The widening responsibility for what customers understood

Mandate

Make the industrial buying decision intelligible across scope, stakeholders and proof

Outcomes

• Focused a six-city programme on existing-factory reconfiguration
• Helped buying groups distinguish discussion from an agreed project brief
• Bound relocation claims and customer references to their actual scope

Decisions in context

I became CMO in January 2021. My remit covers seventeen marketing colleagues through three heads and a ₹ 6.4 crore annual budget. The company employs 420 people and recorded ₹ 142 crore revenue and ₹ 11.6 crore operating profit for FY 2026. I report to Pavan Qevzashi, while Lina Zerquthi owns sales and contracts. Founders hold 52%, a regional fund 28% and employees 20%; my 1.5% is included within the employee portion. My decisions focus on the customer's buying work: understanding installed scope, bringing relevant functions into a brief and using product or customer evidence within its limits. I distinguish a programme stage from an order and a funded guide from a completed customer benefit. Marketing helps the conversation become clearer while technical suitability, installation acceptance and commercial commitments retain their proper owners.

Reason for the move

Current executive role; no statutory appointment

Mandate

Lead the product proposition and the tools supporting commercial conversations

Outcomes

• Expanded responsibility from product material to the marketing function
• Owned a panel-price campaign that implied a broader installed offer
• Clarified affected draft proposals and retained correction expenditure

Decisions in context

I became head of marketing in April 2017. The company employed 310 people and recorded ₹ 108 crore revenue for FY 2018. I led twelve colleagues through two leads with ₹ 3.2 crore annual budget under the CEO. In 2018 I approved a campaign whose ₹ 3, 100-per-square-metre panel price encouraged an installed-solution expectation. Framing and installation were outside the figure. Twenty-eight of 72 reviewed draft proposals needed scope clarification before acceptance, and correcting the creative material and tools cost ₹ 19 lakh. The incident was not a salesperson's explanation problem alone. I had approved the main impression the campaign created. The correction changed how I reviewed price-led propositions and how marketing worked with commercial owners to make the actual offer understandable before the buyer carried it into an internal discussion.

Reason for the move

Appointed CMO in January 2021

Mandate

Explain the product range through the customer's intended space decision

Outcomes

• Moved into an industrial manufacturer's product-marketing team
• Learned the defined scope of non-load-bearing partition products
• Connected product descriptions with sales and technical conversations

Decisions in context

I joined Vezqurli in July 2013 as product marketing manager. The manufacturer employed 230 people and recorded ₹ 71 crore revenue for FY 2014. I led eight colleagues with ₹ 1.4 crore annual budget under the marketing head. The products created administration and training spaces inside factories, using demountable non-load-bearing partitions. They did not carry the fire, acoustic or cleanroom certification claims that a customer might associate with other systems. Understanding the product's scope was therefore part of learning how to present it. I worked with commercial and technical colleagues to make the material useful in a buying conversation, while recognising that marketing did not approve engineering suitability or installation. The appointment gave me the product context for broader function leadership and for the later price mistake I would need to own.

Reason for the move

Promoted to head of marketing in April 2017

Mandate

Help partners explain product scope and the next customer decision

Outcomes

• Took responsibility for a marketing team and budget
• Learned the questions arising between manufacturer material and buyer needs
• Developed channel experience before moving into product marketing

Decisions in context

The channel-marketing appointment began in April 2009. Vevqathi had 160 employees and ₹ 46 crore revenue for FY 2010. I led six colleagues within a ₹ 62 lakh annual budget, reporting to the commercial head. Partners needed material they could use to explain a product in the context of a customer's requirement, rather than repeat a manufacturer's description without understanding its limits. I learned to listen for the question that remained after the presentation: what was included, what depended on the site and what the buyer needed to decide next. My role supported those conversations without taking over the partner's commercial authority. The experience helped me see marketing as part of the customer's decision process and prepared me to work more closely with an industrial manufacturer's product and technical teams.

Reason for the move

Joined Vezqurli in July 2013

Mandate

Support product material and customer-facing marketing work

Outcomes

• Entered marketing after completing the MBA
• Learned to make product material useful in a conversation
• Built practical experience before acquiring management responsibility

Decisions in context

I joined Vevqathi in July 2005 after completing my marketing MBA in May. The company employed 95 people and recorded ₹ 24 crore revenue for FY 2006. I worked in a five-person marketing group under the marketing manager, without direct reports or spending authority. My work involved preparing material that a customer or channel colleague could use to understand the product and the next conversation. I learned that clarity depended on the reader's task, not simply the amount of detail included. Senior colleagues held the commercial and approval responsibilities. I do not describe their decisions as mine. This early period began a continuous 21-year career and an interest in how a manufacturer's proposition travels through people who need to explain it to someone else before a buying decision can be made.

Reason for the move

Promoted to channel marketing manager in April 2009