Exclusive Trusted Magazine Q&A with Rejo Francis, National sales head @ZEE entertainment enterprises
How could you describe your career path in few words?
I have been fortunate to work across industries starting from consumer durables, retail, telecom, and media companies. Even within the companies have had the opportunity to work in different areas of expertise like sales, customer service, franchise management, distribution management, profit center management etc. I have had the experience to interact and learn from CEOs who have built their business from scratch or professionals who have come to the position by their perseverance and capability. With a willingness to learn and take on challenge I have worked across geographies across India and with sheer will power and persistence have turned around dwindling branches and states and also set up business and launched products from scratch. After 25 years in my career, I still approach any new assignment, role with the same enthusiasm as when I started but with a lot of wisdom amassed with hands on experience in the field. I currently work as National Sales Head for a major media conglomerate in India and my career path ambition is to become a CEO of a major organization one day where I can change and influence the lives of many.
What was your most challenging experience and it has changed your mindset?
Every new responsibility I have taken on in my career has been a challenge. Because whenever you take on a new responsibility if you want to make a difference you have to think and act differently. When you think and act differently you face resistance from co-workers, team members, channel partners etc not because they don’t see the benefits but because change is always resisted by all. You might also have to make changes in the existing processes which will require buy in from all stakeholders.
Engaging and building relations with different stakeholders is always a challenge. Whenever you start managing a new geographical location, new role, or a new account there will always a testing period where you will need to identify the working ways of the key stakeholders until you establish a connect and respect from the concerned stakeholders. But the reward in achieving that is far beyond the challenge it involves.
When you get surprised by unusual or uncertain context, what do you think?
Surprises in the business world are usually created when
· We fail to understand, foresee, and plan for a market situation which is created by circumstances which are beyond our control
· When competition disrupts the existing the present market norms with disruptive pricing, products or offers which you weren’t able to anticipate and plan ahead for.
While for both the situations our initial reaction would be of disbelief and ways to justify your earlier action the only real way to counter the situation is to look at the opportunity created by the unexpected development and go forward to counteract the same.
In my experience, it’s not always the first mover but the person with the better persistence and patience who would be able to turn around any situation in their favour.
