Director-strategic Business of Inteliment Group, Gauri Bapat believes in Patience, Perseverance, Pressure, and Persistence as the experiential learning to succeed
Until civilization, the entire category of women was viewed as people belonging to the kitchen and taking care of household chores. Their roles were restricted within the four walls. However, in the recent time, things have gradually been changing and have started taking a new turn. Women have assumed leadership positions in various areas and they do all that men can do. And, with their entrant into the corporate world, there has been a heart-warming paradigm shift of demographics in the Indian corporate landscape. Recently, the country has witnessed a gigantic surge in the number of women entering the economic wave. With emphatic strides, the sheer confidence exuded by Indian women has been bringing about a fresh wind of change. While it has definitely been a pleasant change, it has not been one without its fair share of struggle and challenges. It becomes essential to maintain confidence and believe that the rocky journey is worth it because the world needs your impact. In its search for a remarkable and multi-talented woman, the CEO Magazine came across the glorious story of Gauri Bapat, the Director – strategic Business of Inteliment Group, a visionary with strong business acumen and entrepreneurship skill.
Gauri’s deep insight into the corporate world helped her climb the success ladder. Graduated in Mass Media from the University of Mumbai, Gauri started her career in advertising. After working few years with a hospitality chain in New Zealand she made her major comeback to India by entering into Inteliment Group, a technology company which serves as a niche Business Analytics Company with its predominant focus in uplifting customers business. Inteliment is a leading provider of Data Drives Analytical Solutions and Services in Visual and Predictive Analytics, Data Science, IoT, Mobility and Artificial Intelligence areas striving to assist some of the most forward-thinking enterprises globally to derive maximum business impact through its solutions and services.
Inteliment has completely molded Gauri’s perception towards a corporate career. Gauri believes and works relentlessly on a set of parameters comprising of 4 P’s namely Patience, Perseverance, Pressure, and Persistence. Her ideology of life is based on these four experiential learnings. Let’s peep into Gauri’s outlook captured from her interview with The CEO Magazine:
What was your dream as a business lady?
Honestly speaking, I am not a dreamer, with the intention of being a perfectionist in whatever I do, I prefer going with the flow. However, coordination with a team always inspires me to achieve more.
Have you ever failed in your initiatives? What have you learned from your failures?
Not once, many times. I take pride in my failures for failures are an experimental learning and a stepping stone to success, it’s not an end of life. The entire group of Inteliment considers failure as a way of life. It drives to achieve better having rectified the wrong. Each failure motivates me to be resilient and embrace a never-give-up attitude.
How do you define success? What is your take on the ways to achieve long-term success?
To me, success is something that makes me happy and boosts my energy to work further in a much better way than the work previously done. To achieve long-term success, one should follow and practice the 4 P’s namely Patience, Perseverance, Pressure, and Persistence while keeping in mind some basic pointers like respecting people irrespective of the hierarchy, maintaining honesty, transparency and discipline because together they help one reach the path of success.
What effective strategies you have implemented/initiatives you have taken to achieve success?
Determination, hard work and collective effort follow success; it does not belong to one particular person but to the entire team. Some process improvement, coaching & mentoring initiatives have helped us achieve collective victory.
How many hours a day you work on an average?
Well, I believe in the focus on goals and not activity. I love my work and enjoy working with people around but I constantly strive for flexibility. I have to manage customers in India and from across Europe and Singapore hence it becomes pivotal to remain focused which has also helped me maintain a smooth work-life balance.
What stimulated your ideas to bring significant changes in the workplace?
I am in a business of providing smart solutions to some of the most impact-making companies in the world. I attempt to take several initiatives at Inteliment because of my constant hunger for achieving the target goals.
What is your greatest professional accomplishment to date?
My greatest accomplishment is my decade journey with the Inteliment Group which allowed me to be a part of its milestones and accomplishments. Inteliment, regarded as India’s first IT-SME Company won the CII-EXIM Banks EFQM Business Excellence Award on a project I was leading. Besides this, I was recognized for customer successes, for managing major accounts of the company and its various Fortune 500 Clients.
What is the best decision you’ve ever made?
Joining Inteliment post my sabbatical break was the best decision ever.
Who has been your greatest inspiration?
My Son Aahan is my greatest inspiration; he has carved my very ideas and perception towards looking at the world. He constantly teaches me to accept things as they are, to see the positive side of every situation and to get going with absolute zeal while keeping trust in the self and others.
Whom do you attribute your success to?
I would like to attribute my success to my family and my husband, who has been my constant backbone. I would address the phenomenal team of Inteliment and express my gratitude towards them for being the driving factor behind the incredible journey. Last but not the least, I am most thankful to Prashant, the founder of Inteliment for inculcating the zeal within me through his constant encouragement to achieve the target goals.
Do you think your personal life is affected by your professional life? How?
Trust me or not, my professional life has geared up my personal life. My work life gives me the needful dose and boosts me to perform better. My contentment with my work, in turn, helps me to remain focused thus, aligning my personal life.
What do you think is the biggest challenge to female leadership?
There exist two main challenges for a woman one is the self (internal) and other being the surrounding (external). It all starts with internal challenges and the environment remains to be the other reason for making or breaking female leaders. Once we overcome these challenges through courage, confidence, and communication we can easily step forward breaking all the barriers and norms. Female empowerment and acceptance is the biggest challenge that I feel needs a lot of attention and help.
