With more than 25 years of business experience, Vineet Trakroo, CEO of Evolution Strategy Advisors LLP, is a marketing and sales strategist who has been counselling big and midsized companies since 2013. He has served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Usha International, Head of Marketing for CavinKare, and Pidilite-Fevicol. For Beiersdorf & Ahmed Oil mills, head of sales and marketing. BE Electrical, MBA: Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Awarded, “50 Most Talented Brand Leaders of India”, February’13 and 2000 Cannes Award for advertising.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between Fortunes Time and Vineet Trakroo:
Introduce yourself, and what was your vision for joining the company?
In 2013, we started Evolution Strategy Advisors LLP with the objective of catering to mid- and large-sized organizations in the B2C space to identify growth strategies for our clients as well as partner with them in execution. We have now extended our services into business transformation, building excellence in sales, distribution, marketing, and brand building. Business Alliances is another vertical for bringing in international brands to India through JV and licensing.
As I had worked in multiple industries (fmcg, durables, OTC, building materials, and engineering-electrical), there was domain knowledge of many industries and products available with us. Further, our consultant partners were equally knowledgeable and also from diverse industry backgrounds.
We, as employees, had been growing our employer’s business multifold and saw an opportunity to grow other people’s businesses that needed the skills we had to offer and were willing to bring about change in their workstyle and culture to grow.
With many new MNCs entering India, the opening up of manufacturing in India, and the crowding of the B2C product space with multiple brands, it was necessary for the existing players to get competitive, organized, and have a clear sustainable strategy for the future to achieve leadership.
With increased data collection from every stage of business and large-scale automation, this data needed to flow back into the company for better decision-making. But only after it made sense and was made to relate to the business challenges. We have been able to do the same and use data objectively in strategy creation and business governance.
Describe the company’s culture and values.
Our values are
- Quick results: We understand that consultants need to deliver, and it should be reflected in the client’s business results. Our tools are designed for a quick and accurate turnaround, and we have delivered within a quarter.
- Practical: If a solution provided by us is not usable, then it is of no use. Due to an experienced team of former CXO’s, we are able to offer practical solutions at low or no cost that clients can easily implement. We do not suggest solutions that are expensive or not possible in the culture of the company.
- Domain Resource: Our team of managing partners has domain experience in our clients businesses or industries, making it easier to understand and recommend strategic shifts. This is a great advantage, as our team would have had past experience implementing some of the changes recommended.
- Sincere and factual: We call a spade a spade, and neither do we create unexpected aspirations. All our recommendations are backed by data and have never been contested so far. In fact, 100% of our recommendations are accepted by our clients, and more than 80% of them come back to us again. As a team of managers from the industry, we present the true picture when presenting challenges.
Will you highlight your role and areas of focus?
As CEO and founder, my role has been to steer this startup and evolve as per client requirements. The creation of models and solutions for identifying growth, creating the IT backbone and support for the organization, as well as building data analytics capabilities, was what I did in the initial years. There were a lot of efforts put into business development as we offered a new concept of growth consulting. This model was then changed to add execution capabilities. Customer satisfaction is built into our DNA, and we take that extra effort to offer more to our clients than they had asked for. We go beyond our brief at times to ensure success for our clients. Building customer focus remains my key role.
Are there strong opportunities for emerging leaders to grow and lead in the industry?
If we go by the S&P 500 index, a list of top companies Every year, there is a constant churn. Companies have an average life of 21 years in 2020 vs. 32 years in 1965, and this number is 15 years today. The company will cease to exist if they do not change and offer relevant products or services.
Today, with the start-up atmosphere and easier funding opportunities, just-passed graduates are launching their own ventures. These are the leaders of tomorrow. The Ivy League tag is no longer a passport to success, but ideas and their execution are. Even though we know that more than 90% of startups fail, most of these entrepreneurs will stand up again and again with new ideas and eventually get it right. We will see a lot more entrepreneurs added in the years as start-ups are getting as much support as small and medium enterprises today. This will have a positive impact on the creation of a pool of experienced entrepreneurs and a strong pool of leaders. Today, there is more media coverage given to the new-age industries and start-ups than the traditional manufacturing and core sectors. The talent from these manufacturing sectors is also not easily employable in the new-age and start-up sectors.
How critical is it for the founder/CEO role to be engaged in business strategy?
The founder and CEO are the ones who hold the vision for the company. It’s he or she who decides what they want to be, and thus their role in crafting the route to his vision, i.e., the strategy, is very important. Further, it is important that the founder or CEO be involved in the execution and manage key business metrics in addition to engaging and ensuring customer satisfaction.
What are your views on the future of work and the importance of employees being in an office to collaborate and maintain company culture?
A culture of an organization and its values are built by its people or employees. An organization that is operating in a mature industry with low manpower turnover can survive in an offline WFH. But for a new organization that has continually changing priorities and opportunities, there is a need for increased collaboration as well as new responsibilities to be addressed. Thus, working together in such a quickly changing business builds a stronger deliverable as well as a co-working culture. Meeting and sitting across the table helps in resolving challenges and differing opinions.
What advice do you offer to people beginning their careers?
With the government in India planning huge subsidies and opening up the manufacturing sector, as well as start-up funding and reducing subsidies with alternative products or solutions, there will be no dearth of opportunities. AI and the changing needs of the IT industry will only increase the penetration of service-led solutions. As one can see, the government is the biggest user of technology, and it is being used to streamline governance. This will make jobs available everywhere. For entrepreneurs, it’s much easier than it was 20 years ago, when capital was difficult to get. Today, in fact, you don’t need as much capital as the service sector doesn’t invest in plants and machines. The opportunity is in the automation or digitization of every aspect of life. Identifying the right challenge that one wants to solve and that has a large enough market will determine the next success.
