#WomenDisruptors: Build leaders, not followers - Anjana Ghosh

We, at Adgully, have always saluted and honoured women managers and leaders across diverse fields. Women Disruptors is Adgully’s special initiative to bring to the fore some remarkable women achievers in M&E, Advertising, Marketing, Communications industries, how they think, how they manage things, how they lead from the front and much more.  

After having worked in the steel industry for over 15 years, Anjana Ghosh joined Bisleri International in June 2006 as Deputy General Manager, Sales & Marketing. Over the next three years, she grew with the brand to the post of General Manager and then to Director. In her current capacity as Director of Marketing and Business Development, Ghosh has been the driving force behind the new image and market reach of Bisleri and its consistent profitable growth year on year.

Ghosh was primarily responsible for bringing innovation to the brand and strategising the engineering of Bisleri from blue to green. She is strategically and aggressively growing the brand by working on market penetration with a winning and prudent combination of backward and forward integration. Her vision and foresight keeps Bisleri ahead of times and above all competitors. 

How do you inspire and motivate your employees as a leader of your organisation?
In our organisation, we all work for the consumers – she/he is the one who pays our salary. All our employees are consumers themselves, so they must be able to connect with consumers’ insights and work towards delivering consumers’ expectations. It is our responsibility to be available to all who asked for Bisleri, because in India, consumers only ask for Bisleri. The biggest inspiration to any employee is the realisation that they can actually make a difference in consumers’ lives. My job is to make them realise these facts. Besides, of course, being with the team, taking their inputs, rewards, recognition celebrations from time to time. 

Your three important tips to become a winning leader?

  • Build Leaders, not followers.
  • Always give your juniors or team the credit for any well executed job and not to yourself.
  • Be honest and respect others.  

Any role model that you can think of as a great leader to follow?
Our Chairman Ramesh Chauhan, the man who has created India’s most iconic brands like Thums Up, Limca, Maaza and Bisleri, is the most humble and down to earth person. He has absolutely no ego, is a great visionary who can think ahead of time and then put all the passion behind an idea to make it successful. Normally brands are built by identifying a consumer need and then working around in developing that need into a product. But he has created brands by creating the need itself. Who could have thought of selling water in 1969? He is the most inspiring person I have ever met in my life. After spending almost 13 years with him, I still feel I have a lot to learn from him. 

How do you nurture and train your people to become a future leader?
By helping them to take decisions. If it backfires, take the blame on yourself and if successful, give them the credit. Every time they fail, help them to work on their success. My success is when my team succeeds. Every person in my team is a leader within their circle of activities; if they get stuck, they come to me with a number of solutions that they feel should work and not the problems. I evaluate and validate the solutions, and do not solve the problems that they are faced with. 

What would be your approach to managing crises as a leader?
First of all, stay calm. Then think of alternate course of action and lead from the front. Have constant dialogues. Put others’ concerns ahead of yours. If required, form a crisis team and closely monitor the developments.

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