"Find meaning in whatever you do"

Venkat Subramanian tried everything until he found his niche. And whilst doing so, he found a purpose to his life. A marketer, musician and a mindfulness apprentice, Venkat has added several feathers to his cap. He is currently serving as Vice President Marketing for BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solutions where he is looking after brand awareness and demand generation. In a conversation with Corporate Citizen, Venkat spoke about a variety of topics ranging from welcoming changes with open arms, digital marketing, music, spirituality and much more…

I like to explore things without any baggage. Answering the ‘why’s’ before starting anything has given a meaning to my life. I like it when things are not planned, which leaves me with welcoming changes with open arms.

I experimented a lot as a student. Exploring several options got me acquainted with my niche. Working in an organic manner rather than chasing something has always worked in my favour. That made realise my worth and I learnt a lot of skills. In that course, I realised what I love doing and things that would excite me. That’s mainly because I let things come to me as opposed to the other way. Imagine getting hooked on to AutoCAD in college leading to a career in marketing over 20 years…if this isn’t organic, I don’t know what is?

In my journey so far, I have met some pretty interesting people who have inspired me a lot. I prefer an unstructured approach to life in general; I like to do things on the go. My encounter with the analytics industry was by chance and also led me to meet Prithvijit Roy, one of my favourite leaders and someone I really look up to.

Before landing as the VP-Marketing at BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solutions, I have had stints in industrial design, advertising, marketing communications and marketing. Parallelly, I have been actively exploring my interest in music production which also led me to form my music startup iapploud a few years ago. In the midst of all these professional and personal pursuits, I also took up an interest in mindfulness both from a scientific (psychology) and non-scientific (reiki, crystal therapy, meditation) perspective. If you really look at it closely, all these streams are interconnected in some way. It’s really how the story of your life gets written and how you understand and progress with more chapters getting added to it.

That understanding has opened up the world of storytelling and its applications for me, both in business and personal life. So, I have a pretty wide range of interests and pursuits that I have literally chanced upon and I love how things have unravelled so far. While there is always the pressure of achieving goals, I feel that my feet are planted on the ground while I aim for the skies.

If I had to describe myself in a nutshell, I would say that my openness to take things as they come my way has made me who I am.

You have been in the field of digital marketing since long. Can you tell how is the new media aiding this sector?

These days data has become of utmost importance. While the internet and other technologies are bringing the world at your doorstep, people are also consuming information at a crazy pace. The ability to capture all this behaviour and data about the customers is leading to a massive shift in the way business is being done.

Keeping all this in mind, companies are finding new ways to understand customer behaviour and capture the data. For instance, Google and Facebook are marketing “adoption” to people so that they can capture more customer data across their ecosystem. This opens up a ton of possibilities and monetisation opportunities for them and their customers in a big way.

Think about smart speakers, facial recognition, autonomous cars and the whole AI revolution. While these innovations are making lives better, they are also a treasure trove of data. Enterprises today are leveraging this data to drive more consumer adoption through personalisation and innovative products. So, as a marketer, this is a great time to be alive!

In a layman’s terms can you tell us what the term marketer means? Also, are marketers using the available data thoughtfully?

As marketers, we are responsible for building a brand that comes across credible enough for the clients or customers to work with. These days differentiation is getting tougher as the market is pretty saturated both for products and services. So, as a marketer, at the end of the day, it is really about how to tell the brand story in a way that appeals to the customer segment. It’s art and science.

The whole industry is trying to understand customer behaviour and it’s happening real- time. So, as a marketer, if you are not subscribing to that, it’s not feasible anymore. I believe there are two areas where data and analytics apply. 1. Customer understanding – Targeting and personalisation 2. Optimisation – Budgets, Resources and Tactics. With a lot of the insight generation and optimisation being automated by AI tools, marketers have a huge and more importantly accessible armoury of tools and techniques today. This has changed the game, especially for small and medium enterprises.

While innovations are making lives better, they are also a treasure trove of data. Enterprises today are leveraging this data to drive more consumer adoption through personalisation and innovative products

There’s a thin line between privacy and personalisation. So how does a marketer deal with that aspect without breaching the customer’s privacy?

When it comes to privacy, the consumers wouldn’t mind the obsession with data collection if they get relevant offers/emails/calls and not being bombarded. The concept of privacy is about how much of the data is collected with the consumers’ knowledge/consent and how much of it is done stealthily. While personalisation is the end goal, it is really about how far are companies are willing to go to get customer data.

The European Union has stringent rules when it comes to privacy. The GDPR compliance norms are very strict. But in other countries, the story is quite different. Come to think of it, privacy is a subjective matter. Is everything black and white when it comes to privacy rules? Do consumers have enough know-how about what they are signing up for or giving up through the use of devices/internet applications? Are regulatory bodies trying to bring balance between the enterprises and consumers? The bottom line is there are a lot of grey areas when it comes to privacy and there is the effort needed both from companies as well as users to make this a sound foolproof system.

For marketers, it is always a tight rope to walk; there is a need to acquire new customers so sometimes the touchpoints are unsolicited; there are cold emails and cold calls. The solution really is not to get boxed in by rules but think about how to make the touchpoints more relevant and targeted.

When it comes to future of privacy, I don’t really see much of a choice when it comes to opting in, the pace at which technology is evolving, we will more or less opt-in one way or another; unless we decide to go off the grid completely!

Rebranding is quite a personal and intricate affair, right? Tell us about the factors to be taken into consideration while rebranding.

We tend to approach a brand as a person rather than a subject or a project. Every person is unique, well so is the brand. Every company, organisation, brand or business has its own essence and persona, and the customers related to the brand’s uniqueness. To understand the personality and trait of the brand is quite crucial. Now when you are rebranding, you take that brand and you evolve it into a better version of itself. While doing that, the first thing you need to understand is if you are alienating the persona of the brand. Keep its essence intact.

Another thing to consider is to understand the target audience. Later, map that data. It’s an essential part of the rebranding. In the end, rebranding is a road map. A lot of post rebranding activities takes place ones the concepts are sorted. It does not happen overnight, rather it’s a journey, and both, people and the brand will take time to adjust.

You are one of the few lucky ones who get to work on both of the passions together. How’s it been working on both music and marketing simultaneously?

I don’t know about being lucky, I just don’t box things too much. But I have pretty happy the way things have shaped up so far. Working on either one of it aids inspiration for the other. I like the work-life harmony concept that Satya Nadella propagates.

However, I have hit a bit of a slump when it comes to music. I am trying to find that “why”, the sound, the style that I feel one with. With so much of commercialisation and weekend to weekend trends, as an independent artist, I struggle for meaning sometimes. I am somewhere looking for an inspiration that can get me back into my grove and I think it’s something that comes from within. So presently I am just going with the flow, I am certain that inspiration is just around the corner.

The 90s artists like Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, Armin Van Burren and Carl Cox inspire me because they are still relevant and they keep on evolving with the times. I am not so much into the commercial EDM scene, but there is a lot of independent musicians on the rise with some fresh sounds.

I guess the quest is to find meaning in whatever you do; with music, it is about the sheer joy of creating music just for the joy of it, just for myself. That’s where I want to be!

The biggest learning for me is that in the world we live in, staying in the moment is the toughest thing to do. We pay a lot of attention to the noise around us and exclude ourselves from enjoying the experiences that we are currently in

You have also taken up to mindfulness. Tell us a bit about that.

I think as human beings we all are trying to find our true selves or find meaning in our lives or make sense of life in general. This quest has many names, self-realisation, enlightenment or Mindfulness as they now calling it. The term is not so important to me but yes, the quest to understand has become important over the last few years. I am very interested in the scientific, philosophical as well as the esoteric aspects of mindfulness and I spend quite a bit of time on all these aspects. There is so much to it, you can never claim to be an expert; I am just happy to be an eternal apprentice and understand the marvel that is the universe in whatever limited way I can.

I have met some amazing people in the last few years who have enriched my knowledge and I have had the good fortune of learning several healing techniques such as reiki, crystal therapy, angel therapy, inner engineering and a lot more.

The biggest learning for me is that in the world we live in, staying in the moment is the toughest thing to do. We pay a lot of attention to the noise around us and exclude ourselves from enjoying the experiences that we are currently in. The only thing that you have in your control is to take something and give it all you have. I feel that mindfulness can completely change our perspective about control, contribution and meaning and their value in our lives.

Another thing one should attain is the balance between being smart and hard-working. Emotional intelligence is crucial at work. To be able to manage emotions in all situations is where mindfulness becomes really important.

My aim is to contribute in some way towards simplification the idea of mindfulness and make it easy to understand and practice for the new generation, so they can see it their way and find ways to good mental health.

Keep curiosity intact to attain success

After traversing through his life in an organic manner, Venkat Subramanian hands over a few words of wisdom that can unleash the student’s full potential. At the recently concluded Business Meet in Pune, he opened his heart out with the students regarding his journey in the industry, learnings and much more. In the end, Venkat reveals three elements of living a good life. Read on!

In a candid and an impromptu session, Venkat openly informed an auditorium full of students about the perks of living a life in an organic style. Whilst informing about his journey to students, Venkat said, “When like most students, I was given the option of picking either MBBS or engineering, I chose the latter. Soon I realised, I wasn’t meant to be in this field. Before settling in, I made sure to explore all the available options. Frankly, I would say that I did not plan anything. In fact, all I did was accept the things with open arms.”

Venkat has been an independent musician for the past 15 years. He’s been producing Electronic Music under the artist name, Saint Vee. Being in the music field has helped him grow leaps and bounds. Talking about his music journey, he informed, “It’s been awesome to dabble in the independent music space for a few years with my music startup iapploud. It is such a great experience bringing music and marketing together.”

Love for music and more

So, what attracted you to traverse through the field of music and arts, pat replied Venkat, “Curiosity!”

Further adding, “While I was in Dubai attending a party in the mid-1990s, the music played by the DJ there blew my mind. I spent the rest of the few years in learning and understanding electronic music. Later, I met someone who taught me how to use software to create music. And that’s how I landed here.”

Well, now doesn’t his journey sound smooth? Of course, he must have faced several ups and downs, but the takeaway here is he let his life run its course. He did not muddle with it. “My entire career has grown organically. It’s nice not knowing what’s in store of me. It keeps the curiosity intact and pushes you to attain success,” explained Venkat. This indeed was one of the important takeaways for the students.

Stop the chase!

When Venkat asked, “How do you envision your career to be?” The students were sure that they want their career to be a successful one. But how would they achieve that? Venkat explained, “It’s good to have dreams, but don’t let your life revolve around it. Once someone enters the industry, the fresher starts chasing something or the other – be a position or a perfect career. All I want to say is it, the chase will bring you nothing but stress and pressure. Instead, enjoy the process, take one day at a time and with enough hard work, success will be at your feet!”

However, to reach that position one needs enough skills and they would need to apply them at the right time. He further said, “Things take time, all you need is patience. Instead of running behind something, let it come to you. Welcome the flow with open arms. And trust me you’ll have a fulfilling career.”

Don’t get too comfortable

A fresher spends the first few months in figuring out the process, learning new skills and understanding how the company functions. Once that is achieved, the employee moves on and now thinks big. They think about promotion, achieving a leadership position or something big. However, after a while, they reach a point called stability. Explaining what they should do then, Venkat explained, “That’s the time when you should get out of your comfort zone. Try new thing, learning new concepts and explore the world. Once you get into that comfortable stage, it starts to bog you down. Comfort is the kryptonite of growth. It makes you stop learning and soon you start losing interest in life. That stage is termed as mid-life crises. It makes you disinterested in work, you would want to go home early and it makes you lifeless. That’s when you shouldn’t shy away from taking up new challenges. There are a plethora of options lying on another side. Take that leap of faith then the sky is the limit.

Comfort is the kryptonite of growth. It makes you stop learning and soon you start losing interest in life. That stage is termed as mid-life crises

Being a good leader

With great power comes huge responsibilities, right? Venkat agreed, “And that’s what happens when one reaches a leadership position.” Further adding, “Being a leader means different things to different people. As you reach that position, it’s nice to feel that power but it’s a huge responsibility.” So, how should one manage that situation, asked the students? He added, “You cannot achieve greatness at a leadership position unless you have the strategy for upskilling and expanding your knowledge. Understanding how to manage employees is an art and do that as an utmost priority. A leader should understand their team and lead them forward. Be proficient, take timely decisions, keep a positive attitude and don’t be afraid to delegate.”

Failure is inevitable

As you traverse through your life, the most important thing according to Venkat is how one lives their life. Failure is a part of it and one might face it regularly. To them, Venkat advised, “Don’t take failure in a negative way. Don’t give up when you face adversities. Rather, take time to grieve, understand what went wrong, learn from it and make sure to apply it in your further endeavour.”

If one leads an open life, the experiences they get guides them in the right direction. And that’s when life becomes significant and rewarding.

Answer your ‘why’s’

Understanding the why’s of one’s life gives them hope and purpose. When a student enters the industry that’s the time when they should focus on the why’s more than anything else. “As the freshers start working, they get into a loop of understanding the company, adjusting in a new place, acquiring new projects and achieving their goals. In that phase, they should just take a step back and answer the why’s. Doing that adds more value and gives them enough exposure,” he said.

He also feels that work and relationship are important but they are just a part of one’s life. To be able to live a full life one should know how to integrate all these elements and achieve their goals. There is life beyond work too and people should where to draw the line.

Three key elements of living a life:

Finding a story: In this stage, one figures out their dreams and things they are good at.

Telling the story: Once a person understands their dreams, they start working in that direction. They would either start a job or begin their business. And that’s how you are telling your story to the world – through your work.

Living your story: Gather all the elements that are essential and lead through it. While doing that make sure to live a balanced life.