'Whenever you start any business or do anything in life, it has to be very strategic'

Pranaya Ratna Sthapit

Director – MX Business, Samsung Electronics - Nepal Office

Pranaya Ratna Sthapit, Director – MX Business, Samsung Electronics – Nepal Office, has a career spanning over two decades in sales and marketing. Sthapit has honed his skills to become an expert in the field having worked with some of the world’s biggest brands. In this issue of Business 360, Sthapit shares the five things that have impacted his life and work.

Life is an endless expedition

I decided to specialise in Marketing during my MBA though we had two other options, Human Resources and Finance. I have always been inclined towards marketing because, at the end of the day, it is about how you generate revenue for the business. That is the main thing for any business organisation. Yes, HR is also important and finance is like the backbone of any company but without revenue, we can do nothing.

During my MBA, I got the opportunity to do an internship with Unilever Nepal. It was in 2000 and I was assigned to a project looking into the marketing of Lifebuoy soap which was launched on the health and hygiene platform. We not only had to market the product but also get across a social message on why washing hands with soap frequently is beneficial for one’s health, and we had collaborated with UNICEF for the project. During the internship, I built a good relationship with the management due to my work and as soon as I finished my MBA, I was called for a job interview. I joined Unilever Nepal in 2001 and I am proud that I was the first Nepali to be chosen for their BLT (business leadership training) programme. I was sent to the company’s northern branch in Gurgaon for four months immediately after being hired. I still vividly remember those days when I had to travel to all the rural interiors of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. It was quite an experience as I got to learn about the basics of sales from the best people in Unilever which basically means the best expertise in India.

What we must not forget is that in any sphere of work, we must get our hands dirty right in the initial period if we ever want to succeed in our career. Once we have moved ahead, then there is no going back to gather that experience and without that, it will be difficult to relate to the ground reality and challenges and also the ways to get around those challenges. That was a very important chapter of my career; it literally built the foundation for my career. Within those four months, I had to work as a territory sales in-charge, sales officer and also as an area sales manager. After the programme was over, I returned to Nepal but again after a few months, I was sent for a marketing stint in the company’s head office in Mumbai where I got to work on the internationally renowned brand, Lux.

I was assigned to the brand team. It actually consisted of two teams – innovation and activation teams. The innovation team had to develop the product from scratch after understanding the traits and preferences of consumers whereas the activation team’s responsibility was to devise ways to take the product to the consumers. I also got the opportunity to work with the core sales and I would like to share an experience. Unilever has so many brands and SKUs (stock keeping units) and as a salesperson, I had to generate orders at the retail points. Even for the same brand of let’s say toothpaste, one consumer might want a 30-gram pack while another might prefer a 100-gram pack. There are various reasons why people want a certain SKU and depending on the consumers’ needs, the role of the salesperson is to make the product easily available for the consumer. For that, you have to make your products available at these outlets so that consumers have easy access to them.

Never stop learning

While working with the Unilever team in India, I got the chance to learn from the sales experts of India. Unilever was and still is a respected company and it is fundamentally known for its process-oriented approach. Process-oriented means that decisions are made based on a certain system and not on an individual’s ideas. When things work according to process then you will be able to deliver results consistently. If work is done as per an individual’s ideas, then in the long run it will be difficult for the organisation to have steady progress because the direction will keep changing with changes in personnel, and processes will also keep changing. Stakeholders will be confused then. Whenever you start any business or do anything in life, it has to be very strategic. It has to be process-oriented. That is one mantra I keep following in my work all the time.

I also got to know the answer to the role that a salesperson plays. Most often people think that the role of a salesperson is to just sell the product but in reality, there is so much more to it. Even to this day, I teach my team about those three vital roles of a salesperson. The first thing any salesperson must be aware of is availability; their product should be widely available. The second is visibility. If your product is properly visible in the outlet, then there are higher chances of it being picked up by the consumers from the shelf. Just making products available is not enough. And the third important factor that I feel most salespersons always miss out on is trade recommendation which is about building a relationship with your business partner. You should understand their pain points so that you can motivate and educate them so that they in turn will be able to educate the end consumer. Any person involved in sales must understand that they do not interact directly with the end consumer; it is always through the retailer. So, it is very important to keep your retailer or channel partner motivated and educated. These three things are the fundamentals that any salesperson must understand and fulfil if they want to be effective on the ground.

And of course, as you rise up the ranks, maybe you will be more into strategies. But even if you become the CEO, these three factors are the fundamentals one should not forget because at the end of the day for any organisation, the top line is everything – the revenue! In order to drive revenue, you have to understand the ground reality. My belief is that if your foundations are strong, if your basics are correct, then it is just a matter of time when you will start progressing and reaching higher positions. That is why I will forever be thankful to Unilever for teaching me these things. I have changed companies; in fact, I have changed the industry I work in but the fundamentals will never change.

Way forward

I also did a stint with Chaudhary Group and was instrumental in launching the Haywards 5000 beer in Nepal where again I got to learn so much. And then in May 2004, I had the chance to join Bottlers Nepal (Coca-Cola). Coincidentally, it was the time when the Nepal bottling unit was bought by Coca-Cola South African Bottling Company (SABCO). They had taken over the business and were trying to build talent within the team and also investing in the infrastructure. I was fortunate to be a part of that team at that point of time because it was the turning point for the company with the new investor. After I joined Bottlers Nepal, I was selected for the Inside Track programme of SABCO, wherein the company would identify staff with high potential from different countries and put them through intensive training for three weeks. During that training, I got an opportunity to learn from a diverse group of people from various backgrounds. In the global context, SABCO is a small bottling unit but they have a strong heritage and are known for their manual distribution system, which means instead of having a big distributor you have more small but efficient distribution partners. We tried that in Nepal and were successful. I first joined Coca-Cola as Assistant Manager and I was promoted to Country Marketing Manager by 2008. And then I was promoted to the position of Country Sales Manager in 2011.

While in Coca-Cola we introduced the RED (right execution daily). Coca-Cola (Coke) is a very impulse driven product and study shows that over 80% of purchases are impulse driven. Nobody ever leaves home with a plan to drink a bottle of Coke at a certain time. You could be walking down a street or just sitting in a park and if you feel thirsty you may buy a bottle of Coke. In this kind of industry, it is very important to have the right presence in the market and when I say right presence, again it is about availability and back then, we used to serve more than one lakh outlets. Coke’s philosophy is “Ice cold within arm’s reach”. You will not enjoy your drink if it is not cold, especially the sparkling beverages. It is very important to have your cooler at the right temperature and it has to be accessible directly by the consumer. Previously in Nepal, coolers used to be placed at the back of the shop where consumers could see but not reach. So, we started the streetwise cooler project whereby we put the coolers in the storefronts. Research showed that by simply placing the cooler at the front where consumers can easily access them, the incidence rate jumped by 40%, which means revenue increased by that much. 

Also, what I have learnt over the years is that when you work with a partner it has to be collaboration for value. As a brand or a company, I have to add value to their business and vice versa. If that happens, then any partnership will last for a very long time. As long as there is benefit for both parties the partnership will flourish. If it is not balanced then that partnership is bound to collapse. There has to be value creation on both sides. What one must also keep in mind is that it is not the strategy that is the most important but the ground reality because once you know the reality you will devise a strategy accordingly. If you know the ground reality and then come up with a strategy then it becomes more robust and effective.

After having worked with Coca-Cola for a decade, I joined Samsung Nepal in October 2014. It was not only a new company but a totally different sector for me but I have always wanted to grow and in order to grow sometimes you have to take the risk and get into a new territory. Again, I was fortunate because that was the year Samsung had decided to establish an office in Nepal and I was among the first employees. Here also I have followed the previous learning and made everything process-oriented because a business is not just for a day or a month or a year. If I do it on an individual basis then maybe I can show a result for today, one more day, two more days but how do I drive sustainability for years to come. That is the key and as a business leader that is what you need to do, that is your responsibility. As you grow in that pyramid, your vision keeps expanding. For instance, when you start a career, you are focused on the now – today, tomorrow and next week. However, as you keep climbing the rungs you are focused on quarterly, first half, second half and annual reports. And then as you rise higher, maybe you are focused on what will happen three or five years down the line.

Experience, a great tutor

People often talk about one source of inspiration but for me, it is an amalgamation from many sources. While studying MBA, I used to read business magazines and get inspired by various business leaders. And then as I started working, I got to interact and learn so much from so many individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds. What I would say is that I have gathered bits of inspiration from several sources. I think that is the right way. If you are confined to just one source of inspiration then perhaps it becomes too narrow.

Different people have different experiences and different areas of expertise. Some are very good at framing strategies. Some are very strong tactically. Some are very visionary and think about long-term planning. As a leader, you have to be balanced so you have to take inspiration from various sources.

There is also a saying, “Your short terms make your long term”. If you cannot survive today there is no point in thinking about five years down the road. So, it is all about balancing the little things. But then again if you just think for only today then you will not grow. So, it is always about balancing today, tomorrow, the next year and the way forward. Not only in business, that’s how we need to think even in our personal lives.

One of the major decisions I have taken in my career was joining Samsung because prior to that I had always been involved in FMCG companies and Samsung is all about technology. Yes, there are sales and marketing aspects which are extremely important but here you need to make people understand innovation and technology which is very challenging. With Coke and soaps and toothpastes, you don’t need to make people understand. These days Samsung has a minimum of seven to eight launches a year. Nearly every month, a new device is coming and each one of them has new features and technologies. It is very difficult to educate the channel partners and consumers about these new technological advancements. When I was shifting from Coke to Samsung, I was not too sure whether it was the right decision for me. I am not a tech person; I didn’t study engineering. So, in the initial days, I had a lot of doubt in my mind and it was very difficult because technology is so rapidly changing. The speed of change in the tech world is very fast. Market dynamics are changing fast and competition is also moving very fast. Even our own technology is changing so rapidly. Initially, when I joined it was difficult for me to adapt and in the initial days, I used to stay awake till three in the morning to learn about various technologies. When you are in a difficult situation it demands more from you, you have to be more committed and that is when you come out of your comfort zone. And when you come out of your comfort zone then growth is obvious. After working for so many years at Coca-Cola things were at my fingertips. If there was any issue I could resolve it immediately, with a click of my finger. But I am satisfied with having taken that risk and joining Samsung.

Mindful decisions

As humans, we have to make decisions on a daily basis be it on the personal or the professional front. There will be times when a decision may look small at that particular moment of time but later when you reflect on things then maybe that small decision could have led to bigger things in life. At times you realise how big a change has come about due to one small decision only after many years have passed by. For instance, my decision to go to India for my Bachelor’s may not have seemed a very big decision then but when I reflect now, that was one big turning point in my life and career. India is such a huge market with so much diversity – the experience and exposure I got there are unbeatable. Moreover, with such a large population there was no dearth of brilliant minds to learn from. It was not only about studies; the books and the content would be the same. It was about learning from people.

Earlier, I was a bit introvert and didn’t like interacting with people but in Pune, I got the opportunity to interact with students from different countries. It was an opportunity for me to learn from diverse cultures. I also got to understand that there are different perspectives that people have based on the culture they are brought up in. I think it is due to this that I have been able to adapt to the various work cultures I have faced during my career in Unilever, Coca-Cola and Samsung.