Of late, we have been hearing so many horror stories about how corporate life is promoting sedentary work and robbing lives of young professionals. We thought we will dispel such misconceptions !
Nishant Bharadwaj, our next pathbreaker, works at HDFC Life, heading the Emerging Digital Ecosystem business responsible for the distribution of Insurance products on various digital platforms for larger reach.
Nishant talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about his corporate/startup journey, being the 1st Indian to run a Full Marathon (42.2Kms) in a business suit, and travelling the world as an Ironman Triathlon Athlete !
For students, being healthy and fit is a choice we have, and nobody but us can control it as long as we know our priorities !
Nishant, Your background?
I hail from an Army background. My Dad was Colonel in the Indian Army and My mother was Joint Secretary in the government of Haryana. I grew up in different parts of India, wherever Dad got posted, did schooling from 9 different schools including a Convent school, Government School, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Public school in places like Pachmarhi in MP, Dehradun, Siliguri, Khadakwasla, Pune, Chandigarh.
My parents encouraged me to take part in all co-curricular and sports activities including Debate, Declamation, Quizzes, Fashion Shows, Arts & Craft, Football, Cricket, and being House captain & Prefect. I believe all these activities helped build confidence for life.
What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
I am Computer Science engineering graduate and MBA Marketing Postgraduate.
Can you talk about some of the influences that led you on such an offbeat, unconventional and uncommon career path in Sales and as a Triathlon athlete?
My Parents have always been my key influencers.
I did a lot of unpaid research projects at my college to learn more about SEO/SEM/Social Media marketing, Digital marketing to get hands-on experience.
I used to go and ask for work at various companies to get a foot in the door through walk-in or references. Never be shy to ask!
I used to hear podcasts like Tim Ferris Show, Joe Rogan Podcast, Lex Friedman Podcast.
One of the key events that shaped my career was starting up Zopec.com in 2014
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you transition into a new career? Tell us about your career path
I have always been comfortable being outgoing, meeting new people, and exploring. Hence I chose Marketing as my post graduation. I got my 1st job as a Sales manager at Eveready Industries.
I thoroughly enjoyed my stint here followed by Tata Motors. Sales is always challenging because it involves managing people, selling, marketing, understanding the competition, increasing distribution and building relationships. I understood very early on that Digital is the space to be.
I was recruited from Management campus as a Management trainee in Eveready Industries, an FMCG company. The 1st 9 months on the job was about learning front frontline sales, Marketing across West Bengal, UP, Maharashtra and then I was posted to Rajasthan for a sales role as the youngest Area Sales manager at the age of 23 in the company which was 110 years old. That experience taught me so many things in life, importance of managing people, sales, negotiation, better communication skills, and traveling 15-20 days a month.
It set the foundation of my career.
After another stint at Tata Motors, I decided to start my own startup venture.
I founded my company called ZOPECO.COM back in 2014 which was basically a groceries aggregating startup. Think of it as ZEPTO of 2014, every order delivered in 3 hrs. We were present in three markets, Noida, Ranchi and Jamshedpur. We used to do 500 orders daily through our website and cloud call centre. Though we had 40 employees, we eventually had to shut down as we were early in the market, the unit economics were not sound, due to high cost of operations and funding winter.
But a startup is a fabulous place to learn about everything like Sales, Finance, Marketing, Operations, people management, hustle and hard work. After doing my startup way back in 2014 to 2016, I joined SBI bank to build the biggest digital bank of the country YONO SBI.
One will not have all the answers in the beginning, you will doubt yourself, not know what to do, but it is important to know what direction the world is moving in. For example, when I was studying, I saw the internet businesses taking off. Flipkart had just launched, PAYTM had launched, so that was a good opportunity to get into because that would have grown from there!
If I am studying today in school or college, I will spend all my energy in learning about AI, building models, applying them in different fields and not just internet search but in Medical field, math, science, travel, Sports, psychology, transportation, and aviation. Every field would be disrupted by AI.
Sports and fitness are a big part of my life. I am into the sport of Triathlon where you have to Swim, Cycle and Run together. I do Ironmans around the world which helps me to remain grounded, motivated, travel the world with family and balance life. IRONMAN is considered to be the world’s toughest single day sporting event because you have to do 3.8kms of swimming in the sea, followed by 180kms cycling followed by 42.2kms run all in one day non-stop in 17 hours.
I got into IRONMAN’s to motivate my father to keep fighting his cancer battle back in 2019. It was a good driver for him that I, despite not knowing how to swim and not having a cycle, could learn and do the world’s toughest race, then he can fight too. My father was the inspiration for me cultivating a love for this sport.
Unfortunately, we lost him to cancer, but he continues to remain in my heart and motivates me with his wisdom!
How did you get your first break?
By asking at least 50 people/HR, anyone working in the private sector to take me up for an internship, unpaid or paid. I was ready for any role to learn. My curiosity helped me get my 1st internship at Mahindra and Mahindra, Mohali Plant for building UI/UX for their internal HR portal back in 2009 during my engineering days.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenges are part of life, in fact that’s what makes any journey worth remembering. Anything that we get easily will most likely not hold a great value to us, be it Internship, job, money or anything else.
Challenge 1 – It was to find how to get an internship in the 1st place, whom to ask, how to approach people. Nowadays, it is much easier, you can use linkedin to network, create an introductory email invite using ChatGPT and reach out to people. The key is to find the right HR folks or Managers in the area you are interested in. One can also do paid freelance work on Trulancer.com/Freelancer.com/Upwork and so on to find your 1st big break.
Challenge 2- Not having the right skill set needed by the industry. You can only know this by trying many projects, feedback loops, changes and learning from various online forums like Reddit, LinkedIn or even YouTube.
I constantly asked my college seniors for feedback on my work and from my reporting manager so that I could improve. One needs to develop patience to keep trying until you get it right.
Where do you work now?
I work at HDFC Life, heading the Emerging digital ecosystem business.
What problems do you solve?
Solving the digital distribution of Insurance products on various digital platforms for larger reach, better conversions, reaching new types of customers, that is GenZ, and new geographies.
What skills are needed for your role? How did you acquire the skills?
One needs at least 10-15 years of experience in sales and marketing, technical understanding of the digital journey, API’s, excellent interpersonal skills, presentation skills, negotiation skills, business understanding, Indian insurance regulatory landscape and an understanding of the startup world.
What’s a typical day like?
It usually lasts for 8-10 hrs/day starting at 9am. Involves huddling with the team in the morning, followed by meeting with at least 3-4 partners per day on business propositions as well as assessing and troubleshooting issues on various projects. The job also requires me to travel across India at least 10 days a month in different cities to meet partners.
What is it that you love about this job?
Finding new solutions that bring business to the organization, building new partnerships and digital journeys and meeting new people.
How does your work benefit society?
We are ensuring financial safety and protection of customers with Life insurance and savings products, thereby helping them build wealth and keeping their family protected in case of them passing away.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
I was the founding team member of YONO SBI, India’s biggest digital bank, having joined the team in Nov 2016. I was responsible for the Brand and Digital marketing. After having worked hard for developing the project, I was responsible for the launch event along with other members of the marketing team, we burnt many nights of midnight oil. With over 500 people in attendance including IAS officers, Senior bank officials, various startup founders, the then Finance Minister, Late shri Arun Jaitley ji, we launched the app. When we went live, over 1 lac people used the app the same day, that was a highly memorable few days!
Your advice to students based on your experience?
I would like advice young students to –
- Read physical books as much as possible, non-fiction, technical and even historical books to help develop your thought process.
- Work on your communication skills and meet as many new people as possible. Have quality and well rounded conversations. Learn to listen more and talk less.
- Learn future technologies as well as their use cases like Big Data, AI, NLP, Machine Learning as well as sales.
- Remain humble and teachable – don’t ever think that you know everything, remaining curious helps you to learn more and win more in life.
- Have many hobbies outside of work and studies like playing a sport, traveling, watching cinema, music, art, writing. This will help you destress when things don’t go your way.
- Always have a fitness routine, eat good natural food, sleep at least 8 hrs a day.
- Be honest, ethical, empathic and human, that’s what your superpower would be now and in the future!
Future Plans?
I love to travel the world, plan to see 50 more countries in the next 5-7 years. Continue to do a few IRONMAN’s and marathons every year.
Build fintech and healthtech products that help solve problems at scale.
Strive to write and read more.
Help a large number of startup founders with angel investments.