As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world, we invited yet another leader Tushar Gupta for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. Tushar is a proven Leader and Product Manager with diverse experience and expertise across verticals. He is currently the Vice President at NetCom Learning. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Tushar:
We are aware of your contributions to the startup ecosystem; talk us through your background and your journey as a leader, please;
Over the past 20 years, since my graduation from IIT Delhi, I have had the great fortune to be associated with various industries and domains, including BFSI, print and publishing, media, consumer electronics, recruitment and education. I took on varied roles and responsibilities during this time.
This has helped me gain insights into different types of markets and businesses, look at any business as a complete ecosystem and employ that ability to define viable opportunities.
I started as a techie with Infosys, working for one of the biggest banks as a client. I then moved on to work with IBM and Adobe in the capacity of software testing and gained immense perspective on consumer behaviour.”
After Adobe, I joined Times Internet as a product manager and have worked on multiple successful products since then as part of TIL, Lava International, Monster India and Netcom Learning.
Please share with us a unique challenge you faced in your early career?
My first job at Infosys required me to interact with customers from all across the globe. Not only did this pose a challenge in terms of language, but also required me to be culturally sensitive to various countries.
I realised that in order to do justice to my work, I had to not only be on top of the technology but also enhance my verbal as well as written communication. While the language being used was still English, I started to practice both speaking and listening to different styles of diction based on geographies.”
I also started to develop an understanding of nuances like slang and tone in different countries, which helped me understand customer problems better and communicate with them easily.
Overcoming this challenge has also helped me till date in my everyday dealings.
How did you discover your passion?
I discovered my passion towards product management after I had already spent a decade in the tech industry. However, the process was less of discovery and more of elimination. Simply put, I eliminated everything else by having gone through it and finding myself lose interest after a time.
Having said that, it took me some time and a lot of help from people in my organization then – Adobe – to find out what I am looking for. It eventually boiled down to 3 simple questions for me:
1) What are my strengths and skills
2) Which role or profile are those skills most suited for
3) What other skills I need to develop to get into that role.
Based on the answers I received, I picked out the ones that were most coherent with my personal introspection and arrived at my passion for product management. Just to add, so far, it’s been super interesting.
With so much going on, how do you start the day to keep your passion alive?
I make it a point to spend my mornings either thinking or reading about something that is not related directly to my current work. I deliberately refrain from checking or responding to emails. Sometimes, I even literally isolate myself to a corner and avoid interaction for a while.”
This exercise helps me in expanding my perspective on the consumers and markets and think bigger than my immediate work.
I use this perspective to generate more and more ideas about products and services that customers would love to have, and following it up with analyses, they get converted into real concepts.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Self-belief, Goal-oriented focus and result-driven approach to any activity is the key to success in my opinion.
It is important to stay on the path, no matter the small failures along the way as long as we can learn from them and move forward.
We know that you are continuously engaged in helping others achieve their goals. What is the reason behind such a good cause?
If I had not received help from my mentors and seniors, I would not have been in this position. This is my way of continuing the process. I believe it’s the shared responsibility of every professional to pass on their knowledge and experiences to others who can benefit from it.
That is the reason I keep taking up mentorship, coaching and advisory roles with individuals as well as small startups to help them achieve success. I also try and keep guiding students when it comes to making the right career choices.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
My first advice would be to have a long term goal. If you can’t decide, reach out to mentors, friends, colleagues and family. Ask yourself who you are and what you want to be remembered for.
Secondly, do not be afraid to take the scenic route to the long term goal. Even if it takes time, it is important to do things that interest you in the short term as well. This will only help you discover your passions, and make more and more informed choices in the future.
Third, have a mental compass to give you direction. If that compass is money, so be it, as long as you know what drives you and what you cannot compromise.
Once these are taken care of, all that is left to do is keep developing skills, keep learning and achieve a series of short term goals that lead to long term 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.
