Why do many startups and even established businesses, too, fail? Because they do not technovate–technologically innovate.
According to Sreena K, an Independent Consultant and CEO of IsikTek, many startups and mid-size companies believe in manual work and doing it all by themselves. At the same time, she believes that this is what diverts you from your core business. That is why adopting technology in the area it is needed, helps one propagate the company and make your team more productive.
These businesses’ failure to use the right tech/tools available in the market at the right time decides the future of their growth. She adds, “We are in an era where leveraging technology is not an option; it is a must.”
In this tech era, these companies can let the technologies monitor the reception, HR process, accounting, inside sales calls, marketing and many more functions. So as a business, management can focus on the core purpose.
Sreena shares, “Being an independent consultant, it’s my role to guide and consult companies to adopt the right tech solutions. I have helped more than 23+ companies adopt tech and consulted them with the right solution to keep harmony and strengthen the process.”
To stay ahead of the competition, companies must create a culture of innovation. Enabling innovation is only possible when your team is free from monotonous, mundane work and free to think. “I believe adopting tech tools can really enable creative minds to lead to innovation,” says Sreena.
Becoming a Serial Entrepreneur
Sreena began her career in Business Development post her graduation. Since then, she knew she wanted to make her career in the business world. Soon she realized she is good at communicating business needs to multiple levels and closing large business values. She continued her career in IT product and solution sales.
Her first start-up was in 2010, Strategems outsourcing Pvt, Ltd. “We were a company of 50 employees specialised in delivering data services, tech research, Vertical forecast and marketing as a service,” reveals Sreena. However, it was not for long, as destiny had different plans for her. She founded StatBI Corp in 2012 to manage their international clients under IT services.
Skyfall
However, Sreena informs, “In 2018, my husband walked away from the wedding with the business of StatBI Corp.”
Being a mom of a 5-year-old, Sreena couldn’t think of going back to a 9-7 job. And she had to rebuild her whole ecosystem again. That’s when she started as an independent consultant for Retail Business, helping companies with digital growth strategy, GTM and growth strategy in the APAC and Middle-East region. Sreena furthers, “I would also say that the business network I built over the years was the only reason for me to get the consultant role soon.”
She started with a Tech product company who were building the micro-retail platform. Soon, Sreena showed 13 % growth in the first year only. She then moved to a retail tech company ‘Litmus7 Systems Consulting,’ in 2019. Sreena puts, “When I took over this contract, they had no presence in the APAC/Middle-East region. In three years, I brought in nine large fortune 500 clients averaging the revenue bracket from $500000 to $2 Million.”
A Mighty Rise
Meanwhile, as a single parent, it was difficult for her to manage everything with a single source of income. Hence as a side hustle, she started consulting small retailers like clothing, skin products and hotel businesses with their digital roadmap, including the tech guidelines. Soon, Sreena realized that helping brands grow was one of her passions. Post her last startup, a few business associates came together this year and founded ISIKTEK Pvt Ltd–to help small and midsize companies with Tech consulting and solutions. They appointed Sreena as the CEO. “After five years, I’m back in the business. Things work out in their own time; you have to keep pushing yourself to excel without giving up,” reflects Sreena.
An Awe-Inspiring Odyssey
When probed what her inspiration behind venturing into the business arena was, Sreena says that being a serial entrepreneur, she always loved the space of business. Her early exposure to startups gave her an orientation to learn a lot about growth culture. She started her professional career with a startup called Champions Group. She joined the team when it was only 24 people and was there till the team grew to 500.
She was one of the pilot team and could showcase some good ROI and Business value under the guidance of her Ex-Boss/mentor, Sri Subhakar Rao and Hemma Rao. Very few bosses are there who will identify your capability and urge you to do better. Sreena says with gratitude, “I was fortunate to work under leaders who believed in me. I learned consulting. It is also my forte, as my ability to connect the business problem to tech solutions was appreciated in all the roles. I always wanted to work on something which is challenging and excel.”
As an independent consultant, she meets a minimum of three new people from C, V, and D levels, from large to small corporates. She hardly saw any women at that level in those days. She used to lead workshops and problem discussions alone in a meeting room filled with only men.
“As a young gal, I used to feel a little uncomfortable, but as I started adding value to business and growth, I could see people preferring me for the challenge discussions over my fellow mates. This inspired me, and I continue to stick by the role. Meeting new people, learning about their business challenges and crafting a growth roadmap motivates me to get back to work every day,” mentions Sreena.
An Indomitable Will-Power
Speaking about the initial challenges she had to surmount to ensure her business’s success rate reached greater heights, Sreena says, “I can say I have experienced all kinds of challenges a woman has to go through in her career path. Although the rise of women in corporate C-suite started sometime back, I still don’t see many women in the decision-making chairs, which makes my role more difficult and challenging.”
Sreena has often seen decision-makers taking her Male fellow mates more seriously than her during her initial days. She had to work three times harder than her male fellow mates to stay at the top. Later, when she started her business, her husband was totally dependent on her to build, nurture, and add revenue to the company. As a new mother, Sreena used to carry her five months old baby to the office. Managing work, home and her baby was a huge challenge for Sreena while building her startup.
Surmounting Storms
“And when I was closer to the day of relaxing, where my startup was almost coming to an auto mode, my husband dropped a surprise by abandoning my son and me and running away with the business. Starting again had never scared me, but that day it did. Maybe I was left with only 10000bucks in my bank with a five-year-old boy,” reminisces Sreena. She had no idea; how will she give her son the life he was living till then. Lots of people advised her to go back to her parents.
Sreena says, “But I refused, even though I was scared, traumatized and alone. And I guess my hard work paid off. I had built a good professional network for over a decade. Working with C-suits gave me access and the ability to connect back and restart.”
A few clients asked her to take up consulting work. She started with as little as 30k/month. As it was not enough to manage everything, she would do multiple consulting jobs to earn enough to maintain a good lifestyle for her son. And work kept flowing; maybe, as the saying goes, people can take away anything from you but not your brain and talent. So work hard to keep yourself authentic and skilful.
A Trustworthy Consultant
Sreena says that there are many professional values and qualities that her clients admire in her the most. Clients really appreciate her understanding business challenges and connecting that to the right tech solutions. Also, her values around the relationship, delivering what is promised and empathetically tackling their challenges, are hugely respected.
“As a consultant, I must be very thoughtful and maintain confidentiality related to my client’s number and business info. They always value my professionalism related to such info. That helped me to build trust and growing relationship,” shares Sreena.
Speaking about the USPs that highlight her uniqueness in the industry, Sreena says that she is an independent consultant, which gives her an edge to solve online business challenges one-on-one and closely look at the business problem to move it ahead in the growth curve. Thus,
- One-on-one approach,
- Tackling business challenges at the root,
- Enabling tech effectively to propagate other business functions, and
- End-to-End business function mapping and building up a process for growth based on analysis,
are the other USPs.
An Automated Wisdom
As an experienced professional, Sreena advises the budding aspirants willing to enter the business world honestly, “I would say: don’t get comfortable.”
Always expect challenges and be prepared. Use Tech to automate much mundane work and outsource if needed so that your focus is on your product and services. Many startups think they are not ready for tech and end up doing a lot of manual processes. “Which I feel is a waste of time, as you are focusing on areas which can be easily replaceable and save time for you to focus on more important things,” suggests Sreena, adding further to build a team which is complementing each other’s work. Having a multitalented and committed team is a blessing. And always stay in touch with your network and build new ones, too.
