As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world, we invited yet another passionate and purpose-driven entrepreneur – Venkata Subramanian for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. He is a Business Leader, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, Mentor, and Entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder and Director of Confluence Learning Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey as an entrepreneur, his background and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I am a third-generation Mumbaikar, spent most of my student and professional life in this beautiful city. This city prepares and conditions you to be a professional in every aspect of your work life for example – value one’s time and also others time, conditioned by the precision clockwork of the local train system. The diversity and cosmopolitan nature of this city prepare you to relate to diverse viewpoints, diverse cultures etc, which comes handy while you are working for an organization or with an organization as a consultant. This city has been my Management Guru in many ways, and owe a lot of what I am to this city.
The corporate world asks for more in terms of qualifications, hence chose to complete my Masters in Marketing Management from NMIMS. While in school and college though above average in terms of academics, played an active part in contests and cultural activities, also represented my school and college in Badminton, all of which contributed to my holistic development.”
Started my career in Sales with Eureka Forbes in their Water Purifier division which gave me a strong foundation of selling a concept (early days when Water Purifier was not a commodity), learnt how to sell, accept rejections etc and after working for about 30 years with various organizations of which two of them were long stints with leading brands providing solutions in the space of corporate learning, skilling and education.
Somewhere during this journey decided to respond to my inner calling for setting up a company of my own and co-founded Confluence Learning Technologies Pvt Ltd. This company partners organization and individuals helping them realize their potential, through group and one on one learning interventions. The driving force behind this decision was to build an organization which engages with clients focussed on measurable outcomes, with focus on quality and impact of the intervention rather than be driven by financial numbers to sustain an organization. We have been fortunate to associate and do work for many leading brands who have valued our services and have been doing regular work for them for the last few years.”
We are also currently working on an app-based learning solution. We have completed phase 1 of the same and have introduced My Coaching Diary as part of the bouquet of solutions. This platform enables on the job coaches, managers log and track their coaching initiatives focussed on creating learning opportunities on the job for their team members and at the same time giving visibility to of the progress to other stakeholders in the process.
So far the journey as an entrepreneur has been satisfying and has laid a solid foundation for future possibilities.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I believe Entrepreneurship is a mindset, one should possess to be successful in what one does, whether you are running your own business or employed with an organization. On introspection while still with the corporate world, I realized that the phases in my working career that was most satisfying and got the best out of me were challenging situations when projects had to be started from scratch. This gave me the opportunity to ideate and build on new possibilities. I can recall numerous such opportunities during my career, having enjoyed and made successful and meaningful contributions to the organizations that I had worked for.
About 5 years ago made a decision, while still working in a Senior Management role in a leading organization, to do something on my own with an objective as stated in the earlier question and create an organization focussed on the client deliverables away from the people politics and people insecurities, which I believe comes in the way of building a great organization.”
In this journey as an entrepreneur, every day is a new beginning and that is what keeps me going and drives me to explore new possibilities, learn and grow with every passing day.
Currently working on a new concept around the area of people development through self-assessment, feedback and coaching.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
The transition from Corporate Life to Entrepreneurship was different from what I had imagined it would be. In particular in the first year getting used to aspects of running your business, dealing with the uncertainties, not being part of the payroll cycle with credits hitting your bank account on the 1st of every month and also managing daily errands like banking transactions, photocopying, scanning, tax filings and setting up your website, email etc. All of which while working in a large organization you had the people resources to do it and took for granted.
In this new avatar, In a sense, you were like an all in one machine. It also took some time to get into a rhythm, establish the brand and build a list of clients.
What worked in my case was the support of my family and friends who encouraged me during this journey. I also realized that making this transition is not easy for everyone.
What is your Business Mantra?
My business mantra – Add value and take up assignments when you are certain that you can add value to the client initiative due to your organization’s capability. It is not necessary to say “Yes” to everything that comes your way.
I also believe that one should work in a space that one would enjoy and build on one’s core competency. Do not try to be someone you are not, there is enough and more for everybody should you choose to focus, knowing who you are, what you want to be and what you want to create.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
At the cost of sounding philosophical, nothing meaningful can be created if you are not under stress or under pressure. Status quo is very satisfying and limiting.
By my experience the best way to handle stress and pressure is focusing on the solution rather than the problem, this thought is very liberating and channelizes your energy in a positive direction.
On the 1st of January 2020, I could not have imagined the business impact of an event such as the COVID pandemic. Today it is a reality, I am dealing with this situation with a focus on new possibilities.
Another belief that has helped me to a large extent in dealing with people induced stress, is to consciously try and separate the issue from the person, helps me look at events and issues objectively.
I knew and was prepared for the fact that life as an entrepreneur is not always going to be a straight line, with many ups and downs, sharp bends etc.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures we have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
While this is an unpleasant reality we are dealing with, we are currently investing on future possibilities and preparing ourselves for the new normal in our line of business, as we believe that businesses would turnaround sooner than later.
Being responsive, being adaptable, being innovative and being agile are our keys to ensure continuity of the business in the new normal.”
What has worked well for you so far?
Our collective experience as an organization, our network of associates and partners, has given us the agility and flexibility to engage the best resources suited for a particular client assignment, mapping with our belief of adding value to our client’s people capability initiatives.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
Being agile and adaptable, Self-awareness – both from an individual and organizational perspective, Articulate and share a common organizational purpose
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
In the work context – Keys to success:
1 – Breaking down the journey towards a larger professional purpose, into realistic yet challenging milestones
2 – Reaching and celebrating achieving these milestones, as success is a moving target.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
1 – Be open to Learning – Unlearn and Relearn
2 – Taking decisions is a better risk than the risk of not taking a decision
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.
