Traversing the complex business terrain can often come riddled with challenges and many a times companies inadvertently make unproductive decisions and follow inefficiently devised strategies. Such challenges can often be eradicated by leveraging market research, which significantly details human as well as consumption insights and market trends.

The burgeoning industry has several expert market research leaders, especially women who have already carved a niche for themselves by helping companies perform better in recent times. Sharmila Das is one of the industry mavens who has brought about a paradigm shifts in how businesses leverage market research to their advantage. Purple Audacity is her brainchild in this pursuit of excellence. Having been in the market research industry for over three decades, Sharmila turned an entrepreneur in 2008.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneurs India magazine, Sharmila delineates about her entrepreneurial journey while also tells us about her approach & expertise in the market research domain.

Give a brief overview of your brainchild purple audacity.

Founded in 2008, Purple Audacity is a method-neutral Insights and Strategy consultancy. Picking up the word ‘Audacity’ from Barack Obama’s book ‘Audacity of Hope’, and ‘Purple’ aa complex colour that signified our intent of unearthing complex human insights; we named it Purple Audacity with collective collaboration. It was incepted with an intent to bring in academic rigour into market research (specifically qualitative and innovative research) to enable clients to ‘take a stance’ based on in-depth and robust insights. Today, built upon its key values of method neutrality, purposeful partnerships and transparent collaboration, supported by the fundamentals of courage and respect - Purple Audacity’s raison d’etreis to build Human Insight Lighthouses for its partners across the globe, using mindfulness and audacity.

Take us through your educational & professional journeys before founding purple audacity.

At the age of 19, I had just completed my graduation from B.H.U in Humanities with the trio of subjects… Psychology, Economics & History. These being my favourite subjects, I definitely wanted to pursue something which would help me use my interest in psychology more. That is when I got introduced to the field of marketing which actually makes you go deeper into consumer psyche, and then use those insights to prosper businesses. I decided to pursue marketing and advertising for my PGDM.

Approximately, 35 years ago, even when the industry did exist in its nascent stage, imagining about foraying into it, that too for a small-town girl was crazy. But, the moment of inspiration from a cousin who was working in marketing had really set me on and I immediately jumped into joining a market research organization. It has been a fairly steadfast journey for me over the years, working with some of the big names in the market research industry-KANTAR, MODE Services, and ADMAR, and also now with me heading Purple Audacity.

What Led To The Foundation Of The Company?

It was in 2008, while I was the V.P. at KANTAR, I decided to take a tough call of quitting my job and establishing my own venture. incidentally, by then the global recession had already hit the economy. However, by the coming together of three people having completely different skill sets and unique personal strengths, Purple Audacity sparked off in December 2008. The market research industry was indeed neoteric then, and people were curious about such a venture. I believe big changes can be brought in only with transmutation of the conventional.

I too wanted to do the same by completely heading my venture in this industry. The heart has its reasons which even reasons know nothing of, hence I just followed my appetency, and here we are today standing as a recognized entity.

Throw some light on the approach you take while working on a new project.

Purple Audacity firmly believes that we are true partners for our clientele across the social & commercial sector, epitomized by the multiple roles we play in the lives of our patrons and partners. The relationship with our clients doesn’t end with the completion of their project. The key tenets of the relationship lie in shared passion for the respective industries and creating an atmosphere of mutual trust & respect.

“Passion is about developing an equitable culture. The world is dynamic, and change is the only constant. Women who become leaders, actually have the opportunity to catalyse change and they very consciously with complete mindfulness can also effect that change”

The varied roles being played by Purple Audacity Therefore ranges from being the collector of data, to being the architect of sense making for the data, to being the devil’s advocate and often challenging our clients based on logical conclusion that the insights are indicating, to being the support function for some of the most important decisions that the client takes.

Given the demanding nature of your role as a business leader and entrepreneur, how do you strike a balance between work and personal life?

One thing that I have followed throughout my life is ‘mindfulness’, be it personal or professional I have given it equal attention. However, I want to convey my gratitude to my parents, my husband (who became a stay at home daddy and pursued WFH to look after our daughter), my daughter, who made sacrifices and supported me. I know, there have been many instances of sacrifices or regrets and missed opportunities both personally and professionally, but all seems worth it today when I look back and look at the present scenario.

Although the market research industry sees several women in the initial ranks, yet there is a dearth of women representation in the top leadership roles. In your opinion how can this be rectified in the near future? What would your advice be for aspiring women business leaders?

I agree. There are innumerable reasons why women actually give up, and thus, fail to grab the top leadership roles. Earlier when there was almost no infrastructural or social support; their decision to give up on their professional dreams could have been considered an obvious outcome when they had to manage home, children and many other things at the same time single-handedly while pursuing their professional career. But things are different now. With the easing up of the male domination & older generation psyche beginning to be seen, women have actually got better opportunities today. There's no point in just blaming patriarchy, office politics, or the unequitable kind of gender treatment they have received. By being resilient, not giving up and pushing hard, they can hold forth and manage both professional & personal life simultaneously. Passion is about developing an equitable culture.

The world is dynamic, and change is the only constant. Women who become leaders, actually have the opportunity to catalyse change and they very consciously with complete mindfulness can also effect that change. So, focus on continually identifying opportunities and adapt to new things in order to excel & grow.

Sharmila Das, Founder & Chairwoman, Purple Audacity

She is an acclaimed Market Research doyen enlivening the Marketing & Advertising dynamics following new trends & changing consumer insights.