How to Grow Business in a VUCA World

Anshuman Maharana, a seasoned business leader with over 22 years of rich experience across diverse sectors including luxury automobiles, home furniture, and office solutions. His illustrious career includes pivotal roles in Sales and Marketing at global automotive giants Toyota and Honda, where he developed deep expertise in strategic pricing, channel management, and brand development.

A key architect of Lexus’s success in India, Anshuman played an instrumental role in establishing the luxury brand’s presence and establishing its operations. His strategic approach and execution were crucial in bringing Lexus’s local production to India, making it only the fourth country worldwide to manufacture Lexus vehicles locally. While heading marketing for Lexus in India, he was also responsible in setting up the public relations operations by closely coordinating with media across the country.

Throughout his career, Anshuman has cultivated comprehensive knowledge in direct sales, dealer network management, digital marketing, and business planning. His hands-on approach has taken him across India, gathering valuable customer insights and understanding regional market dynamics. At Toyota, he was a key member of the team that revitalized underperforming dealerships, transforming them into profitable enterprises.

As a certified ISO internal auditor for Toyota, he developed a process-oriented approach to problem-solving while ensuring departmental compliance. His unique blend of strategic thinking and operational excellence has consistently delivered value for both customers and organizations.

Today, Anshuman channels his extensive business acumen and unwavering dedication toward helping Indian businesses flourish, contributing to the nation’s journey toward becoming a developed economy. His vision extends beyond individual success to encompass India’s broader economic transformation.

Rahul is a seasoned operator, advisor, and leader in B2B Revenue Growth for IT & Professional Services industries. He has first-hand builder and leadership experience across all areas of the B2B Revenue Value Chain, starting with marketing and demand generation to sales development, and the entire sales lifecycle for clients selling to North America, Europe, Australia, India, and Middle East markets.

Rahul’s unique journey has provided him rich experience in working with various growth stage companies – from multi-billion dollar global companies to growth phase mid-sized companies, and VC-Funded startups. In his career, he’s generated $300MN + in qualified leads, enabled $100 MN+ in revenue, and hired (& led) 250+ strong revenue team members.

At Genpact, Rahul was responsible for setting up, building, and scaling first-time critical programs such as Insights Selling, Competitive Intelligence Unit, Accounts Focused Growth, to name a few. His last corporate assignment was as the Head of Growth for Team Lease Services, a publicly traded professional staffing services company with ~$500MN in annual revenue. Here Rahul built and led the entire revenue team from zero to 50+ in one year. Earlier part of Rahul’s career were shaped in product management and account management roles at Thermax Limited and Frost & Sullivan.

Rahul’s startup experiences were as a founding team member with two VC-Funded startups, where he was responsible for a portfolio of responsibilities focused around driving initial growth by acquiring users, ecosystem partners, and laying the foundational processes.

Since 2019, Rahul has been working as an independent consultant to mid-sized IT & Professional Services and Product companies to unlock B2B Revenue Growth.

Rahul is an avid reader across a variety of genres – primarily entrepreneurship, sales, psychology, spirituality, and self-development. He’s a sports enthusiast and is a die-hard cricketer who’s on a cricket field every Sunday. Rahul lives in Bangalore, with his wife and two sons.

Dr.Sangeeta Devanathan is an alumnus of the renowned Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K) and boasts of a career spanning over 22 years in Sales and Marketing across diverse sectors, including Banking, Media, and Academia.

Her banking stint encompasses notable multi-national organizations such as HSBC, Citibank, and Standard Chartered Bank. In her last role in the banking sector at Standard Chartered Bank she was donning the dual role of Regional Head of the Employee Banking business as well as the Unsecured Lending portfolio. This multifaceted position demanded a comprehensive understanding of the various businesses within the bank’s clientele.

During her earlier banking roles, as a product manager, Sangeeta successfully oversaw several Retail banking products, including the Co-Branded Credit Cards portfolio for Citibank. Her responsibilities involved managing partnerships with diverse entities such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), MTV, and Times of India. Additionally, she played a pivotal role in designing and executing the go-to-market strategy for innovative retail banking products like the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite, Manhattan Platinum, and Standard Chartered Platinum One.

Transitioning to the Media Industry, Sangeeta took on the role of Vice President and Head of the Karnataka & Kerala Clusters at ENIL (Radio Mirchi) within the Times of India Group. This experience broadened her exposure to various industries, with clients ranging from local retailers to major national players like 3M, Britannia, Apple, Amazon, and ITC Foods.

Over the past nine years, Sangeeta has delved into academia and research, earning a PhD in Marketing. Actively engaged in application-oriented research, she imparts practical, hands-on experiences to aspiring managers at JAIN University. Furthermore, she is a highly lauded trainer for Leadership programs for various corporate entities.

Shantanu is a senior executive, with over 27 years of overall business experience. He worked with Oracle India & Thailand for the past 12 years and with NIIT Ltd. prior to that, focusing on adoption of technology through skill development for large Enterprises, Govt. and Institutions. As Sales Director at Oracle, he has been a firm believer in creating and expanding business thru ‘value creation’ for the customer.

Shantanu has built and managed large teams and provided leadership for Organizational growth. Has developed business plans, created market opportunities and structures to address them, and ensured consistent performance year on year picking up awards and accolades on the way being awarded the ‘Best Sales Manager’ in Oracle Univ, Asia Pac., ‘Best Sales Head’ across Oracle Univ, APAC, ‘Highest revenue growth’ in Oracle APAC as well as being the ‘Top 3 Sales Director’ at Oracle Univ, globally. These achievements enabled the India business groups’ growth, taking India from 37th in the world to #4, in global country ranking.

Shantanu has a well rounded view of IT industry in India having run businesses across hardware, software, IT solutions, content and training, with majority of his time being spent in IT training industry. He believes that the men behind the machine matter as much as the machines themselves, a parameter much forgotten and neglected by many in the Indian IT sector.

Shantanu has been part of Oracle India’s senior management team for 4 years, and has been active in shaping 2015 Vision statement. He is a regular speaker at different forums, passionately focusing on IT adoption vs IT spend.

Shantanu is a part of Bizwin’s core Leadership team and plays an important role in strategizing and executing Bizwin’s growth plans in India and other countries.

Vipul Kukreja has over 36 years of experience in Sales and Marketing, Entrepreneurship, successfully Launching new ventures, managing Profit & Loss Account, motivating teams to achieve business goals and deliver customer value. After his M.B.A. in Marketing from the University Business School, Panjab University. Vipul started his career with Garware Paints Limited. As a management trainee and Sales Officer, he focused on achieving the company goal of making an entry in the B2B market in the state of Rajasthan, where the primary focus of the company was consumer segment.

His passion for Information Technology sector started when he joined Computer Point, India’s first one-stop outlet for everything in computers. He closely worked with his senior management in establishing the company in its formative stages to spearhead the adoption of computer systems in the corporate through Learning and Development. His former superiors and colleagues still reminisce fondly about his evangelizing usage of computers in over 1000 major corporates in the early years of computerization in India. He converted this market need for knowledge of technology into a highly profitable Computer Learning Division and ran it as a profit center.

At Silverline Technologies Limited, he replicated the computer training model, taking it to much larger scale, helping a fledgling IT company establish a pre-eminent name in the marketing of computer training and related solutions and software products. During this period, he designed, developed and delivered Sales Training Program for his team.

HA short stint in the U.A.E. with Jumbo Electronics computer division as Sales Manager gave him exposure to an international and multi-cultural market. Back in India, he took up one of the biggest challenges of his life as General Manager -Sales & Marketing for MicroGiga (a Mafatlal company) where with the help of his seniors and the board, he helped turn the company profitable in a short span of time, enabling it to become one of the largest business partners of Hewlett Packard from India, globally.

His last assignment in the corporate sector was Tata Consultancy Services where he played the role of the National Head for Software Products.

Over 2 decades ago, bitten by an entrepreneurial bug, he founded and launched an executive search firm, M2S Consulting. Within a short span, the company grew to become one of the biggest go-to brand names for Headhunting top management for the Information Technology sector in Mumbai. Vipul is a certified DISC Assessor, a Certified Business Coach, and a Certified Executive Coach.

A lifelong student of management, sales, marketing, business development, Vipul is a trained Digital Marketor too. As an entrepreneur, he empathizes with the businesses struggling to grow and is very passionate about helping business seek the business goals and dreams, they had set out for. As a mentor, advisor and execution partner his philosophy is co-creation of business outcomes.

Vipul is a charter member of The Rotary Club of Thane Skyline, where he served as a President too. He is an active member of the Rotary District 3142, contributing actively to the upliftment of the underprivileged. He is an avid reader and spiritually inclined. Integrity to self and the customer is his dictum and delivering value is the battle cry.

Married to Jyoti, Vipul happily lives with his mother and daughter Janhavi and son Vishrut.

Ram is an IT industry veteran with over 3 decades of exemplary experience in various global leadership roles. He has a well-rounded profile with experience across Hardware, Software & Services business. He is conversant with a range of Enterprise applications across ERP, PLM & CRM – On Premise, On Demand & Cloud based solutions.

Ram possesses remarkable credibility & personal integrity that leaves lasting impressions with Corporate Decision Makers, Partners & Employees. He is comfortable & familiar with working in cross cultural environments across GEOs including India, Middle East and North America.

Starting his career as a Direct Field Sales rep in 1983, He enjoyed steady career progression over a 33 year span which led him to Sales & General Management roles in a wide spectrum of Indian and MNC organisations including Dassault Systemes (As VP – Business Transformation for South Asia), Oracle India & USA (As Senior Director – Sales, Inside Sales & Channel Management), Silicon Graphics Inc (As Large Account Manager), Gulf Computers (Sales Manager – Oil/Gas, Retail in UAE) & Wipro Infotech (As Regional Sales Manager).

He has managed annual revenues in excess of US$ 100 Million spanning several assignments. He has extensive People Management skillsin various functions such as Sales, Inside Sales, Presales Consultants, Marketing, Channel Sales Support & Post Sales Delivery teams.

Ram has a wide exposure across industries including Manufacturing, IT/BPO, Aerospace & Defence, Retail, Construction, Media, Life Sciences & Textile companies.

Some of his major skills set include:

• Formulating annual business plans / strategies
• Implementing business development plans, setting up sales objectives and designing / streamlining processes & systems to ensure smooth sales execution.
• Understanding clients business needs, strategic direction and identifying initiatives that will allow business to meet those strategic goals.
• Identifying and networking with prospective Greenfield clients as well as generating predictable business from install base accounts.
• Attracting, recruiting, on boarding & monitoring the performance of team members to ensure efficiency in sales operations and meeting of individual & group targets.

Ram graduated from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda with a Bachelors’ in Electrical Engineering in 1981, followed by a MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune in 1983. He continues his association with his alma mater, Symbiosis Institute in Bangalore as a member of the Advisory Board.

In his “second” innings, Ram is a Business Associate with a leading Tata group company and helps them with recruitment, training, and enablement. He also closely engaged with several other businesses as a Board member or in an Advisory capacity including Prumatech Infosystems and Digital Interact.

At Bizwin, Ram is a part of the core Leadership team that charts out the direction of the company’s growth, IP building, customer acquisition and delivery initiatives.

Mumbai born Ram has now adopted Bangalore as his home for the past 13 years and enjoys his leisure time with several activities including Travel to the Himalayas, Reading and Spirituality.

Gary has been at the intersection of market needs, technology, operations, marketing and sales throughout his 37 years career. He is a business leader with broad senior management experience – Start-ups, Business Development, Strategic Planning, Sales and Marketing, and the expertise to leverage technology-based solutions for information processing services.

Gary spent a good portion of his career working at financial printing companies that assist Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registrants – public companies and investment management firms and their intermediaries – law firms, investment banks and accounting firms with creating, collaborating, filing and distributing documents for regulatory disclosure requirements.

He has been a leading authority with the SEC’s modernization initiatives, including their Electronic, Data, Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) program, their Digital Distribution allowance, Notice and Access for Proxy material and their eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) mandate.

At Bowne & Co. he led the re-organization of the company to better align it with strategic markets and led both Marketing and Sales teams with a Solutions Selling approach. With one assignment at Bowne he increased revenue of a product line from $75 MM to 155 MM in three years.

Currently, Gary is President of Purnhagen & Associates, consulting with small professional services companies on growth strategies and execution. He is also a principal with BusinessByTech, LLC that helps to bring qualified Indian BPOs to the U.S. market.

At Bizwin, Gary is a member of the core Leadership team and plays a significant role in both strategic and tactical aspects of business growth, customer acquisition and delivery. Gary oversees and manages the operations of Bizwin in the US.

Gary obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Communications at City University of New York and an Associate’s degree in Electrical Engineering from TCI, College of Technology, both located in New York City.

He is a native of New York City where he has lived most of his life and currently resides there with his wife. He has recently restored a house in the Hudson River Valley that was built in 1785.

He enjoys nature – hiking, camping and photography, is an avid snow skier and enjoys traveling.

Susheel is a senior business executive with over 30 years of work experience in cross-cultural and multi-national environments.

He has established offices and managed sales teams for Microsoft Corporation in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. He has built the customer account management framework and has independently managed revenue and market share responsibilities for various Microsoft flagship products.

Susheel has worked extensively in various channel creation activities for the SME segment of ISV / SP reseller OEM / IHV and Tech Training institutes. He was instrumental in promoting and establishing the Microsoft Consulting Services and laying the foundation for Enterprise Level Account management business. He worked with Microsoft for over 10 years.

Susheel lived in New York for over 2 years with Independent profit center responsibility of setting up sales and marketing offices for Cybernet Software Systems Inc based in New York for US-East Coast and Canada regions. He managed a team of business development managers and project managers for off-shore Software Projects, Technical Support and Performance Management offerings. His was responsible for revenue growth by creating and managing enterprise Fortune 2000 accounts and customers to ensure monthly and quarterly revenue targets are constantly achieved.

Susheel had a short but relevant stint with a startup company Immaculate Interactions Pvt Ltd. As Head of Sales and Operations. This eventually grew to a 1,000 member Tele Sales Service and Business Process Outsourcing facility based in Bangalore. He was involved in the Merger and Accusation of Immaculate with HTMT (Hinduja Group).

As a Senior Director for Oracle Corporation Susheel was responsible for setting up the Oracle University Global Shared Services with responsibility of recruiting, developing and managing a team of 300+ individuals, who were supporting and servicing the Global Oracle University organization at the country and divisional levels in the following areas: Back Office Operations, Systems Software development and support, Curriculum & Product Development, Telesales and Telemarketing. He had Revenue and Gross Margin responsibilities with overall leadership and management of the India Delivery Center shared services team to globally support the US $ 500 million Oracles Education line of business.

Most recently Susheel was heading the Training, Talent Development and Delivery responsibilities for the India Delivery Center for Accenture India Pvt Ltd.

He was responsible to lead the team to manage the complete training and related delivery quality services for the 120,000 employees of the Technology division of Accenture India. Susheel was accountable for a budget of over US $25 million for maintaining skill levels for all levels of employees and as demanded by Projects.The training delivery spanned the Infrastructure Services, Technology skills, Delivery skills, Industry Vertical skills, Digital and Professional Development areas across various career levels of the Delivery Center. Introduction of Online Training and Accenture Connected Classroom in 127 Global Centers were a few other relevant achievements.

Susheel brings to the table some of the best practices in Sales, Channel Management, Talent Development and Project Deliveries, which come from his vast experience of working with some of the best Information Technology companies in the world.

At Bizwin, Susheel is a part of the core leadership team and plays a vital role in shaping and executing the vision, objectives and growth strategy of the company.

Susheel is settled in Bangalore, with his family.

Susheel’s interest varies from listening to Music, Observational Astronomy to Spirituality.

Anjan has over 37 year’s business experience and has held key roles at National and Global level and oversaw complex project assignments across Government and Private Sectors.

He has held leadership roles and managed key techno-commercial responsibilities while working for organizations such as CMC, Digital Equipments, IBM, PwC, Polaris (North America) and Capgemini (North America) and Capgemini (India). For a couple of years, Anjan ran his own Consulting organization (Numind Consulting) and strategized, delivered and oversaw diverse range of assignments from Go-To-Market Strategy to India Market Entry Strategy for multiple enterprises.

Anjan has a rich exposure to Government projects across Railways, Coal & Mining, Oil, Engineering etc., besides regular Governmental set ups in States and Centre. He has strong hands-on experience in Manufacturing and Healthcare domains as well.

He has been a faculty with NISG STeP programs since 2013 and has also been a course Director for the E-Governance Champions Program. He has been involved with training over 2100 Government officers across 19 States.

He has also been Visiting / Guest Faculty at TMTC Pune, IIM Bangalore and IIM Shillong. During the Capgemini assignment, he was associated with Capgemini University in Paris in developing programs and training over 250 Sales VPs / Senior Managers from Europe.

Anjan hold a Bachelor’s degree (Honours) in Commerce from Calcutta University. During his distinguished career, he has attended various Executive / Leadership Courses and Programs including Power Based Selling by Holden International (USA), Utility Industry Executive Program at Michigan Business School (USA), Strategies for Competitive Advantage at IIM Ahmadabad, Industrial Marketing Management at XLRI Jamshedpur etc.

At Bizwin, Anjan is a part of the core Leadership team that charts out the direction of the company’s growth, IP building, customer acquisition and delivery initiatives.

Having travelled across the world, Anjan is now settled with his family in Bangalore.

His interests are in Hindustani Classical Music, Soccer, Cricket and sports in general. He is also a Mentor to a number of senior professionals in the Industry.

Aurijit is a senior business leader with over 30 years of experience in multinational and cross-cultural business environments. He achieved consistent success in Demand generation, Revenue & Profit growth for the IT industry in North America, Europe and India. He started his career in manufacturing industry and worked in large scale chemical and textile plants in India for 8 years, with a short stint in Japan. For the last 20 years, Aurijit has held leadership roles in Sales & Marketing functions of both small and Fortune 500 companies in the IT industry. He managed, grew, co-ordinated and motivated multi-locational teams to deliver the desired results.

Aurijit was the Head of Business Development (North America) of the Enterprise Technology Group of LG CNS ($2 Bn IT arm of $100Bn Korean chaebol LG), and led its entry, growth and diversification in U.S.A and Canada.

His last major corporate assignment was with Oracle. As a Director, he strategized and accomplished a five-fold growth of his division in the North America market in 6 years,and won multiple leadership awards along the way.

Aurijit has a strong exposure to Manufacturing, Healthcare, Retail, Energy and ISV verticals. His process & policy compliance experience includes ISO 9000, CMMi, Lean manufacturing, HIPAA, SOX and XBRL. At different points in his career, he acquired, managed and grew several Fortune 500 accounts in North America and Europe.

Aurijit holds a Bachelors of Technology degree from the University of Calcutta. He is also an IBM and SAP certified professional. While living in the US, he attended Executive Management sessions at Harvard University. Along his career, he underwent several trainings on Leadership, Sales & Marketing from some of the best global organizations like Mercury Goldman, InfoMentis, Winning Inc. (Sandler Training), BayGroup and others.

Aurijit has recently become an Oxford alumnus by completing the 9-month Senior Executive Leadership Programme (SELP) from Said Business School of the University of Oxford.

At Bizwin, Aurijit oversees the overall strategy, execution, IP management and customer relationship.

Aurijit is settled with his family in Bangalore, India. He is a sports enthusiast, has a keen interest in new technologies and loves travelling to exotic and historical places around the world.