In today’s business world, success cannot be achieved by learnings, tips from past. Especially in retail and consumers industry, a paradigm shift in thinking, approach at all levels is essential for leaders to create impact.

Khaarthigha, an exemplary visionary in the retail sector, has nearly 18.5 years of extensive experience in consulting and delivering solutions within the Retail & Consumer Services Industry; Grocery, Food, Fashion, Luxury segments worldwide. In her early career days, she also gained experience in capital marketing; Depositary receipts.

Having established a reputation as a dependable transformation partner, Khaarthigha has collaborated with numerous Fortune 1000 retailers and their leaders across various countries, including the UK/EU, Italy, Spain, US, Sweden, and other European retailers.

Throughout her career, Khaarthigha has been actively involved in diverse Business and Digital initiatives, crafting execution strategies to achieve various objectives such as developing new business models, introducing new service offerings, expanding customer bases, enhancing retention rates, and optimizing costs across different scales.

Notably, Khaarthigha has contributed valuable insights to the industry by publishing point of view pieces, perspectives, analysis, solution articles, and whitepapers in esteemed journals and the organization's insights portal.

In this article, we present Khaarthigha Subramanian, CGO at 7THCENTURY, who shares insights from her professional journey, guiding aspiring entrepreneurs.

In what ways do you harness your skills to enrich the organizations you serve?

I continuously strive to be a transformative business leader and a courageous executive where I strongly believe that every vision needs apt execution and collaboration. To attain this goal, I embrace a collaborative approach that combines empowering and leveraging the strengths of all individuals involved with transparency, genuineness, and unwavering objectivity.

I saw my career as a journey and pursued the exposure, opportunities right from Day-1 rather than just growing in the org. ladder in designation or monetary aspects. I layered up my expertise in delivering tailored solutions with retail business acumen, fluency in strategic thinking & execution, commercial stewardship and in parallel was pruning my optimistic leadership style to be pragmatic and adaptive. This helped me to be a successful consultant, a thought leader and reliable business partner to my clients and contribute to their success.

“Success as a leader demands clarity, diligence, & boldness, embrace risks, learn from failures & avoid playing safe”

Can you share key business lessons from your experiences and journey as a leader?

Being candid and honest: I've learned the importance of this to create constructive work culture that provides growth and learning instead of the mushrooming mutual back-patting work culture which is pulling the entire industry down. Being candid and honest might not win you many immediate friends, but foster’s a very meaningful, reliable professional relationship. I want to be a person, leader whom people can rely on more than a momentary friend.

Not bogged down by constraints: What sets a leader apart is their ability to navigate these constraints effectively deep diving into the root causes of constraints and solving them incrementally (though it is hard).

Identifying and leveraging everyone’s strengths: By leveraging everyone's strengths, skills, abilities and creating an environment where growth and collaboration are encouraged, I've witnessed the tremendous value it brings to both individuals and team dynamics.

Can you share some of the most exciting digital transformation pursuits in retail and consumer services industry?

I've led and worked on various digital transformation projects in retail and consumer services; technology-oriented transformation, business-oriented transformations.

I always enjoyed business-oriented transformations such as helping businesses in expansion or if it is implementing new offerings to customers or changing business model. To achieve success in these pursuits, a holistic approach is essential, encompassing end customers, business, brand perception, bottom line, organizational modeling, and people aspects along with technology element that can drive this. The transformation should not solely focus on technology or business but also encompass a shift in business thinking and people-related changes. It is crucial to handle all these endeavors with utmost commercial sensitivity and be accountable for delivering positive outcomes.

What are some of the key challenges you face in your last pursuit in the role as Chief Growth Officer, and how do you address them?

As the Chief Growth Officer, I confront critical challenges in establishing visibility and credibility for a new organization, its services and its name. But to achieve that we need to invest on many specific targeted activities. Balancing marketing investments and expenses along with generating cash flow, setting up a high performant team becomes hard. Team setup with right capability becomes vital to creating credibility among potential clients. It's a chicken-and-egg scenario: the first client is needed to build credibility, but clients seek established credibility before engaging. Overcoming this requires innovative approaches and demonstrating value. We also have to develop growth strategies, which involve defining long-term goals and revenue targets at a macrolevel while simultaneously considering challenging short-term objectives and actionable steps at a micro level. In order to prioritize these efforts, we have to understand retailer’s multi-dimensional goals, direction and the industry landscape thoroughly.

What is your success mantra as a business leader?

My mantra for success as a business leader revolves around four key principles: These four principles have guided my thinking as a business leader.

Clarity: Clarity in the thought process is crucial. It involves being specific in communication and connecting it to the broader picture. This clarity enables effective communication with stakeholders and clients.

Diligent in empathizing and understanding the context means approaching tasks and activities diligently, putting in genuine effort, and paying attention to detail with regard to the context.

Candid: Being candid and vocal is important. It entails expressing opinions, pushing boundaries, and listening objectively to others' perspectives. builds trust with colleagues and clients.

Courage: It is important to push the boundaries and ask the right questions rather than shying away. I believe that everyone needs to be courageous across the organisation to foster constructive and functional work ecosystem.

Khaarthigha Subramanian, CGO, 7thcentury

Studied Electrical and Electronics Engineer from Amrita Institute (Anna University), Khaarthigha is a dynamic business leader. Currently pursuing a diploma in Executive Senior Leadership & Strategy from the prestigious IIM Lucknow, expected to be completed by September 2023.