A Purpose-Driven Spearheaded Leader
Ramya Parashar is the COO for MiQ Bangalore CoE which includes creating a vision, strategy and people-first initiatives at scale. This engulfs designing and implementing business operations, managing the bottom line, and establishing policies to promote the company’s culture and vision. The only daughter of her parents, she was brought up in a joint family of high achievers in their respective fields. She’s a graduate in electronics and a certified digital business strategist and Organizational performance expert from IIM Bangalore. Ramya has gathered immense inspiration from her family members and her mother and mother-in-law to create her own identity and excel in the domain that finds her passion. A married woman for 15 years, her career journey has been about experiences and risks that she chose to take when she first stepped away from a non-technical background to understanding the technical landscape!
Doing theatrical work was what her aspirations and thought space led to, whilst leading a comfortable and safe route through her life. Then she experiences a turning point and found herself risking it all for a new career path. Although she lacked experience but felt armed with passion, self-belief, dedication and hard work which would help her achieve the impossible. Gathering the courage to take up uncomfortable career choices has always been her mantra. Shifting from front desk salesperson to technical specialist and continuing to invest in herself whilst changing career tracks has been a risky road but Ramya has been focused on well-rounded vertical growth. She’s continued her passion for learning by registering for Cosmetology courses as well while having a day job in a leadership role.
“The more unpredictable the environment, the greater the opportunity, if we have the leadership skills to capitalize on it.” Her business strategy is to have a view in the rearview mirror but also to keep an eye for sustainable long-term growth. Future-proofing her business by focusing on building capabilities, enhancing agility, and resiliency and finding new sources of business growth helps her business stand out from the crown. She claims that their defined vectors of growth building on a strong track record consist of organic and in-organic streams.
There is no ‘perfect’ work-life balance, and one needs to make sacrifices, be it work deliverables, meetings, managing kids, taking care of household chores and many more. “I’m a big believer in planning your day and making a schedule. Cutting ties with the outside world occasionally allows us to recover from weekly stress and allows us space for other thoughts and ideas to emerge.” Work-life balance will mean different things to different people, and one must decide the lifestyle that suits them.
MiQ strives to be the leading programmatic media partner for agencies and advertisers. They aspire to create an environment where our people get to work with the best minds in the industry, solve the best problems, and earn the best! Finding ways to allow employees to take radical approaches and implementing strategic priorities is key. Passion for her is rooted in ‘Making a difference’ and having a profound understanding of people and defined vectors of business growth help lay down the foundation for the same.
Remaining purpose-driven at all times and striving to continuously learn and improve herself as well as her team makes her stand apart as a leader. She believes that “no matter how well we account for known risks in our business strategy or product launch, there will always be variables that can throw a wrench in our plans.” These strengths and strategies have helped her achieve some recognitions namely the Top 10 Best Women COOs 2022 by Women Entrepreneur, Iconic Women of Excellence by Fortune India, Adgully Leader 2.0 under 40 Awardee for Excellence in Technology and Innovation and more
Ramya dreams to build a business that becomes the go-to industry leader! Any business can have spouts of revenue from a marketing campaign, but the goal should be to build a business that can survive the test of time. She shares the statistics that 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more. Therefore, being in a state of constant learning and adapting is crucial!
Finally, she throws light that people must love their business problems and drive transformational change to adapt to an ever-changing business environment. As leaders there is a need to balance Digitization, Innovation, and Performance to stay on the right trajectory but also continuously evolve and future-proof our businesses.
