CEO Insights India

On a day-to-day basis an organization goes through a number of processes and over comes numerous obstacles. In the daily routine of running a business, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, and this is where leadership skills come into play. An able leader doesn't just have an eye on the daily tasks but also has his vision firmly set on steering the organization in the right direction. As the Head of Growth and Strategy at Sugar Box Networks, Ishan Choudhary, believes that leaders need to constantly evolve and learn.

Ishan is a Growth & Strategy professional with close to a decade's experience in leading strategic projects and overseeing the business P&L of non linear business opportunities. At SugarBox Networks, he is leading various strategic projects & non linear that can disrupt the digital connectivity landscape. In a conversation with the team of CEO Insights magazine, Ishan shares highlights from his professional journery and how he is constantly working towards creating a greater impact on society.

Having 10years of leadership experience in handling Growth and Strategy, how do you plan to apply your experiences to take Sugar Box Networks to greater heights?
Throughout my career I have been fortunate to work with some amazing organizations, whilst driving their growth mandates. In my view SugarBox Networks, a hyperlocal Edge cloud based technology that seeks to connect

the under served and unserved is at a unique inflexion point in its growth curve, where we are preparing ourselves for exponential growth. Having worked with some renowned organizations, my takeaways have been simple aspire big, pilot with the MVP and then scale fast! In addition hands-on experience with my own startup, inculcated an agile approach and taught me how to hustle hard. I believe that these are a few critical attributes that I can draw upon to steer SugarBox's growth trajectory.

Take us through your educational and professional background. What has been your inspiration behind the journey? What is the motivation that drives you today?
I have completed my B.Tech in Computer Science from NIT Jamshedpur (2009) and have done my MBA from IIM Ahmedabad (2011). My first professional stint was at Nokia, managing projects across Sales, Product Marketing and Business Partnerships. The turning point was when I actually faced concerns while looking for trustworthy service professionals. This is what actually motivated me to choose the entrepreneurial route and build a social recommendation platform Utilog. After that, I worked with Reliance Jio as part of their strategy team to drive their ambitious go to market project Jiomart. Moving on from Jio, I joined Oyo Weddingz, a fast growing business vertical, as their Head of Customer Strategy. Presently at SugarBox Networks, I lead the growth &strategy function and various strategic projects & nonlinear business opportunities.

I have always been inspired by the need to create a quantifiable impact in people's life. I evaluate each opportunity with three clear parameters that is number of people getting positively impacted, extent of the impact per unit person and novelty of the proposed solution. I am fortunate that each of the organizations I have worked with, they all stand strong in these three key parameters.

What are the different strategies developed by SugarBox Networks to make digital access faster and affordable for users? Also, throw some light on the various milestones accomplished so far.
The modern consumer is quick to switch between offline and online ways of working, do business and enjoy leisure time if they are guaranteed stable digital connectivity. SugarBox Networks, with its proposition of affordable and reliable digital connectivity, intends to address this requirement. There are some special opportunities that have manifested themselves to form the bedrock of our growth plans and they are - serving the connectivity requirements of a travelling consumer (intransit) and on the other side of the spectrum catering to the rural consumer. SugarBox Networks plans to provide them seamless digital connectivity experience soon and solve the very fundamental problem for consumers in India and globally too.

Ishan Choudhary, Head Growth & Strategy, SugarBox Networks
A Growth & Strategy professional, Ishan has close to a decade's experience in leading strategic projects and overseeing the business P&L of non-linear business opportunities. Currently, he is leading various strategic projects & non-linear opportunities that can disrupt the digital connectivity landscape.