I began my adventure with Bizom on January 25, 2021, at a time when the world was coping with the problems posed by the COVID-19 epidemic. I had no idea that my professional journey with this organisation would be a rollercoaster of doubts, persistence, and strong connections.
My First Day
My first day ended in an impromptu dinner with the team at Anand Sweets – they were all meeting up in person for the first time since COVID and the lockdowns began.
Job Jitters
One key message that remains from my first few months in Bizom is to not worry about the job, whether I was a good fit, and whether I could cut it, and to instead use the time spent worrying about my future on doing the job well.
Convincing TCPL to Invest in Bizom
My first big closure was Tata Consumer Products, on which I worked in Q4 2021. I’d been acting as a pre-sales consultant for some time, as we didn’t have a pre-sales team yet, and trying to build a narrative that got TCPL to buy into Bizom was quite the challenge.
Overcoming Buy-In Challenges
Getting buy-in from functional team members on a cross-functional project was a major challenge for me when I started. This is still a challenge today, but our work has evolved to a point where there are low cross-functional dependencies, and we act mostly independently.
Evolving Solutions
I also needed to gain an appreciation for the functional limitations of our solutions – working with the CCD team on adapting the retailer app as a farmer facing commerce platform for Cargill in Q3 2021 helped me with this, as well as our implementation with ONDC.
Some Gyan!
I believe being able to develop working relationships with people across the organisation and understanding how SaaS businesses operate have been key gains during my journey here.
Worry less, do more. Say no by default. Protect your time and go deep into what you’re doing. Have an opinion about the domain you operate in, and argue your case.
