be one of the top digital marketing trends in 2022. The AI-based technology uses instant messaging to converse with customers and site visitors. It is intended to communicate with customers through textual or auditory means. Chatbots can be used by businesses to engage with customers. Because there are many users visiting the website at the same time, it is advantageous to have a technology that can respond to hundreds of users at the same time. Chatbots provide 24/7 customer service, instant responses to inquiries, and answers to simple questions. To communicate with businesses or brands, 63 percent of people prefer messaging on chatbots. This virtual support provides excellent customer service, which means that a business can eliminate repetitive tasks.

5.Automation in Marketing Marketing Automation Automation has boosted the industry significantly in the last year and will be one of the most important digital marketing trends in 2022.

Marketing automation is all about streamlining and automating processes in order to make them run more smoothly, effectively, and quickly. Lead collection and nurturing will be one of the best uses of marketing automation. If you can drive a lot of traffic to your

website but don’t collect quality leads at the right time, the traffic is pointless. You can integrate various CRM tools and lead nurturing software with marketing automation to assist you in collecting leads at any time of day and personalising the process.

6.Micro-Influencers Influencer marketing is a digital marketing trend that will undoubtedly expand into new territory. Although the concept of influencer marketing is still in its infancy, the market appears to be saturated. So here’s how it could change in 2022 and the coming years.

All audiences do not appreciate the hype surrounding macro-influencers. The distinction between genuine influencer marketing and staged influencers has begun to emerge. As a result, in order to be more authentic, businesses will now use micro-influencers, as well as employees and customers, for social proofing.

They can be the most effective brand ambassadors, influencing people with their real-life experiences and emotions. Not that macro-influencing will suffer in 2022, but micro-influencers have a chance to overtake it.

Summing Up The world of digital marketing is a fast-paced environment where new trends emerge and change the way marketing is done. Every year, as the pace of technology accelerates, we will see new and exciting trends impacting how we as digital marketers communicate our products.

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GEETA SINGH,

Director, The Yellow Coin Communication It is the era of women. Women entrepreneurs and founders are successfully leading start-ups and helming top position in businesses today. Workplace gender diversity and female representation in workplace is a critical factor in the success of any business since women bring their own set of skills and fresh new perspective on looking at a problem. It is of paramount importance to encourage female leadership and a greater participation of women in workplace and organisations to inspire the next generation of young women to believe in themselves, their dreams and come to the forefront and lead.

GUNJAN MALHOTRA,

Director, Komaki Electric Vehicle Division India has come a long way in increasing women’s participation in start-ups and businesses especially in the tech field. The tech space has been predominantly male dominated but it is changing rapidly with increasing number of women entrepreneurs who are evolving the tech space, bringing their own vision and challenging the status quo. The need of the hour is governmental support, access to proper resources, training and mentoring specially designed for women to foster more women entrepreneurs and encourage more women representation in the tech space.

KUPPULAKSHMI KRISHNAMOORTHY, Global Head - Zoho for Startups, Zoho Corp

More often than not, the progress or disruption that happens in tech doesn’t seem to be holistic, catering or impacting to all the sections of the society. We need more resonant leaders, leading the change; and women have many traits of inherent leadership. So, the question we should definitely be asking is this: how many women in tech do we know off-thetop-of-our-head that are doing incredible work? If we can’t name even 10 (when there are more than hundreds of them), then it is best to sit down and think about what we mean by ‘contributions’.

What is easy is to commemorate all the acts of courage and revolt by the fabulous women from the past, celebrate one day in a year, and go back to our routine. What’s necessary and tough is to remember to #BreakTheBias everyday, use the privilege one has responsibly, and be an ally to accelerate women’s equality. This day is about reminding each of us to be strong and kind, and voice out inequalities even if that means having to stand alone.

LAVANYA SUNKARI, Founder & CEO, Laurik

The trend towards women’s entrepreneurship is on the rise. There are a lot of opportunities right there in the market for us to grab.

We started our company in Pandemic, raised funds in Pandemic, and launched it. All we need to do is unleash our true potential, break the traditional barriers, and support our passion with the Excutionable Business plan. With the right business strategies, there will be no gender bias for Fundraise and growth. We are in the right era to turn our passion into a successful brand. I firmly believe and suggest 6P’s - proper prior planning prevents poor performance; this helps to manage the work-life balance in a much easier way.

MEGHANA KAMBHAM,

Co-Founder, Carengrow Health Connect Pvt Ltd The biggest learnings were to iterate like crazy but stay in one field, focus and deep work is the key.

For anyone who says both family and work as a women entrepreneur is hard is 100% right. Radically try to organise and focus to bounce back and achieve!

LEADER IN FOCUS

ANJNA BHATI Co-Founder, BluePi Technologies

Innovation in Tech and Leadership First Magazine 32 Digital March 2022

Turn up, accept the challenge and demonstrate the strength of character. I hope I am able to do that, at least I try to

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ith a goal to create the next generation of highly skilled and motivated professionals, Ms Anjna Bhati, the co-founder of BluePi Technologies, strives towards making a meaningful impact at work. Being a woman and a leader, she understands the importance of being responsible, taking ownership and delivering. “It is all about demonstrating these qualities every day. Turn up, accept the challenge and demonstrate the strength of character. I hope I am able to do that, at least I try to,” says Ms Anjna.

Born and raised in a middle-class family in Delhi, Ms Anjna is a computer science engineer by education.

Since her early childhood days, one of her best memories is to do work that one is proud of. With this reflective thought process from a young age, Ms Anjna realised how important it is to acknowledge the work we do and how far we have come. “10 years from now I should be able to look back at my work and be proud of it. That is something that my parents have always instilled in me,” she shares.

In the last few years, Ms Anjna says she has learnt a lot. With the opportunity to develop her team and take it to the next level, she leads the delivery team at BluePi

with a goal to create a self-organised, highly capable team, making them the best team in the industry. She believes that the most important things to learn in life are fundamentals, the basics. Once one has a strong base, one can build on top of it. She also feels that everyone should have an attitude that everything is “figureoutable.”

Ms Anjna’s career so far, she says, has been an amazing journey. “It looks like only yesterday I started fresh out of college and the support I have received at BluePi has been absolutely tremendous,” she shares. She adds, “For as long as I remember, I was always inclined towards technology, specifically computer science and software development.

So, it is like a dream come true for me, given the kind of work I am involved in.” The most influential person in her professional life is Mr Pronam Chatterjee. He has been an immense inspiration in all aspects of her career and it was under his mentoring and guidance that Ms Anjna is at the place where everyone sees her today.

Being a woman in the tech industry, Ms Anjna felt that she was thriving in an unbiased environment. She strongly believes that to innovate one needs to be motivated, curious, humble and courageous. “From my team and the organisation’s perspective, a leader’s only job is to identify

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I was always inclined towards technology, specifically computer science and software development. So, it is like a dream come true for me

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people with these rare qualities, guide them and then let them do their thing. More often than not, innovation is stifled by top-down control, and will not deliver desired results. So, the most important role of a leader is to find the right people, trust them and then get out of their way. People will surprise you,” she adds.

BluePi’s unique mix of domain understanding and the constant pursuit of technological excellence is reflected in the services we offer. While it looks like technology leads the way in the industry, the more important aspect is to be able to clearly articulate the business problem one is trying to solve. Technology is only an enabler. The leadership team in BluePi has trusted, encouraged and supported Ms Anjna to pursue her various idea and thoughts. “Given that BluePi started with great people, with a rich, deep and meaningful experience, it was built on a solid foundation. “Doing meaningful work and transforming lives” is our purpose, our raison d’etre, and the driving force behind building the great team that we have today,” says Ms Anjna.

As the world looks to the future, Ms Anjna shares these words with future women in the industry: “I want to tell the young women out there to get their fundamentals right, build on them, remain confident in who they are and trust their abilities. Today, there are innumerable opportunities for women in the tech-domain. Working hard and constantly updating oneself with both technological as well as business skills are very crucial to drive tech innovation and become future-ready.”

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Higher Education Digest October 2020

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IN MY

VIEW

EdTech Is Essential To The Aspirations Of People In Tier I To III Cities Sarita Digumarti, Chief Learning Officer, UNext Learning

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istorically, learners migrate to big cities to pursue higher education degrees due to the possible unavailability of quality education in their regions.

To some extent, distance/correspondence education tried to take education to individual households but could not achieve its goal altogether. The advent of digital technologies enabled digital learning, which proved to be very useful during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, learning from home or remote learning has become an integral part of education – from kindergarten to research studies.

Globally, education technology flourished as an independent sector during the last two years, thanks to pandemic-induced online education. Incorporating various technologies and tapping new segments, the sector registered a massive growth in these tiring years. With EdTech solutions, institutions could continue their academics by providing quality education to their students, who were distributed across regions during the lockdown.

The increasing internet userbase, expansion of high-speed connectivity, and changing consumer behaviour support the growth of the EdTech industry. As per an estimate by a global market

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Online education reduces the cost of education

SARITA DIGUMARTI

Sarita Digumarti is the Chief Learning Officer at UNext Learning. She is responsible for academics, content, and delivery for online degrees, certifications, and enterprise (B2B) programmes at UNext. Prior to assuming her current role in UNext Learning, she was the COO and Co-founder of Jigsaw Academy. She holds an M.B.A. in Finance from T.A. Pai Management Institute and a Master in Arts, Quantitative Economics from Tufts University.

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research firm, the EdTech market was valued at USD 254.80 billion in 2021 and forecasted to be USD 605.40 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 15.52%. The Indian market also witnessed exponential growth. According to Statista, the Indian EdTech industry is valued at USD 2.8 billion and will reach USD 10.4 billion by 2025.

More and more people from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural areas are using digital technologies such as smartphones, e-wallets, digital payment systems etc, and have started exploring the possibilities of learning from top institutions. The smaller towns and villages contain a large youth population, who are eager to acquire degrees or similar qualifications or skills to secure lucrative jobs. The focus of EdTech companies has now turned to providing quality education to these people. They’re

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unleashing a host of innovations and features to adopt these segments.

EdTech to fulfill aspirations Let’s find how EdTech is fulfilling the aspirations of people from lower-tier cities and towns: ● Learn from top institutions: Top-ranked higher education institutions in countries like India are in metropolitan cities. For example, IITs in Delhi, Bombay and Madras, IISc Bangalore, and several other public and private HEIs are in metropolitan cities. Though the Indian government attempted to establish premier institutions in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, a large section of students is from big cities. On the other hand, EdTech companies

are trying to take education from top institutions to the fingertips of each learner, irrespective of their location. ● Affordable education: Online education reduces the cost of education. Education cost puts off the higher education dreams of many brilliant students, especially those outside tier-1 cities. Students are often unable to spend the required money on accommodation, food, travel, and other allied requirements, besides course/ tuition fees. In online education, students need to pay only course/tuition fees, that too often lesser than an offline course. Several EdTech companies offer scholarships, stipends, and no-cost EMIs.

Almost all the e-learning providers prepare the learners to become jobready with required skill sets and offer career assistance or placement support upon successful completion of the course ● Study on the go: The major feature of EdTech solutions is high convenience and flexibility to learners.

Since all the learning activities are conducted through a learning management system (LMS), learners can access the course content and attempt the assessments and tests at their convenient time. Even working professionals can study without altering their work schedules. EdTech entities focus on developing their LMS compatibility with low bandwidth of internet, thus enabling anytime, anywhere learning. ● A sense of security: Families in 3rd and 4th rung cities and villages are reluctant to send their children, especially girls, to far-away cities due to security concerns. This remains a key concern for rural women’s literacy. Since EdTech companies facilitate education

from the comfort of their homes, parents from lowertier cities find online learning as the safest mode of education. It enables more students- both female and male- to continue their education without relocating from their homes. Married women and new moms also find it feasible to achieve their dreams through this mode. ● Outcome-based approach: Along with delivering the best content, the EdTech approach is towards the outcome of the courses, which includes improving the productivity of the learners by enabling future-oriented employability skills. Moreover, online courses are designed with industry inputs. EdTech platforms employ individuals with high practical experience as faculty and course coordinators. Regular interaction with industry experts and leaders is provided to learners. All these help students acquire up-to-date industry insights and build and expand their professional networks to succeed in the future workplace. ● Higher employment opportunities: Almost all the e-learning providers prepare the learners to become jobready with required skill sets and offer career assistance or placement support upon successful completion of the course. This EdTech approach enables students from any location to find a suitable job and remain relevant throughout their professional life. Unemployment among the graduates is very high, especially among the rural graduates. A 2017 All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) study found that over 60% of engineering graduates remain unemployed every year. Employers report skill deficiency among graduates. Incorporating industry inputs and focusing on the employability of students will improve employment prospects.

Conclusion The boom of online education and the EdTech industry is inevitable amid the advancement of digital technology.

Countries like ours realised its potential at the initial stage and facilitated EdTech growth with supportive policies. Acknowledging online education as a vital mode of education, the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasised its significance in improving the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in education, specifically in higher education. By expanding its operations to new geographies, EdTech companies can help the nation achieve a higher GER in the coming years.

In sum, the prospects of EdTech industries to meet the educational aspiration of learners in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier cities and villages are very high. We will witness its full potential in the coming years.

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EXPERT’S OPINION

How Regulating Digital Asset Tech and Web 3.0 will Power India’s Economic Growth Kristin Boggiano, President and Co-Founder, CrossTower

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ver the next decade, blockchain-enabled digital asset technologies offer India a significant opportunity to participate in the fast-developing Web 3.0 space. Add a young, technologysavvy population with a large developer base, India stands to benefit from this emerging technology in terms of employment, revenue generation and more. Reports and studies indicate embracing and fostering these developing technologies in India could contribute an additional 1.1 trillion USD of economic growth to its GDP over the next 11 years.

Much like the early Internet, Web 3.0 is currently in a phase where despite early adopters the general mood is rife with speculation, mainly due to the lack of a regulatory framework. The Internet sector accounted for nearly 12 per cent of the US GDP in 2020. Imagine if the US had shied away from creating a regulatory framework for wider Internet adoption. If notes were to be taken from the past, it would not be a wise decision for a digital-first economy like India to shy away from a trilliondollar growth opportunity, especially when it is uniquely positioned for it, given its large, tech-savvy, and young population. The adoption of an early regulatory framework by the government, along with supporting structures such as private/public partnerships, grants and frameworks for education, regulatory sandboxes, VC programs and incentives for foreign investment would help expedite growth.

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Kristin Boggiano is President and Co-Founder of CrossTower.

Previously, she acted as the Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and Head of Governmental Affairs at AlphaPoint, Managing Director with

Guggenheim

Partners

and Special Counsel at Schulte Roth & Zabel. She also worked at Merrill Lynch on the credit and equity derivatives desk and began her career with roles at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). In 2018, Boggiano started the Digital Asset Legal Alliance (DARLA), a group for in-house chief

legal

and

compliance

officers in the digital asset industry. She is also the founder of Women in Derivatives (WIND), a global non-profit with more than 8,000 members and a mission to educate and develop women leaders. Earning her law degree and M.B.A. from North-eastern University and her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, Boggiano is a business-focused legal executive and strategic advisor with deep expertise analyzing the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape related to decentralized finance and digital assets.

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The underlying technology of Web 3.0 i.e., blockchain and distributed ledger technology has massive use cases such as tokenisation of real assets, supply chain, entertainment, and art. This technology powers digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and other blockchains that are expected to dominate the future of financial ecosystem.

Interestingly, major Indian crypto exchanges have been self-regulating and enabling KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-money Laundering) policy to ensure fair practices. With an official nod for a proper cryptocurrency framework, the industry hopes to finally get in sync with the

With the right policies, India will rapidly adapt to the revolution in information technology and will improve Indian citizens’ quality of life, creating jobs, and reinvigorating the economy Indian economy. This will also make for a great opportunity as a post-covid economic revival that will help create more jobs, strengthen the financial system, and bolster the economy for the future.

In 2013, the global digital asset market was approximately 1.5 billion USD in market capitalisation, within a decade the market capitalisation stands at nearly 3.0 trillion USD. More Indians too have turned towards crypto as a form of investment, more so after the pandemic. Nearly 15 million Indian retail investors representing 1.8 per cent of the population have invested over 6.6 billion USD in crypto assets as of 2021 and these numbers are only expected to grow as the web 3.0 ecosystem matures over time.

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By taxing crypto-asset transactions, the Indian government surely took the first step towards embracing the crypto and blockchain industries in India. This action provides the Indian government’s validity of the asset class and removes uncertainty, which we believe will be a catalyst for significant growth.

Building a cryptocurrency framework India has the potential to become the world leader in Web 3.0 and timely regulations by the government will help expedite this growth. Further, by announcing in the union budget 2022 that any income derived from the transfer of virtual assets will be taxed at 30%, was the first step towards embracing the crypto and blockchain industries in India, we believe this is a positive move. With the right policies, India will rapidly adapt to the revolution in information technology and will improve Indian citizens’ quality of life, creating jobs, and reinvigorating the economy. The developer community in the country is not sitting on the fringes of this technology revolution either.

Moreover, digital assets backed by blockchain are projects to solve real life problems and have value – has the potential to build infrastructure, whether it’s in finance, healthcare, supply chain.

The next frontier of innovation India has the huge potential to become a global leader in blockchain technology, enabling digital assets such as crypto. If India closes the avenues for crypto, it will be cut off like Nigeria. India’s strong base of developers will also miss out on innovation, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities. Being a digital-first country, this innovative technology needs a regulatory framework to grow, which India can provide.

What is the way forward?

By focusing on creating core pillars around R&D, STEM programmes, education, and appropriate legislation and regulation would be immensely helpful. Helping the industry through direct investment, creating a favourable environment for emerging market players, and bringing together public/private partnerships will also go a long way.

The innovative blockchain technology that digital crypto assets are based on can provide a big boost to the Indian economy. Blockchain is quietly revolutionising for financial activities such as lending, payments and distributing credit.

India should embrace this new technology through better regulatory framework. With a balanced approach and imposing proper regulations can allow innovation while at the same time balancing the need for consumer protection.

And with more awareness about the sector, over time, India will embrace the sector with broader lens.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

How to Improve Women Participation in Indian Gaming Industry Pratiksha Nagori, HR Manager - Strategy & Compliance, Sumo India Studios (part of Sumo Group)

Pratiksha Nagori is the human resource manager, Strategy & Compliance for Sumo India Studios, part of Sumo Group. She believes since Sumo is building up a team that has a massive target to achieve, her major role is to build up the strategy to achieve the target. Sumo Group, headquartered in the UK, operates across 15 studios, and award-winning development teams in the UK, Poland, Canada, India and the US. It is one of the UK’s largest providers of end-to-end creative development and co-development services to the video games and entertainment industries. She started her career as an IT recruiter, worked with startups to help them build the HR department right from the scratch, so for her it was always taking new challenges, formalizing processes is what she always liked doing. She believes that every individual has something which can influence them. And the best leadership lesson that she learnt is “Let people be what they are, just make sure you pick a few qualities to enhance it to something outstanding.”

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The pandemic, as well as the surge in online gaming, has ensured entry into the industry to be smooth and easy from the comfort of people’s homes

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he Indian video game industry continues to evolve and the growth has been tremendous, it is expected that India will emerge as one of the largest gaming markets at global level in the future.

However, contrary to the notion that games are an interest area only for men, women’s contribution to the market’s growth cannot be understimated.

The increased women participation in the Indian gaming industry What is noteworthy is that the video game industry is now being driven by women as well as well as men.

Women gamers, as well as entrepreneurs, are increasingly becoming a part of the Indian gaming ecosystem – a trend that was highlighted at the Indian Gaming Summit last year. The industry experts pointed out the fact that women’s inclusion in all areas has improved in the video game industry and will pick up pace in the near future.

Be it gamers, developers, or entrepreneurs, women today

are important in game development. Creating a stronger gender ratio will help balance out the industry.

The rise of female gamers The Indian video games industry has become more diverse and inclusive, it is now welcoming gamers from all walks of life irrespective of their gender, caste, creed, and location. As per the research by InMobi, 43% of mobile gamers in India last year were women. The study further states that gaming is gaining popularity amongst women, surpassing all barriers of age, marital status, and defying all conventional norms. Sunita Thapa Magar, Poornima Seetharaman, Vidushi Suryavanshi (Mogambo), Mudra Roy (thewallflower), Manasvi Dalvi, Shagufta Iqbal (Xyaa) are some of the prominent female gamers in India and stand testimony to the fact that women gamers are an active part of the Indian gaming market.

The pandemic, as well as the surge in online gaming, has ensured entry into the industry to be smooth and easy from the comfort of people’s homes. The growing

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Spreading awareness about gaming to the Indian female population as a viable entertainment source and a career choice will further help in increasing female involvement in the sector prominence of mobile gaming along with gaming becoming a more socially acceptable form of entertainment has further helped the sector to be innovative and inclusive.

Collectively, all these factors have played a major role in the improved presence and visibility of women being more interactive with video games and the market. As a result, women gamers are growing in number and are beginning to occupy a fairer share in the overall gaming demographics.

Improving women participation in the Indian gaming industry Females are not only pursuing their passion by becoming gamers,they are also managing the gaming firms at the executive level, C-Suite, and managerial roles. Game developers are making concerted efforts to actively hire the women workforce and as a result, the core roles of game designers, quality assurance managers, game developers, and product managers are also going to females.

However, as the segment is increasingly garnering female gamers’ interest; the industry needs to be mindful about including only men-focused themes when developing games. As WeForum appropriately highlights, there is also a dire need to break the prevailing stereotypes about the way the graphics and the characters are depicted in the games so that gaming becomes more inclusive for females.

Women are now exploring equal opportunities within the sector. It is important to have females involved in the designing, developing, and decision-making processes. To ensure improved women’s participation, game development companies and organizations must begin to redesign their organisational structures. This will help in fostering an inclusive and non-discriminatory work culture for females.

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We can help improve women participation by hosting more women-focused gaming campaigns, events and awards. Ensuring that women gamers are represented in their country in the media is a part of the potentially raising awareness in competitive gaming such as esports and this will further help in achieve this objective of increased women participation in the sector.

The efforts should also be focused towards breaking down the stereotypes and stigma of women gamers as they occupy a significant share in other countries such as the UK, and it is expected that India will soon follow suit.

Spreading awareness about gaming to the Indian female population as a viable entertainment source and a career choice will further help in increasing female involvement in the sector. It is about time that we lay the groundwork for the growth of female participation in the industry!

Summing up!

Women are playing a pivotal role in shaping the Indian video game industry as well as boosting its growth.

With more women joining the gaming scene, their contribution is helping to create an inviting world to make it easier for other women to enter the industry.

The Indian gaming world is robust and extensive, it is repositioning and is looking to diversify and become more inclusive. We are gradually entering a new era of gaming where women are starting to hold prominent and influential positions. The inclusion of females has improved over the years in games and their future in the market indeed seems to be promising!

Powerful protection designed for PC gamers

NORTONLIFELOCK.COM Digital First Magazine March 2022

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MYTHREYI KONDAPI,

Co-Founder & CTO, Startoon Labs Private Limited Growing up, I have always made choices for myself both personally and professionally. When we wanted to start our startup journey, I proposed to build a medical device company since it gives me a sense of satisfaction when our innovations create impact in the patients’ lives. This drives me to come up with more innovations. This women’s day, I invite more women to not just be independent but be leaders to create inclusiveness in the decision making for future. I want to congratulate all women who are excelling in the fields of industries and manufacturing.

PRASANNA ANIREDDY,

VP of Engineering, Progress (IT Firm) Perseverance has been the key to my journey that started as a software engineer. Although I never faced any

self-doubt specific to being a female leader, as individuals we all face moments where we wonder if we can do justice to the task at hand or reach the goals we set for ourselves. Sometimes, people around you like to tell you what you’re capable of or what you should be doing, causing you to doubt your abilities. I think once you learn to shut out any negative voices and follow your own intuition, you find that self-confidence will replace any selfdoubt. Be prepared to not have success in every endeavor and recognize these as learning opportunities. You must believe in yourself and have the determination to pursue your goals. I took up opportunities at the pace that I was comfortable with, and I learnt to trust the process. I have been fortunate to have very supportive managers and a team that I enjoy working with, which enables me to take on new challenges. Your mentors and the network of people you surround yourself with go a long way to inspire you. Finally, I would like to share a quote that I find motivating - “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

N. HEMA SOWJANYA, Co-Founder, HESA Global

It is not selfish to pursue your dream of building your own startup. If you have the passion and the zeal to shape your dream, then you can challenge adversities and make them look like mere obstacles that you will cross with your persistence. I know there were times when I thought I had other priorities, but I did not let go of my dream of Hesa and now it is a name synonym to ‘Tech revolution of Rural India.

NIDHI YADAV,

Co-Founder, Aks Clothings In my opinion, a powerful woman stares a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink. A woman’s potential to get to the top depends on her ability to maintain high self-esteem and confidence. A woman must have a clear vision of her goals and believe that she has the authority to pursue them. I am certain that we, as women, have that superpower and always emphasize that the secret to success lies inside us; we must recognize our potential and work hard to realize it.

LEADER IN FOCUS

SUJATHA KUMARASWAMY CEO, MeritTrac Services

Upholding the Entrepreneurial Spirit First Magazine 50 Digital March 2022

My contributions are broadly in the areas of people management, financial management, and leveraging technology to drive our growth and transformation

A

fter completing her BCom and Cost Accountancy and an MBA, Ms Sujatha Kumaraswamy, the CEO of MeritTrac Services realised her calling to entrepreneurship. “I have had the opportunity to work in some truly great organizations and the learning continues. Of course, there have been large and small obstacles along the way – I believe it is a matter of perseverance and commitment to overcome these obstacles,” she says. With vast experience, Ms Sujatha took on the corporate world with the lessons she learnt in her formative years that she carries with her till today. She has worked for over 20 years in different sectors including finance, operations and P&L management.

Ms Sujatha’s role at MeritTrac happened when she joined the Manipal Group, which considers to be a truly rewarding one so far. Her corporate journey has taught her many valuable lessons such as growth and ambition combined with humility and truly caring for the team and organization. As the CEO, she feels that the role has been a tremendous learning opportunity for her, personally and

professionally. “I look forward to making a significant impact on the industry and the group, as part of my role here,” she says. Being a a big believer in diversity, Ms Sujatha understands how great it is to have a good mix of experiences, backgrounds, and personalities in the leadership at MeritTrac.

“My contributions are broadly in the areas of people management, financial management, and leveraging technology to drive our growth and transformation,” she adds.

AI- enabled Assessment At MeritTrac, the company has been able to roll-out best-inclass remote proctored platform to serve the market needs while providing a lot of comfort to the exam proctors on the integrity of the assessment. Student verification solutions using biometrics and other tools are integrated as part of the platform for authentication. As physical invigilators transform towards being live online proctors, the ease of proctoring and monitoring students is ensuring better control over the assessment, with richer insight-backed reports.

Remote auto proctoring tools capture every action of the candidate and provide a trust score to the recruiter along

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We have enabled Online Psychometric, Language Communication, Coding and Speech assessments among other Simulation Assessments through a virtual environment

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with the competency scores. This goes on to the level of identifying typing patterns, tracking eye movement, capturing ambient sound, etc. Working closely with organizations, the trust and reliability scores on our remote proctoring systems are higher than ever, as the systems are constantly upgrading to ensure the integrity of virtual hiring, supported by an AI-backed Trust Score for every employee’s assessment.

“Our suite of assessments built over years of expertise in assessment science include coding and speech assessments that are used by clients remotely, during recruitment, and to benchmark employees in order to have an agile, updated & productive workforce. It enables rapid planning and delivery of secure tests and examinations for leading educational institutions, government departments, PSUs, and corporate entities,” says Ms Sujatha. MeritTrac’s platform-backed assessment content includes a rich repository of cognitive and behavioural assessments. Using this repository, the team at MeritTrac has enabled assessment-linked learning for corporates and institutions to identify skill gaps in students and working professionals early on through their benchmarking assessments, which are then followed up through relevant learning interventions. “We have enabled Online Psychometric, Language Communication, Coding and Speech assessments among other Simulation Assessments through a virtual environment. All this is well supported through our robust remote proctoring platform and assessment management solution that enables selfservice, custom assessment paths and rich analytics and insight-backed reports,” Ms Sujatha shares.

More recently, MeritTrac has introduced a next-gen digital assessment revolution through TalentNext. This new concept is a unified modular assessment ecosystem that combines the power of extensive content and a futuristic platform, set to redefine end-to-end recruitment intelligence and campus onboarding. Through AI-based predictive analytics incorporated with actionable insights, the benefits of data produced by AI-backed platforms are not restricted to the recruitment process but can also predict and track employee performance, needs, and retention rates. The ability of this tool to learn and improve from the operational activity is a crucial driver for ensuring the longterm success of any organisation. “Our AI analytics-based solution is an integration of the three power procedures that drive faultless assessments. I have a great team here at MeritTrac and we have achieved many milestones together. We have drawn up a clear growth path for the next few years and are confident of achieving that,” says Ms Sujatha. Currently, MeritTrac Services is focussing on achieving the large growth and transformation goals for the company over the next 3 to 5 years.

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EXPERT’S OPINION

Kula Studio FashionTech: A view into the future of clothing Priyanka Tayi, Founder & CEO, Kula Studio

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s time continues, technology then and now is influencing the fashion industry and trends of the future without many even realizing it. Technology has become ever more important to society with the future likely to see this intelligence embedded into actual clothing design. The question as to why clothing over the years has been endlessly evolving is that it operates in response to the events happening at the current time.

Quarantine has turned many people towards crafts, including handmaking their own clothing, rethinking their consumption patterns impacting climate change. Recently, the Sustainable Fashion industry has seen a huge increase as people are wanting to feel newness when wearing clothes without the hardship of paying full price for ecofriendly and consciously made products. As time goes on, this trend may continue to benefit both consumers with new clothing as well as limit the environmental impact by being able to recycle and reuse products instead of just tossing things out.

Fashion in 100 years from now might be entirely different to anything we can predict, as factors such as COVID-19 may yet further

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Priyanka

Tayi

is

an

entrepreneur who specialises in Apparel Designing and Creative Direction. She is the founder and CEO of Kula Studio, which offers Refashion-upcycling

services

for pre-owned garments in one’s wardrobe. Prior to this, she worked as an Apparel Designer with Lifestyle India Pvt Ltd for 2 years and then moved on to become the Creative Director of Hunkydory Design Studio for 9 years. She completed her Pct in Fashion and Apparel Designing from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

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Companies with female leadership have experienced a boost in both profitability and innovation as well as a more socially responsible performance

influence society in ways we previously couldn’t have imagined. Masks being the new norm is something that no one would have been able to guess becoming a staple of peoples’ wardrobes worldwide. We can only imagine what our clothing will look like in the future. We know for a fact that technology will play a role in clothing .

Trends will constantly be changing, technology will keep growing and the fashion industry will be making a unique, bold, tech-based impact with clothing. Data Tells us that the workforce of women globally is increasing with speed in recent decades. Women’s statistics level of engagement online is very high, and they are independent when it comes to making decisions.

Women are nurturers by nature. Studies show that women are twice as much socially aware and socially impactful. It has been demonstrated that female leadership can bring a positive impact to a company. Companies with female leadership have experienced a boost in both profitability and innovation as well as a more socially

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responsible performance. More and more women are taking entrepreneurial steps in the fashion industry by leveraging tech. Technology has been a catalyst for fashion innovation and we must pay attention to the women working on it.

Many women have taken advantage of this opportunity to create new entrepreneurial concepts that combine fashion and technology for a female customer as did I. Ventures like ours provides Upcycle and Refashion services for clothes one already owns as a door-to-door service through a digitally responsive website. We give you the tools to use the clothes extensively and enable you to switch slow and circular fashion and drive the movement towards slowing down fast fashion Pollution that is a major contributor to climate change.

What started off as an idea in the middle of the pandemic is now a startup growing to disrupt the retail fashion industry and help protect the environment. We believe the first step to sustainable fashion is to care for what we already own and use them extensively.

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Higher Education Digest July 2020

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Use of Technology in the Advertising World Saloni Mittal, Founder, The Creative Nose

Saloni Mittal, the founder of The Creative Nose, is an innovative and problem-solving personality.

She brings a revolutionary vision to the company. She has hands-on experience from multiple advertising agencies such as Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, and Dentsu in India and abroad. Her accomplishments supersede her. She has won awards in Clio Health, Graphis, D&AD, creative conscience, and Fast Company. She is the organizational pillar for The Creative Nose and her trendy marketing skills help brands hold positions in the world.

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Automated advertising platforms save time and resources while increasing efficiency, allowing marketers to focus on more important tasks

T

he rise of technology changed or at least had a significant impact on everything it touched or came into contact with.

Technology has significantly upgraded our business lives. Specifically, digital innovations such as e-mail, dot com web pages, YouTube, social media, and other social platforms, are comparatively new and constantly updating. Technology advancements have played an immersive role in how people are exposed to new information throughout history. This is a role that deserves to be recognized and praised.

Each successive innovation, from the printing press to radio to television to, most recently, the internet, revolutionized and altered how people interacted with new concepts, products, companies, and brands. Despite technological advancements, most companies and brands relied on a linear and symbiotic approach to reach consumers until the mid-to-late 1990s: traditional media companies sold ad space to fund their operations, and companies bought ad space to reach consumers. Longheld advertising norms have been uprooted by the rapid

growth and adoption of internet connectivity. Increased connectivity has democratized media; anyone with a good strategy, an internet connection, and basic web design skills can now compete for views and advertising dollars with multibillion-dollar corporations. Furthermore, the increased use of social media platforms means that people are not only accessing information in new ways, but they are also becoming less reliant on traditional media for information.

The digital advertising landscape has been disrupted by technology, and the Covid-19 pandemic has hastened the digitization process. In an age of fierce brand competition and information overload on social media, technology is a powerful tool for implementing an out-of-the-box strategy to stand out from the crowd. Here are a few examples of how technology is reshaping the digital ad landscape.

Increasing efficiency: Automation has infiltrated every industry, including digital advertising. Marketing automation is the use of emerging technologies to streamline digital advertising processes and increase

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Brands have been aided in adopting a “digital-first” strategy and embracing an omnichannel marketing strategy to target various customer profiles thanks to technology.

The key to leveraging technology is figuring out the right mix, making sure it’s used wisely, and staying on top of the latest industry trends operational efficiency. Automated advertising platforms save time and resources while increasing efficiency, allowing marketers to focus on more important tasks.

Marketing automation also provides strategic insights to help you make better decisions. Marketing automation tools are useful in today’s world of multi-channel, crossdevice digital advertising because they allow for smooth and seamless campaign management.

Measuring ROI: Digital advertising outperforms traditional forms of advertising by tracking and measuring campaign ROI in real-time with great precision. It also gives marketers the flexibility to make course corrections and tweak existing campaigns to improve results. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has excellent tracking and analytics capabilities, allowing businesses to make quick decisions and increase sales. Machine Learning, likewise, has the unique ability to analyze infinite data points and facilitate a thorough understanding of various customer touchpoints and their impact on brands. Predictive analysis is increasingly being used by marketers to identify patterns and influence customer behaviour.

Having an impact on business outcomes: The various advantages that technology bestows on digital advertising, such as increased efficiency, increased sales, and a larger customer base, have an impact on business..

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Personalization: Personalization has become the focal point of brands’ digital advertising strategies to gain a competitive edge. To grow your business, you must shift to a consumer-centric approach. Personalization entails reaching out to and staying in touch with your target audience, as well as tailoring your brand strategy to the profiles of your customers. According to a MontateEconsultancy study, 94 percent of marketers believe that personalizing the web experience is critical to their company’s success. According to an Epsilon study, 80 percent of customers said they wanted to buy from brands that offer a personalized experience) Increasing Customer Experience: Customer experience has been redefined by emerging trends such as video marketing and voice search, which have made the relationship between brands and their customers surreal.

According to a study, videos generate 50 times more engagement than plain text. Similarly, YouTube viewers are 1.4 times more likely than non-video ad viewers to watch and share ads on mobile.

Precise targeting: Determining the target audience is an important part of any digital advertising strategy. Not every customer falls into your target demographic. Technology aids in narrowing and filtering the target audience, as well as segmenting them based on demographics, geographic region, interests, and behaviour. For example, Facebook Ads Manager is a powerful tool that provides a plethora of options for creating the profile of your target audience.

Technology can also assist you in determining what type of content is most likely to resonate with your target audience.

BuzzSumo and SEMrush are excellent tools for gaining a better understanding of your target audience’s psyche and online behaviour. Similarly, it allows you to exclude a segment of your audience that is not relevant to your brand.

For brands, technology has emerged as a panacea for influencing business outcomes and maintaining a competitive advantage. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the heart of any digital advertising campaign is storytelling and personalization, after all, technology is simply a tool to facilitate these two components. Technology also has drawbacks, such as user privacy concerns, cybercrime risks, and the obliteration of specific job roles, to name a few. The key to leveraging technology is figuring out the right mix, making sure it’s used wisely, and staying on top of the latest industry trends.

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PRIYA ANANT,

Co-founder, Life Circle “As the Cofounder of Life Circle Health Services, I focus on the training, deployment, and engagement of young women with low educational attainments as geriatric home carers. I find great meaning in what I do because I am able to create a safe and dignified workplace to bring many women from remote and rural areas into workforce. As I an entrepreneur, I enjoy a great deal of freedom to build and manage a workplace that focuses on the needs of a female workforce.”

RASHI SRIVASTAVA,

Chief Digital Officer, Qentelli Stop choosing between career and family. We can ace both.

Many women in IT leave the workforce after a life event like marriage or the birth of a child. Many are forced to choose between career and family, and this negotiation needs to end. When women should be celebrating life’s milestones, they are made to feel guilty about their choices. A woman can have a successful career while doing many other things, including caring for her family. They need to identify their worth and come out of the guilt of choosing one over the other.

RIMO BOSE,

PR Manager, TCL India Women empowerment for me is not only a term. I strongly believe that women empowerment should be executed strongly across industries. Women should be encouraged and empowered for a better future. As a part of the society we should ensure that the women around us feel safe at home and work and they should be given equal opportunities to grow and prosper. Also let’s practice giving equal respect to both men and women, we are first human beings, let us not forget that.

I would like to give the credit of my success to my mother who has always inspired me. She was the one who encouraged me to pursue Public Relations and excel in the field even when the odds were against me. One thing that I have learnt from her is that no matter what situation you are in, you should not lose hope and stay self-motivated.

SHAHNAZ HUSAIN,

Founder, Chairperson & Managing Director, The Shahnaz Husain Group It is the era of women and with technological advancements; the world is an oyster for accomplishing personal, professional or even entrepreneurial goals. I completely understand that breaking away from stereotypical gender expectations and dismantling the barriers of patriarchy would definitely require courage.

But then, fortune favours the bold and brave. Social reform begins with you and therefore do not bend your ways to the conventions set out for women. Persevere to learn skills, practice self care and chalk out your way to success. Become the change you want to see happen!

LEADER IN FOCUS

VIJAYASHREE NATARAJAN SVP- Head of Technology, Omega Healthcare

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A key lesson was to grab opportunities that come your way. When stepping into any industry and aspiring to grow, do not leave any stone unturned

M

s Vijayashree Natarajan has always been in the technology industry, having done her BTech Electronics from Anna University.

Over the last 22 years, she has worked hard to make a name for herself in her field. Starting out as a Java developer in BFSI domain, Ms Vijayashree has a distinct passion for technology and the cloud divisions across her career and across industries. Her will to continuously learn has helped her be a hands-on leader and collaborate better with clients and colleagues.

After completing her BTech that laid the foundation for her career in technology, Ms Vijayashree continued to learn and completed an Executive Programme in Artificial Intelligence, specializing in the Implications for Business strategy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management. “A key lesson was to grab opportunities that come your way. When stepping into any industry and aspiring to grow, do not leave any stone unturned. One should not miss any learning opportunity that will help showcase your capability. These are essential for becoming a leader and necessary to practice early in life,” says Ms Vijayashree.

As a woman in the field, Ms Vijayashree says, “In the tech. field, work is in front of the laptop/computer, can be done from anywhere. I feel this gives certain flexibility and ease of work to the women when compared to other domains like core engineering, manufacturing or automobile, etc.

Certainly, these advantages can help strike a better work-life balance. One challenge common to the technology field is the rate of advancement and changes in technology. One has to continuously learn and update in order to stay relevant. I would however look at that as a positive challenge that would help us to strengthen our skills.”

Continuously Learning When Ms Vijayashree started her career as a java developer and lead architect, every program she compiled saw 0 errors, and has been a great milestone that she cherished. She had the opportunity to lead many re-engineering projects in the financial domain for BNY Melon, earlier called Credit Suisse.

The Asset Movement platform that Ms Viajashree did as part of Inautix was another milestone she is proud of. Later, she joined Cognizant, where she led the product development for one of the information media customers, building practice management systems for law firms. The complete platform was built using Microsoft technology. Soon enough, she became the head of mobile product and launched a product called TrueMobi as part of Cognizant’s product venture in SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud) technology. Ms Vijayashree also got into the RPA practice as an Intelligent Process Automation practice head, where every bot release was a great milestone. “We have done it across multiple customers across various domains, so every bot go-live has been a great milestone,” she shares.

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Today, at Omega Healthcare, she considers every bot that goes live for her clients to be a great milestone. “We could transform more than five or six accounts in the initial one year where digital transformation helped strengthen our position with the clients. Last but not least, our inhouse proprietary platforms using AI and ML have been memorable. Every sprint release of these platforms have been a great milestone for me,” she shares.

Ms Vijayashree believes that the tech field is an ongoing process of learning and relearning. With her vast experience, she considers being blessed to have many mentors who shaped her into being the woman she is today. Starting from her early days pursuing a career at Inautix Technologies, she had two leaders who believed in her and identified her passion for technology. After moving to Cognizant, she came across several leaders who had a positive influence on her, who identified her capabilities to be a technology leader. Many of her close family members who are also part of the tech community have also been a

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great influence on Ms Vijayashree professionally. “Though I was inclined to get more into the business side of work, there have been those who spotted my technology passion, wanted to see me as a technology leader, and have groomed me to become one,” she shares.

“What I draw as inspiration from others I would like to pass it on to everyone as well. If I suggest something as a leader to my team, I would ensure that I am doing the right thing so that I don’t influence negatively,” says Ms Vijayashree. Some of the qualities she would like to pass on to others to inspire them are continuous learning, grabbing opportunities, taking bold decisions, and taking calculated risks. By converting failure into success, Ms Vijayashree believes that one can cherish the result of it when it becomes a success. Instead of seeing them as failures, one must take them as learning opportunities. “As a technology leader, experimentation becomes a way of life, without which one would be unable to get the desired result.

Hence, calculated risks are required, and you need to be bold enough to experiment,” adds Ms Vijayashree.

As a technology leader, experimentation becomes a way of life

Looking into the Future of Medicine As the Head of Technology at Omega, Ms Vijayashree has the vision to bring Digital Transformation for the organization and its clients. “Any technology or digital transformation has to start with innovation - with innovative ideas in delivering the solution differently for the customer. We serve our clients by leveraging automation, primarily Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML)-based technologies. Our focus on helping our clients reap enhanced benefits has been helping us push our boundaries. As their consulting partner, help improve the top-line and bottom-line using the various automation technologies, build automated platforms and workflow solutions, help them leverage the benefits from this automation, be it AI, ML, RPA, and more,” explains Ms Vijayashree.

AI and ML are the two areas of technology that are driving transformation and innovation across industries and not just healthcare, having several innovations, technologies,

and solutions. Today, it has become so advanced that it can mimic a human being - thinking like humans, decision making, predictions, whatever has been unique to humans.

For Omega Healthcare, these have been helping bring about digital transformation and optimizing costs while helping grow the business, both for the organization and its clients.

With 20 years of expertise in the Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) space, Omega Healthcare has grown to become the leader in the US Healthcare RCM market today. Omega’s uniqueness lies in providing depth of domain services to clients, strengthening the digital solutions - all of which enable us to provide more domaincentric technology solutions. Omega’s in-house solutions using AI, ML technologies, are all very unique to the organization. Through the amalgamation of technology and domain expertise, the organisation has been successful in bringing a greater domain flavour and thus providing best-in-class solutions for their clients. This has been a unique positioning for Omega and has been a differentiator as well. “Some of our significant projects cover the digital transformation of the way we serve our customers, increased adoption of a digital workforce, adoption of platform-based solutions in the delivery of our RCM projects. We have a five-year goal with a definite target of digital transformation using RPA and other platform solutions,” Ms Vijayashree says.

Although the presence of women in the STEM industries has been rising gradually, the numbers are relatively low.

Though women enter this field, several women quit their jobs, unable to sustain their careers for a very long time. Ms Vijayashree feels that it is comparatively easier for women in the tech industry than for women in core engineering industries. In the tech. industry, it is easier for women to achieve that work-life balance, thanks to the flexibility in work that comes because of the ability to execute this job from any laptop/computer. “Historically, we would have heard that boys/men are more suitable for Math and Science and are more intelligent than women. A lot more needs to be done and achieved in breaking this stereotype. We need to encourage more women to come into the tech and other STEM industries.”

Today, technology is in the driving seat and is influencing every other vertical. Be it healthcare or any other industry, everything is now tech-driven. Technology has prominence in every domain, and Ms Vijayashree feels that women have better opportunities to scale their careers in this space. “Greater longevity of a career in the tech industry is yet another factor why I would suggest every other woman consider this as their career path, as tech has several advantages to help women sustain their careers,” she shares.

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EXPERT’S OPINION

HR Tech 2022 – Trends to Look Out For

By Geeta L, COO & Co-Founder, AscentHR

H

R has a pivotal role to play in navigating the future of work. The out-of-the-blue pandemic has reshaped our lives and work habits. Technology is at the highest level driving the change. The digital transformation and its adoption are accelerating rapidly. The implications for organizations and HR functions are numerous and huge. Organizations have an opportunity to embrace new tools to stay competitive, resilient, and shape the workplaces of the future. At the same time, the HR function has an opportunity to focus on optimizing and realizing value in the technology investments of their organizations.

The 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), autonomous vehicles, visualization tools, 3-D and 4-D printing, cloud computing, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other technologies are maturing and are playing a significant role in how projects are planned and executed. With their own pros and cons, these technologies are helping organizations embrace innovation and bring new levels of productivity, safety, and the insights needed to improve decision making and enable the repeatability of success.

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Geeta L – is the Co-Founder and COO at AscentHR. She is a fellow member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and The Institute of Costs and Works Accountants of India. She stepped into the role of COO at AscentHR with over a decade of experience in Audits, Taxation, and Finance.

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The ultimate objective of adopting this technology to every digital touch points has been to enable HR teams to make their talent decisions faster, smarter, and less biased

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1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in HR practices A deeper integration of AI technology with HR practices is one of the biggest technology trends to watch out for in the coming days. Besides playing an important role in chatbot development, the AI technology is gradually emerging to play a greater role in the recruitment and hiring processes as well. Right from candidate sourcing, screening, assessing, interviewing, to hiring stages, AI-enabled systems can carry out these processes in greater detail.

Especially in the talent assessment process, a kind of silent and slow revolution is going on right now. AI is being deployed in the talent assessment processes.

Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and other related modeling techniques are being used as part of the overall analytical techniques. The use of AI in the specific area of talent assessment is evolving slowing, is in its early stages of adoption, and the legalities around it are also developing slowing.

There are AI-enabled software systems that are customizable to suit an organization’s requirements and can generate interactive conversation with a candidate through a chatbot for even the most technical positions.

AI-powered skill assessment platforms can be used to test range of skills and traits – coding skills, sales skills, communication skills, personality traits, behavioral traits, and even their emotional intelligence. For instance, organizations can find quality talent by leveraging realworld simulations of some of the technical areas such as .net, android development, AWS, Azure, Big Data, C languages, cloud computing, and Java to name a few.

These tools are capable of engaging the candidates and screening them by determining whether they fit the initial set requirements before moving them to the next step. In addition to this, the tool can also show which candidates from the pool matches the open position. The tool can also stack rank the eligible candidates based on pre-set criteria that determine success in those roles. In terms of efficiency, these tools reduce time to fill jobs and increase visibility in the recruitment processes.

The ultimate objective of adopting this technology to every digital touch points has been to enable HR teams to make their talent decisions faster, smarter, and less biased.

These tools help in evaluating candidates based on their merit, qualifications, and skills rather than their personal, demographic, or ethno-cultural background data. There are even real-life instances where these bias-potential personal data are distributed to different evaluating teams to introduce greater levels of transparency.

Overall, innovation in talent assessment to enhance the candidate’s hiring experience is more critical than ever today. This hiring experience also enables organizations to

enhance their brand. In this way, organizations not only attracts job aspirants but also retain them as prospective customers, even if they are not selected.

2. Behavioral insights and sentiment analysis As part of the people analytics process, behavioral and sentiments analysis are emerging as a tool to hire and retain top talent to help address the challenges brought on by the pandemic. For instance, there are video-based technology platforms that enable organizations to obtain insights from a live or recorded video content (such as video-based interviews or video-based employee training sessions.)

These platforms can analyze a candidate’s or participants’ communication skills and body language and provide almost real-time insights such as their intrinsic behaviors, and their levels of motivation or attention, and even provide a consolidated engagement score.

In terms of sentiments, these tools can analyze a video interaction on a real-time basis. Based on body gestures and facial expressions, the tools can provide accurate insights into the participants’ sentiments (whether they showing positive, negative, or neutral sentiments).

Although such tools and platforms are not being adopted at scale, the technology is becoming a hot topic and gradually gaining interest among HR fraternity. A recent McKinsey report says that “By 2024, AI-generated speech will be behind more than 50% of people’s interactions with computers.”

At the moment, organizations are still finding ways to use AI effectively. This is partly because, investing in AI-based technology can affect the company’s bottom line. There are other reasons too. The current trend of conducting employee engagement survey at the end of the year is typically laborious. Even implementing the corrective measures based on the results obtained is also a time-consuming process as the entire process of “taking action” and analyzing “impact achieved” can take months together. Given this scenario, obtaining employee feedback efficiently and deriving insights on a continuous basis from different sources of touch points is crucial.

That is where AI-based sentiment analysis tools find their relevance in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world.

3. Extended Reality (XR) in employee training and development The use of immersive experiences is on the rise as the VR/AR/XR technology is making deeper inroads into the corporate world of training and development. If affordable versions of VR headsets become available for mass consumption, the industrial and enterprise adoption at scale may finally become a reality.

Extended Reality (XR) is a broad term that includes Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). While VR requires a headset to access a fully immersive, 3-Dimensional digital environment, AR is an interactive experience that is interwoven with the real world using a phone or glasses to generate computer images on top of the real objects. MR is a combination of both VR and AR technologies. All these technologies aim to converge the physical and virtual worlds.

As we are emerging from the pandemic with some restrictions still in place, organizations may not be able to carry out L&D activities in person given the current situation. Yet, organizations still need to: 1) support employees to learn and reskill; 2) help them adapt to challenges of new technologies and changes as they start returning to workplace; 3) help them gain soft skills such as communication and leadership skills. To overcome these challenges and help their employees adapt to the new world and ongoing digital transformation, some companies are adding VR as a supplement to their existing training modalities.

“V-learning (virtual learning) or VR can help business leaders upskill their employees faster, even at a time when training budgets may be shrinking and inperson training may be off the table, as people continue to observe social distancing,” according to a recent PwC study. The study found that VR learners were 4x faster to train than in the classroom, 275% more confident to apply skills learned after training than compared to their peers who took similar training through other two learning modalities – classroom training and e-learning.

We expect an increased use of immersive learning tools leveraging VR and AR. As some of the studies point out, training employees through VR mode can help them strengthen their skills. In the recent past, VR technology was used primarily by healthcare and aviation industries as the technology allowed trainees to take risks safely while working in simulated environments. These days, VR is slowly branching out into other industries and sectors such as retail, hospitality, and sales training to help employees hone their soft skills with real-world simulated tasks and scenarios.

Conclusion Emerging technologies will continue to spark revolutionary changes in HR and people practices right from screening to assessing, interviewing, hiring, and retaining. These technologies are making it possible to automate HR workflows like never before and empowering organizations to focus on things that matter most.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Combining Fitness with Tech: Building Towards a Futuristic Healthy Lifestyle Rhea Nihal Singh Anand, Co-Founder, Flexnest

Rhea Singh Anand is the Co-founder of Flexnest, India’s leading Fit Tech startup creating smart connected fitness solutions for the Indian market. A fitness enthusiast to the core, Rhea was motivated by the idea of creating an ecosystem of smart fitness solutions and building a community of individuals who adopt it as an essential part of their lifestyle and follow a healthy fitness regimen.

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Whether it’s fitness marketing, biometric verification of fitness members, or the ability to accept online payments for your clients, technology has virtually touched every aspect of the fitness industry

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n order to incorporate technological advances into our daily lives, we need to use technology in the fields of science and medicine. The technology perspective has completely changed the way we look at things and is now being looked up as it was in the past. Technology can be used anywhere today, from mobile phones to the internet to high-speed cars. Similarly, the use of technology in the fitness industry is strengthening the world of fitness and benefiting both hosts and guests.

It’s important to keep an eye on these cutting-edge fitness technologies, because you’re likely to be blown away.

Technological advancement has permeated the fitness industry, as it has in all other areas. Several aspects of the fitness industry are either directly or indirectly related to technology. Whether it’s fitness marketing, biometric verification of fitness members, or the ability to accept online payments for your clients, technology has virtually touched every aspect of the fitness industry.

All industries have been affected by the pandemic.

People, on the other hand, are changing their lives and maneuvering the pandemic in order to live better. The fitness

sector is also in turn shifting and reconfiguring because of a combination of fitness technology and digitization.

Since the usage of exercise technology and equipment brought gyms and studios online, fitness enthusiasts have shown a strong interest in home fitness. For some time, the combination of fitness technology and digital fitness has been reshaping our industry, as both sectors were growing year after year long before the pandemic. Fitness technology-savvy individuals are investing in the same to accomplish their fitness goals.

Technological advancements in equipment Innovations have already improved fitness equipment, increasing productivity and saving time. The fitness industry’s simple treadmills and bikes have reached new heights in terms of ambient sound, built-in HD Touch screens, heart rate monitors, community experience, virtual training and more, thanks to technological advances.

Several other technologies are currently being developed, such as Virtual U testing and 3D body scanners, ready to enter the fitness industry.

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Advanced Exercise Equipment for Home Many people now reserve exercise space in their homes and garages, which was once considered a luxury. From simple weights and yoga mats to tech cardio machines, there are numerous ways to stay fit without going to the gym. In addition, there is a one-time setup fee, but you can save time and money in the long run. The fitness industry has had to adjust to a new normal. The gyms of the future will be hybrid, and gym members will be tracking their progress and working out both in the gym and At-Home.

Fitness technology for wearables As wearable technology, artificial intelligence, and even augmented reality continue to advance, the health and fitness technology market is experiencing rapid growth. This is an exciting time for both customers and developers. You no longer need a teacher to keep a track of your health-related data. Other fitness technologies also exist to measure your physical exertion throughout the day, providing users with a more detailed picture of how their exercise habits affect their bodies.

The gyms of the future will be hybrid, and gym members will be tracking their progress and working out both in the gym and At-Home

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Virtual Reality Physical activity can be a pleasant experience that enhances one’s life, and people can learn how to include in more activities in life through VR. Regular movement is useful for physical, mental, and emotional health of people. The new technologies allow you to ride, run or row in different countries across the globe and also give you the experience of working out in a studio with your friends, all from the comfort of your home. Virtual reality uses fitness technology to ensure that the user gets the fitness experience they desire.

Online fitness classes & consulting Whether it’s a fitness app with classes, a 10-minute meditation app or sleep tracking app, these types of apps are becoming very popular. There are several advantages, including the ability to track your progress, make custom diet plans, your daily activity levels steps, as well as nudges to keep yourself motivated.

Students and millennials use such apps at a higher rate than anyone else. Data shows that people of all ages infact have started to use health and wellness applications. This is an encouraging sign that all the generations are now engaging in positive activities through the use of fitness technology. The global wellness market is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion, with annual growth rates ranging from 5% to 10%.

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SONAL,

Founder, WhiteCub Women are inherently more intuitive and empathetic which makes them capable of discerning complex challenges. There is absolutely no second thoughts to the fact that women belong at every step of nation building and decision making. Currently the world is faced with a number of crisis, among which are climate and animal rights concerns. To ensure sustenance of the planet, it is high time to tap on to the untapped reservoir of women’s intellect and potential. Combined grit and efforts of men and women will go a long, long way in making a sustainable future!

SULAKSHANA,

Founder, Shushu Babies “If you have an idea, first BELIEVE in it and move forward. Of course, being a woman, brings in an additional

responsibility of taking care of your child and family, but for a mompreneur or woman founder, the most important thing is to get the support from your husband and family. Don’t keep that idea to yourself, go out there, discuss, with people, with organizations, there are so many organizations like WE HUB who are willing to help a woman founder, you just have to go out there and find that one person / one organization who is willing to help. BELIEVE in yourself, get that moral support and find that organization to help, then everything else seems to be solving the problem and moving forward.”

VAIDYA SHAKUNTALA DEVI, Ayurvedic Health Consulted

Multitasking is a must-have skill for today’s women. Despite the fact that it is a much-needed attribute in today’s world, it may have a negative impact on our health as a result of the necessity to balance personal and professional lives. A woman’s health, according to Ayurveda, is governed not only by her biological parameters and capacity to reproduce but also by the quality of nourishment she receives, the intensity of her workload, and the stress she endures. So, in order to obtain beauty, a lady must first achieve good health, which is the most valuable possession a person can have. Also, Dear ladies, be strong and just be you.

VAISHNAVI REDDY,

Founder, Signal Biomedical Private Limited My learning was that entrepreneurship is not so much about the destination than the journey that shapes you every single day to become a better, wiser and a stronger human being. And that real leadership comes not with the titles and designations but how gracefully we act in times of crisis, failure and hardship.

Pick a problem, find an innovative solution and never ever give up. Also don’t forget to have fun and take care of your wellbeing along the way.

LEADER IN FOCUS

PUJA JOSHI Co-Founder, Incluzon

Understanding the Education Industry Through a New Lens First Magazine 78 Digital March 2022

I am a person who loves to build, and every aspect of technology fueled my curiosity

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oming from the small town of Bikaner in Rajasthan, Puja grew up to become an exemplary businesswoman and an innovative entrepreneur. With a dream in her eyes and a plethora of responsibilities, she went into the professional world with the top grade in BTech Computer Science. From this small tier 2 city, with not too many placement opportunities and after many attempts to land a job, she entered the world of Human Resources Management at Deloitte and soon enough she was given the role of Business Technology Analyst when they realised her strong suit was in Javascript and put her tech expertise to good use. She was recognised for her work that opened up doors for her in the tech industry. Finally, she realised her calling in the startup world and worked with companies like Clevoria, Freight Tiger, Rupee Circle and more, where she was an integral part of their tech divisions. With in-depth understanding of the first job market challenges, Puja conceptualised Incluzon in the year 2020.

Over the last two years, Puja has driven Incluzon’s efforts from the helm, including but not limited to presenting the idea for Incluzon in front of the Minister of Education in Tripura. Under her able leadership, Incluzon was also recognized amongst the Top 36 Startups by the Government of Maharashtra. Passionate about giving back to society, Puja has also helped uplift women by giving 100 per cent scholarships for skill-building courses to those who needed it. She has also led initiatives to offer scholarships to students from economically backward sections who had the drive to do better for themselves and their families. “I am a person

who loves to build, and every aspect of technology fueled my curiosity. The learning was immense, mainly because I understood the consulting business with tech. Following this, my start-up journey started. I built one start-up, and here I am now building Incluzon,” says Ms Puja Joshi, the co-founder of Incluzon.

Through this process of trying to find a job and finally realising her calling to entrepreneurship, she learnt to be grateful and identify the skill gap she needed to fulfil. “It also taught me the importance of creative freedom and the need to nurture talent. These experiences have been an eyeopener to the realities of the world. They have made me more appreciative of everything I have and have given me the courage to empower my team and improve the life of every student I touch through Incluzon,” she shares.

Counting her milestones and achievements, she talks about her entrepreneurial spirit that changed the course of her life, not just for herself, but for her family and the lives of students who come to Incluzon. “Every time I get a student recruited to a job suited to their skill set, I feel I am changing their lives and the lives of their family members who are dependent on them - especially given that most of these children come from similar backgrounds as mine,” says Ms Puja.

Understanding that there is not substitute for hardwork, she built her startups from the ground up owing to the growth she faced by having the right network. She believes that, by nailing these two aspects, hardwork and right networking, the baseline to grow and expand as an entrepreneur will be very strong. Additionally, technology, too, plays an important role to drive businesses today in scaling up. “Another

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Every time I get a student recruited to a job suited to their skill set, I feel I am changing their lives

learning is that you should never let go of revenue-generating opportunities as a start-up. The first few years of your business are extremely critical,” she adds.

Adding the Innovative aspect Ms Puja spearheads innovation at Incluzon by having a pattern recognition system in her mind. She sees how customers behave and decide what pathways to take for the product accordingly. “I strongly believe in the freedom of creativity, and I encourage everyone on my team to brainstorm heavily on ideas so that the final product that we offer our customers is the best in class,” she says. As a leader, She believes in growing with everyone on her team. Her focus as a leader is to invest in the people she works with, no matter their work profile or where they are in an hierarchical order. She focusses on giving them opportunities to upskill continuously so that they can improve their career prospects.

“I make it a point to personally speak to my team members to check on whether there is something they want to learn and then ensure I open up opportunities for them to do so,” says Ms Puja. As a woman, she feels that there are benefits to being one in the field of technology. Although there is not much importance given to gender in the workplace, there are some perks to being a woman, as they are more responsible and accountant. “Women are taught to be responsible and accountable from an early age, making them a better fit for roles such as product manager, project manager and more.

In addition, we are driven by emotional values, which alone gives us more integrity as a leader,” adds Ms Puja.

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Incluzon is designed to democratize the entry-level workforce hiring process and mitigate bias by increasing the visibility of opportunities to the talent and bringing the skill gap using an ethically constructed AI. The company is determined to build an ecosystem that levels the playing field and provides candidates with a fair chance to pursue a career in their chosen field without bias. Incluzon is not just an application tracking system, unlike others in the market.

Instead, our adaptive learning platform is what sets us apart.

Incluzon’s AI is meant to evaluate graduates based on their potential and competencies rather than their resume branding.

The platform includes various safeguards to ensure that insights, talent validation, technical and cultural mapping, and suggestions are not hampered by systemic prejudice and that no one from the talent pool is neglected or underrepresented.

In addition, the months-long hiring cycle for new hires can be completed in hours with the company’s designed platform.

Being an entrepreneur in the education startup industry, Ms Puja understands that this is not just a business and cannot be treated as a mere transaction. Every step taken and even decision made affects the lives of thousands of people. “ As an entrepreneur in the education industry, Ms Puja understands that this is not just a business and cannot be treated as merely transactional. Every step taken and every decision made can impact the lives of thousands of people.

“When we change one student’s life, their entire family benefits, and that is the thought process that drives me to stay committed to my mission. My only advice to young women entering this space is to do their R&D and think through the decision because many responsibilities bind success in this space. You cannot blame the system, but you have the power to devise solutions that can enable value creation, and that is a crucial pillar for success,” she shares.

Ms Puja owes her success to her mother who has been her most considerable influence. As a strong, powerful and passionate woman who opened her restaurant at the age of 50, Ms Puja always looked up to her as she manages and overlooks the entire operations and is the key decisionmaker at her business. “She inspires me every day to strive higher. Her commitment to her business has paved the way for me to continue giving my best and not let the weight of anyone’s opinions become a hurdle in my journey,” Ms Puja says. Additionally, she also gets her inspiration from founders of unicorns in the tech space. She understands that each entrepreneur has their own journey and the stories of the challenges they face and overcome help her to feel that she too can accomplish anything. “Everyone talks about their success, but only a few can understand the amount of work they have put in to be where they are. Reading about them speaking to them encourages me to keep moving forward,” Ms Puja shares.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Creating Smart Businesses with Data Analysis Swati Jindal, Co-Founder, EasyEcom

“A lot of people have ideas but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow.

Not next week. Not today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer”- Nolan Bushnell. This is what perfectly describes Ms. Swati Jindal, Founder of EasyEcom, an industry-leading omnichannel inventory management and reconciliation solution for e-commerce businesses. She translates strategy into actionable goals for her company’s performance and growth as well as contributes in the implementation of organizational-wide goal setting and performance management. Ms. Swati has around a decade of working experience. She is also a doctor by education and a passionate entrepreneur. She began her professional journey with FabHealth, a consumerfocused healthcare services marketplace and moved onto Davita India, where she was primarily engaged in branding activities. In 2015, she founded EasyEcom along with Mr. Punit Gupta. Taking the lead in transforming the company to capitalise on the emerging business landscape, Ms. Swati is deeply committed to the growth of EasyEcom. She has completed her Bachelor of Dentistry from Seema Dental College and done an Executive Education Program in Social Media and Digital Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

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With access to structured data and the right strategy, businesses can mitigate risk and make better decisions

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usinesses worldwide have started relying on data analysis to streamline operations and improve processes. It increases efficiency and helps identify new business opportunities that might have been otherwise overlooked, such as untapped customer segments. This means that a business that leverages data can enhance the potential for growth and profitability as it adopts an intelligence-driven model.

In today’s competitive market, a good data strategy that factors in what your business wants to achieve and offers you the right data to get you there is what can set you apart from your competitors. A study by McKinsey suggested that companies that have been leveraging consumers’ behaviour insights generally outperform their peers in sales growth by 85%. Another report by Forrester stated that 58% of “data intelligent” organizations are more likely to exceed revenue goals.

The Big Data analytics market is set to reach $103 billion by 2023.With more and more companies looking

into leveraging data insights. let’s take a look at how exactly data analytics adds value to a business: ● Smarter Decision-making: Data analysis has been impacting small businesses greatly and slowly becoming the foundation for all strategic decisions. In fact, if you are not leveraging data analysis, then as a business, you might find that you are stuck at a significant disadvantage.

The most important aspect for any business is identifying the right audience – data analytics can help you achieve that by gathering data from various sources and creating a demographic profile of the ideal consumers for your brand. If you are looking to decide how you can improve your current products and services, a demographic profile can help you understand what kind of features your consumers want from specific products. ● Understanding Consumer Behavior and Patterns: As mentioned earlier, understanding consumer behavior is extremely important for a business to succeed. This

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holds true for both brick and mortar stores as well as e-commerce businesses. If you are not selling the right products to the right people, then you are going to experience a decline in sales and revenue due to lost opportunities. Data analytics can help you segment your target customers into separate categories on the basis of demographics, attitudes and behavior, other into products or service specifics for getting these segments.

that grant you the ability to identify potential market opportunities and also optimize your inventory. ● Pricing Intelligence: Understanding how much the target market is willing to pay for a product or service can help a business in gaining a competitive advantage. Data analytics analyzes data from various sources, including your competition, to offer you actionable insights that can be incorporated into your pricing strategy. In my experience, a clear and consolidated view of sales can help a business make strategic pricing decisions by considering factors such as product life-cycle, customer perceptions, competition, etc. ● Enhanced Performance: Streamlining business operations to make them more time-efficient is something that can be achieved by data analysis as it can provide insights into various factors such as operational cost product development, workforce planning, etc. The bottom line is that businesses can utilize it to increase their profit margins by creating more efficient processes.

● Demand Forecasting: By using historical sales data for estimating future customer demand, data analytics can help your business with demand forecasting as well as planning accuracy. Analyzing a wide variety of external factors that generally influence customer purchase decisions and preferences, it can generate numerous insights and solutions

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● Risk Mitigation: According to Forbes, 95% of businesses today cite the need to manage unstructured data as a problem for their business. With the quantity of unstructured data available today, companies need data analytics to avoid acting in haste and making wrong (and often, costly) decisions. With access to structured data and the right strategy, businesses can mitigate risk and make better decisions. For companies that have a baseline standard in place for risk measurement, incorporating exact numbers into their decision modeling process, can help them in predicting certain scenarios and also being able to plan for them beforehand.

A data strategy indeed creates smart businesses by helping owners set clear goals and choose data sources before setting up the metrics. This makes it easier to track metrics regularly, set up the right dashboards and rope in the right people to analyze this data. Data analysis creates smart businesses by generating new opportunities. This data along with insights help to achieve business goals smartly and more efficiently. Companies that prioritize data analytics in 2022 and beyond will identify it as pivotal to product development, productivity rise and customer satisfaction.

With access to structured data, businesses can create high-quality data analytics strategies and achieve business growth. After all, effective planning, risk-evaluation, target setting and decision making is the foundation for every successful team, department and business entity.

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