TheCconnects: Can you tell our readers a little about your professional journey & how did you come to your current role/position?
Kamlesh Kumar: I have done my engineering and later worked with Cognizant for a brief time and then did my management in marketing. I worked relatively with mid-scale companies in market research and procurement consulting for fortune 500 companies as clientele.
In and around 7 years of my corporate career as an employee, I experienced there is a notion in general about market research and consulting services a pretty costly affair for SMBs companies. Thus, this leads to mid and small-scale companies preferring conducting in-house research instead of outsourcing to a research agency.
Keeping that thought process in mind, I’ve started I-nabler with the intention to enable mid-size and even small companies to access research and consulting services by standardizing its price and improving data credibility by mandatory engagement of subject matter experts from the respective fields of specialization.
TheCconnects: Who has influenced you the most in life and why?
Kamlesh Kumar: There are a series of people to mention from personal life, particularly anyone who has made their fortune him/herself from absolute scratch. In recent times, while I was working in network marketing with Amway I met a lady who started her journey around 20 years back with Amway. She is a 5th standard pass-out, single mother, who did not see electricity until the age of 18 and later widows and only knew the language Telugu. In her last 20 years of association with Amway, she has created her fortune and now speaks English, leads a team of ~500 people.
The reason of mentioning her in particular, I have seen many people from most IIT/IIMs including corporate honchos failed to create space for themselves despite working years in network marketing (Amway to mention here). And here is the paving her way forward and making everything possible that was beyond one’s imagination.
Of-course, I am no more associated with Amway, but every time I feel low and exhausted, the immediate moment I hit back with her name, as my challenges are nothing as compared to her.
TheCconnects: What are the biggest challenges you have faced in your life & how did you overcome them?
Kamlesh Kumar: I had a very abusive childhood with a series of trauma, both physical and mental, with few suicidal attempts. So, overcoming from the loss of self-confidence or rather gaining the confidence to live and chase my aspirations. It took me more than 10 years after leaving my home to gain myself back and recognize I TOO CAN DO SOMETHING.
Since then, I have not looked back and continued conquering my childhood dreams from public speaking to being a theatre artist, to be a solo-traveller to doing career counseling, mentoring people, looking after my NGO students and seeing their progress, and of course, working on my English as a language (as my entire education was in the Hindi language).
I owe a lot to my book reading habits which I got it during my stint with network marketing and it has phenomenal progress on my mindset and the way I look at things now.
TheCconnects: What lessons you have learned from your professional career?
Kamlesh Kumar: One should start taking charge of own professional life and stop complaining with an immediate effect. In 07 years of corporate experience, I’ve worked with 10 companies for small durations, but did not compromise on my self-esteem. If I did not like something, I will ASK, I will CHANGE, I will start looking for OPTIONS, I will SPEAK TO SENIORS and if nothing seems working, I opted to move out because I cannot let others to drain my energy in justifying myself.
Net-net I took an absolute charge of both my personal and professional life and that’s hugely rewarding every time. In simple words, One Gotta Respect Self, else others are always there to criticize.
TheCconnects: What do you see as the biggest challenge for brands in the digital space?
Kamlesh Kumar: Digital space is way more crowded than ever and for every product/service there are series of players/freelancers. To win here primarily there are two ways I can think of either leverage your USP OR be the best customer service providers. In the chase of raising capitals, VC funding and external money, customer service get deprioritize quite often and investors lead the way for companies in most cases.
TheCconnects: How your product/solution can help to resolve the pain points of your customers?
Kamlesh Kumar: I-nabler main motto is to help clients with their business decision-making from marketing, strategic, procurement or sourcing by making it more affordable and value-add than just bombard with data to make it more lucrative and monetize on unnecessary/unwanted information.
TheCconnects: Do you have any advice for those who want to become a chief executive officer?
Kamlesh Kumar: Chief of any business is more glamorous than it actually is in real life. If I will aside the monetary benefit, one should be able to communicate clearly cut with utmost transparency, as we work with humans and there is always a sense of belongingness. Instead of hiding any information, it’s better to tell employees “We are not in a position to reveal that details”.
There is no exception to working hard, but faith, delegation, empathy, and autonomy is some of the key trait one must build in themselves to be a successful leader for the people matter most to you i.e., your EMPLOYEES.
