At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the leadership world. As part of this endeavour, we invited passionate business leader – Sandip Chhettri for an exclusive interview with us. He is a business leader, strategist and currently the COO at TradeIndia. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey, his background and his advice for our growing community:
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
A staunch believer in ‘passion’ being the secret sauce or the foundation of ‘success’, I am someone who likes to lead with examples.
Born in the beautiful lands of north-east India, I completed my education by graduating with a degree in Science. After completing my studies in the city, which is called the queen of the Himalayan range, I moved to Delhi.
Life was different in the capital city as compared to Darjeeling but I never wanted to be lost in the race. Here, I did my further studies in e-commerce, a field which used to fascinate me because digital business was the rising trend of those days. With a hunger to learn further and create something that adds value to people’s lives, I started off my professional journey with TradeIndia in Delhi in 2002. 18 years since then, when I have entered the adulthood of my professional life, I lead Tradeindia as it’s Chief Operating Officer. At Tradeindia, the journey keeps getting better with each passing day when some of the brightest minds in the industry hustle together to build something unique.
We wanted to build technology for SMEs of the Bharat and help them grow faster. Today Tradeindia platform is being used by over 5.5 million SMEs and growing rapidly every day. I have witnessed the growth of Tradeindia from just 5000 users to more than 5.5 Million Users.
It has certainly not been a cakewalk to become the largest online B2B marketplace of India, but the never-ending desire to keep setting the bar higher is something that continues to drive me every day. It is this desire that every employee of the Tradeindia comes to work every morning, taking us further ahead of our own goals.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
Tradeindia majorly serves SMEs. The platform was created to boost businesses of SMEs and made their presence felt digital. I find a huge opportunity in the digital industry, where I am actively working with my team, as just 33% of the total SMEs are digitally enabled. It means still 67% of the total SMEs, who are the backbone of Indian economy and contribute 40% to the GDP of India is doing business offline. If we cover them online and make them have a digital presence, we can change the picture of Indian business markets. Moreover, there are other pain areas of the SMEs like lending ( getting a working capital loan ) and logistic which they need support. Tradeindia is working on building the technology to help SMEs on this front as well.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
My Team is my biggest motivation. My team puts its best efforts to make the company grow and as a leader, I aspire to make more contribution and thereby set examples.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
As my company, Tradeindia has been into a digital business, initial years of the journey were tough. SMEs, who are our major customers had a little knowledge about a digital business which resulted in trust deficit issues with digital business.
In those days, even the Internet was costly and not easily accessible to everyone like present days.
But by creating awareness among SMEs and winning their trust for digital business platform, we have worked very hard and grown simultaneously. Undoubtedly, the improved Internet Penetration rate has also helped us to serve more SMEs in a better way.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
For me, emotions come first. I always try to get emotionally connected to my team members, know their issues & feelings and then work on bringing a smile to their faces. I believe that happy people are self-motivated, they perform well and bring the desired results including recognition and money to the company.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
For me, handling pressure is simple. First, I talk to my teams at length about the problem, analyze it minutely and then again discuss it with them objectively. Basically a lateral approach towards the problem is the simple method to curb the pressure. And, it works in my case.
I manage the stress of my life by spending more time with family, discussing problems & challenges with the team.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I’m an optimistic person, I always look for positive things even in the worst situations. I keenly analyze different situations of life and learn from the made mistakes. I believe these qualities along with my zeal to learn are helping me step ahead in my life as a person as well as professional. I never hesitate from learning, I feel privileged to enhance my knowledge & skills even when I get them from a junior in office or a child in a family.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success comes when you have believed in yourself and your team and work with honesty. The team is one of the most critical ingredients for success. We’re blessed to be working with the people that we have. Our philosophy has been to empower our people.
Family support is one another thing, which plays a crucial role as it gives you confidence and belief. I feel blessed to have a family which boosts my morale, enhances confidence and makes me work with honesty.
Another thing, which has always remained important to me is Learning. I am a keen learner, I always strive to stay aware of the latest technology and trends. I believe that by consistently learning new things, you can perform better than yesterday and do the things that others can’t.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
I have always been a believer of “Never Take Shortcuts, Always Take Long Routes” as you will learn more and when you learn more, you will surely do better.
If someone who is just starting entrepreneurship journey, I’ll suggest that always try to think out of the box. Analyze the market, analyze the requirements of customers and then create products that can well-fulfil the requirements. When going after new markets, you can’t escape the question of “depth.” However, on some level, you need to “believe” that the market is there.
In early markets, you need to push and be at the forefront of gradually shaping consumer behaviour. Get the product right and think deeply about what the customers want. But once you’ve figured it out, just push. The market won’t adapt by itself. If your product has the potential to meet the exact requirement of the customer, no one can stop you from getting success.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
