Over the past decade, given the prolific emergence of industries and businesses globally, despite the COVID-19 hit, geopolitical shifts, and more, the volume of the International Trade & Investment market has evolved significantly, recording $32 trillion in 2022. Led by Jalpa Jadhav (Co-Founder), Crescendo Worldwide (a business consultancy and financial advisory firm) is one of those organizations that is dynamically leading the International Trade & Investment sector for the world, helping its clients around exemplary end-to-end solutions for all busine consulting, financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions, Foreign Direct Investment, diversification, trade fairs, investor summits and digital transformations. Jalpa Jadhav, being a visionary business leader, realizes the art of balancing facts & reality with dreams & visions to taking the right strategic decisions, and Crescendo Worldwide is the by-product of her significant efficiency. Women Entrepreneur Magazine engaged in a one-onone interaction with Jalpa, let’s hear from her.

Take us through your early educational journey and the prior industry experience that you bring to the table.

I am a B.Com. (Specialization- Advance Accounting) and MBA in Marketing & HR. As earn and learn was the motto, I ventured on my career journey as a school teacher along with my MBA. However, it was after my MBA that I got to work in HR Consulting & Recruiting space with a firm, and learned about various industry  requirements and positions, and dynamic opportunities which are available in the market. Coming from the small town of Satara to a big city like Pune, managing things, and coping with work, people and the surrounding was indeed challenging yet interesting.

Rest apart, marketing being my second love, I soon after a year shifted to a Bangalore-based real estate company. Then, to insurance and later education (2006-10). Precisely, I hold diverse 20 years of experience, working in various industries like Education, HR Consulting, Real Estate, and Insurance, contributing to strategy, people effectiveness and growth. In 2010, I cofounded Crescendo Worldwide- a business consulting & advisory firm.

What led you to co-found Crescendo Worldwide? Shed light on the underlying idea behind the venture.

I belong to a business-driven family, and hence, I believe my first inspiration has been my father, as I have closely seen him starting his business at the age of 40, risking his well-settled job at Coopers, and following his dreams. While working in various industries for these many years and especially in the education field I realized the need for new innovative methods in teaching pedagogy, and that made me work on international education tieups and nurture those tie-ups for sustainable results. The founder of Crescendo Worldwide was working on similar lines of international tie-ups for various sectors then. In the year 2008-09 when the world was facing a global recession and Indian companies were put through huge price competition and challenges in acquiring customers, international tie-ups became a key featuring idea for helping small and mid-size organizations survive the period. Just as importantly, Crescendo Worldwide came into being in 2010, mitigating the clear need for internationalization and the market gap for SMEs & MSMEs.

Throw some light on the different responsibilities you shoulder as the co-founder of Crescendo Worldwide.

My role in the company was never constant, it changed respectively with the organization’s growth. At the start of the business years, while my focus was business planning, tapping market opportunities & at the same time assessing the risk taken, after a couple of years it shifted to scalability in the business. However, people effectiveness is and will always be my focus and passion. Being the director on all the subsidiary offices, including Crescendo Worldwide India, Crescendo Worldwide GmbH, Germany, and Crescendo Worldwide FZCO (Dubai) (company formed for Metaverse services), looking after the operations in my responsibility. At present, I am involved in technology integration & productivity enhancement in every facet of business leading people-effectiveness & growth, designing the strategy for clients and vanguard for supporting & guiding teams internally to execute the laid strategy in the field of trade, managing FDI for various sectors like Automotive, Tourism, Education, Professional Services,Food, Agriculture, Railways, Defence, Construction and more.

Tell us about the various challenges you encounter as a leader in the global trade and investment support industry. How do you overcome the roadblocks that you face?

Challenges are the source of both- opportunity & growth. Being in the International Trade & Investment growth, expansion & facilitation field, the challenges we encounter are majorly at the apex- international or national level and greatly impact business decisions. Be it the COVID-19 pandemic, international wars, inflation, Indian political & business relationships with other countries, change in the government, natural calamities, or the power shift of any country in the world concerning economic development.

"Be greedy for growth And do not settle down For less"

But, the famous Author Charles R. Swindoll rightly says, “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations”. I find it extremely relevant. The challenges coming our way always created a new door for business opportunity allowing us to serve the country & companies in a better and more innovative ways. The best example of this was COVID-19 as a global challenge, which helped us to develop our own Metaverse, and launch the Metaverse book in 2022. We are the kind of company that launched the first Virtual ‘Global Investment Convention’ an immersive experience platform that brings Investors & Government bodies to one common virtual platform from across the globe, at the same time. We also successfully executed 10 Convention Editions since June 2021. Creativity & market gap identification is in the DNA of Crescendo which gives birth to innovative services.

What advice would you give to budding business leaders and entrepreneurs?

Focus on your strengths and strengthen your strengths by believing in them. Keep challenging yourself and take the risk. Be greedy for growth and do not settle down for less. Stop considering yourself as a female in business instead work on identifying yourself as only an entrepreneur.

Jalpa Jadhav, Co-Founder, Crescendo Worldwide

With a B.Com. and MBA in Marketing & HR, she is a keen professional with over 20 years of acknowledgeable experience in various industry sectors like Education, HR Consulting, Real Estate, Insurance, and International Trade & Investment.