Leaders
In a world awash in data, the challenge is to turn data into something meaningful – that can be communicated simply and acted upon effectively. Sushmita Balasubramaniam, CEO, KALAGATO Consumer Intelligence has met this challenge head-on with her expertise in turning data into meaning through cutting-edge research frameworks and innovative storytelling.
Sushmita's career began with TNS India, and she subsequently worked with renowned research and consulting firms like Technopak Advisors and GFK. Her most recent role at Kantar Insights as the South Asia Domain Lead for Commerce & CX, where she spent a decade, gave her a wealth of experience across different clients, sectors, and industries. This experience has been crucial in providing the crucial link of consumer understanding to clients.
She is currently leveraging her 30 years of experience and expertise in both consumer insights and business consulting to build KALAGATO’s Consumer Intelligence business Kalagato is a technology company that identifies high-potential mobile apps using their proprietary data and acquires these assets, with a vision of reaching a billion users over the next 5 years. The Consumer Intelligence business is a strategic arm that will leverage the rich data from these assets to provide clients with a unified perspective of their customers and their digital behavior. Let’s hear it from her.
Introduce us to KALAGATO Consumer Intelligence. How does the company empower clients with consumer intelligence?
With the evolution and growth of Indian digital consumers, it has become extremely vital for companies to get a single, consolidated view of their consumers and their digital behavior. KALAGATO Consumer Intelligence is uniquely positioned to deliver this consolidated view. Given the wide range of apps being acquired, we gain insight into digital behavior across a wide spectrum of consumers. We are building products and services that will help feed clients with continuous intelligence on their digital consumers, to aid in driving critical decisions and better business outcomes.
What are some of the most critical challenges you encounter as a leader heading a consumer intelligence business? What steps do you undertake to overcome them?
Given the kind of data sources we have access to, we deal with a huge pool of diversifying consumer data. Many clients are still unsure about how to effectively use this kind of data in their specific context and how to integrate it with the intelligence they receive from other sources. Hence, empowering the clients to use the available data in the right way and making them aware of the benefits of such data, becomes a challenging task. We believe that making clients aware of the benefits of utilizing diverse consumer data is key to unlocking its true potential. Our aim is to partner with clients, to build confidence about the use of such data in their decision making.
"Despite being a consumer insights professional for many years, i have never once felt bored. Consumers have a unique ability to surprise & teach you something new, just when you think you know everything there is to know about them. It’s a humbling experience, keeps me grounded, & reminds me that there is always more to learn"
Another common issue that we face with clients is a misperception about the cost of digital data. Some clients believe that digital data should be available at a lower cost, as compared to other types of data. However, what they fail to understand is that there are large volumes of data that come from various sources and there is a significant level of expertise needed to scrape, process and analyze this data. We are trying to get educate clients to get them to appreciate the complex processes involved in collecting, processing, and analyzing digital data. We also encourage them to start with pilot projects to demonstrate the benefits of using digital data in their decision-making processes.
What have been the best parts of your professional journey so far? What is your success mantra?
Despite being a consumer insights professional for many years, I have never once felt bored. Consumers have a unique ability to surprise and teach you something new, just when you think you know everything there is to know about them. The market is in a constant state of evolution, and consumers are evolving with it. Hence, there is always something new to learn.
I have also enjoyed working closely with different kinds of people – bosses, peers, and juniors alike. Many of them have helped me grow as a professional. I firmly believe that finding joy in your work is crucial for sustaining a fulfilling career. I would consider this as my mantra for success. At KALAGATO, I am getting the opportunity to unlearn, relearn and work with a completely different set of people, mindsets, and generations. This again is a new experience, hence exciting.
What is the vision for growth for KALAGATO Consumer Intelligence?
I would like the KALAGATO Consumer Intelligence platform to be the ‘go-to’ destination for any client who wants intel on digital consumers. My desire is to see the KGCI platform on every marketer’s desktop. Given the volume of data we have, our main objective at this point in time is to present the available data to the clients in a consumable format. We are in the process of building a platform that will enable clients to use the data more effectively.
Sushmita Balasubramaniam, CEO, Kalagato Consumer Intelligence
An alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur, Sushmita is the CEO of Kalagato Consumer Intelligence, an arm of Kalagato – a data-driven app aggregator that identifies and invests in high-performing mobile apps using its proprietary data platform. She previously worked at Kantar as a South Asia Domain Lead - CX & Commerce and has extended as a consumer insights professional. She also attended Columbia Business School to pursue a course in Digital Marketing.
