Listen beyond the riders already in the room

In 2019 I supported a commuter-cycling proposition using a survey recruited through existing cycling clubs. The 240 respondents could tell us something about their own preferences. They could not, simply by being numerous and engaged, describe adults who had not joined a club or who were uncertain about cycling to work. Yet my first recommendation treated their enthusiasm as evidence of a wider market ready for the same offer. A research colleague asked who had never been invited into the conversation. I withdrew that inference and funded a different discovery programme before committing the campaign around it.

Today I lead marketing at Zerqani Bicycle Stores in Vadodara. The enterprise has 22 shops and 414 employees, and recorded ₹164 crore revenue for FY 2025–26. My responsibility covers 22 marketing colleagues through 3 heads, with 9 agency personnel counted separately. Annual authority is ₹6.4 crore, including ₹3.1 crore for paid placements. CEO Aditi Zelqvani holds enterprise direction; COO Saira Delqvani holds shop operations. My team can shape a proposition and its communication, but cannot make an unavailable frame size appear in a shop or replace qualified product advice with an attractive campaign. The invitation must remain connected to the offer the business can actually support.

That connection has informed later decisions about creator partnerships and launch timing. A bicycle supplied to a creator can be a material relationship even when no cash fee changes hands. A product shown in a campaign can be present somewhere in the supply network without being available in the advertised variant at the advertised shop. I want those distinctions discussed before attention becomes the main measure of success. I would consider a consumer CMO mandate that gives research and operating evidence a meaningful voice in investment. A first outside appointment also interests me after further preparation. I have no statutory seat, and any proposed role would require its own capacity, conflict and suitability assessment rather than rely on my executive title.

Current focus

Research recruitment, transparent creator partnerships and campaign timing tied to the offer a customer can obtain.

Conversations I welcome

A consumer-marketing mandate and, after preparation, one suitable first non-executive contribution.