Delineate the significant facets of your professional journey?

Diversity is one of the biggest components of my professional background and it began years before I stepped into an office. I was born in the UK and in my early teens left London with my parents who were returning to India. Those were the days of rationing of sugar, kerosene and TV had just started. A major difference from living just off Oxford Street, shopping in large supermarkets and watching sitcoms on colour TV. After finishing school and college in Bombay, I did my post graduate management degree at IIMC. Over the last four decades of my professional life, I've lived in three countries: India, Malaysia and the US, worked extensively in Mexico, China and Turkey in a variety of consumer industries and retail. My roles have varied from direct accountability for the business P&L, to playing an influencer’s role through strategy. Throughout this journey I delighted in the differences around me and often surprised my colleagues and neighbours by asking questions about things they took for granted. Recognizing there is no one way to do things, reduced the barrier to change and made me willing to try new things and explore new paths. My depth of understanding came from scanning differences rather than putting down roots. I often wonder what my life would have been if I have stayed and lived in the same place I grew up and what paths it would have led me down.

Insights

As I worked and lived in different environments, conversations with those around me, helped me understand the norms for my new environment and the culture of the organization I was working in. I learned to be curious and ask before you assume. I devoured demographic and primary consumer research information and looked for the spikes and troughs that would define a segment or differentiate a brand. The behaviour or belief that stood out, the single statistic that tells you there’s something worth exploring. Beyond the bland numbers it was the open-ended comments and the conversations around the research that helped synthesize the information into an insight.

Creating a path

While I love a good strategy based on great insight, I most enjoy creating a path to make it real. A strategy can be inspiring and make you hopeful, but often the path is not clear and unless people know what action they are expected to take, they can feel paralysed and unable to take a step forward. Different people in the organization may have some of the pieces but don’t know who they need to work with, how the pieces fit together or what’s missing. I’ve found conversations help get that started, connect the dots, and paint a picture people can see, add to, and follow, The picture that starts with why the business exists, the way it does business, how all the pieces fit together to serve the customer and what they specifically need to get done.

Alignment

Many of the best strategies I’ve created are the culmination of hundreds of conversations that go far deeper than the words printed on paper. Things are good when the understanding of the customer experience and how it is delivered goes beyond a leader’s functional role and they understand the interdependencies with their colleagues, and how their objectives are interlinked with others in the organization. I feel good when I pull out a document after a few months and the actions we are taking match the spirit of the strategy even if the tactics are different.

Give us brief highlight on VISTAGE’s and C2B’s significance in terms of their offerings. Also, shed some light on your roles and responsibilities at the two companies.

Founded in 1957, VISTAGE is the world’s largest and most comprehensive executive coaching organization that helps SMEs to lead a life of higher climb. Its profound curriculum is purpose-built for all leadership levels, including CEOs, key executives, business owners, and emerging leaders.

C2B Strategies (2015) is an organization that advises companies on ways to grow their business by putting the customer at the centre of their business. Creating a shared understanding of the path to profitable growth the leadership team is engaged with and deeply aligned around.

I work with CEOs in two different capacities, one is as a Vistage Chair and the other is as Founder of C2B strategies: In Vistage I run a small private advisory group of CEOs, bringing together high calibre and high performing business leaders from diverse non-competing industries in the local area. As Group Chairs, we bring our members together in person for candid conversations around their most pressing business issues. It's a confidential forum, where they're committed to helping each other solve difficult challenges and make better decisions across both the business & personal space. The mind-set here is so important that we address the person wholly, not just the business. While members join because of the Chair they often stay for the group and the relationships that are built up over time. In C2B Strategies I work

Mention about some of the most key business lessons that you've picked up on the way and that are still relevant to your approach to leadership now?

I have picked up some very interesting business lessons throughout my professional journey. I’ll share two thoughts with you today. First you have to get out, really see and understand the business for yourself, using a mix of consumer data and insights, to give you the breadth, combined with conversations with customers and employees who are dealing with all aspects of the business model. Second choose positive energy. Business is about relationships and when those relationship are fueled by positive energy, positive conversations take place and good things happen.

Share with us some of the most significant milestones that made you feel satisfied along your journey?

In 1993 I accepted my first international posting with Colgate- Palmolive to move from India to Malaysia. It was a major milestone and changed the trajectory of my career. Three years later after completing a successful stint and tripling the size of the business in Malaysia I felt confident I could operate in new geographic markets.

In 1994, I returned to India with the unique opportunity of helping Whirlpool Corporation enter the Indian market and launch the Whirlpool brand. By 1999 we had established the brand and were profitable.

In 1999 I joined Whirlpool in the US as part of their North American leadership team. Over the next 9 years I led multiple businesses and functions, the US Strategy for the core business, Global Customer Loyalty and was part of the Chairman’s Council.

In 2008 my switch to Best Buy International marked a change to the exciting world of retail, working in Big Box retail and being part of the C-Suite as Chief Customer Experience Officer and CMO.

In 2015, after 35 years in corporate roles I stepped out and started my own business. Over the next few years, I discovered the sheer grit and tenacity it takes to start a small business and find your space.

In 2021, I reached my most recent and perhaps significant milestone, becoming a Vistage Chair and having the opportunity to give back to my local community by leveraging my experience as a business leader to help local CEOs.

What would your advice be to other young women who also aspire to join the workforce or become business leaders & entrepreneurs?

Young women today are entering a very different workforce than I did, but some of the principles are the same. There are more role models, more women in senior positions and technology is a major asset. My advice is to spend as much time having conversations and building relationships in the workplace, across functional areas, as you spend doing task work. Most business is based on relationships and decisions have a rational and emotional component. While having the right recommendation is necessary and important, if you don’t have the right business relationships in place, you’ll find it difficult to get things done. This advice applies to anyone entering a workplace in which they are in a minority and feel different. If you are different, be it is gender, language, education, sexual identity or orientation, you must recognize you have a different set of shared experiences from those around you and it’s important that they get to know who you are and trust you. If you want them to do business with you, spend the time to get to know them– it’s worth it. Build your network and continually grow your relationships so you are an asset to the business.

Marise Kumar, CEO Chair, Vistage Worldwide

Marise is known for creating business strategies for people & companies enabling them to take on big challenges & succeed in achieving greater growth.