SUCCESS VITAMIN BY PRITHA DUBEY: STRUCTURING DYNAMIC LEADERS & ENTREPRENEURS OF TOMORROW WITH FINESSE
"We can manifest our desires; don't letnegativity cloud our mind. Know what you want to achieve and keep that desireburning, the universe will conspire"
Pritha Dubey
With a dynamic andsuccessful brand name, Pritha Dubey, FounderofSuccess Vitamin, has meticulously structured and scaled upleaders and women entrepreneurs by cementing their will to enhance the powerwithin to lead significant lives.
In 2013, whenPritha moved out of a secure career as a business development head, she knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish in life.The previous job facilitated her in comprehending the needs of a company andbridging the gap between an organization's expectations of skills, personality,competency, grooming etc. and those of the candidates. That'swhen the idea of Success Vitamin advanced into the picture;she decided to explore her hidden potential and paved her path to success. Andnow, she teaches leaders and women entrepreneurshow to move forward with prideand confidence, create a legacy, value skills and help them achieve success inevery endeavour.
Pritha started withpreparing the candidates for interviews; coaching them on their appearance, body language,and communication. Once the success ratio started growing, she decided to get certified asan Image Consultant. Pritha eventually expanded her coaching to all professionals who were looking at creating a mark and gettinga chance to succeed. Gradually her coaching converted to classroom training andnow consulting.
THE WOMAN WHO LEADS TO INSPIRE
Pritha Dubey, analumnus of IBS, Hyderabad,did her management in marketing and worked in different capacities across Banking, Insurance & HR industry till 2013. She wasassociated for two years with 'Dale Carnegie Training India'. She owes her foundation to them. She is also certified in'Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centred Coaching & Global Leaders of theFuture Assessment'. Today, she is a certified instructor from 'LeadersExcellence at Harvard Square' and an 'Official Member' of Forbes CoachesCouncil. She is the only woman coach from India to receive this accolade.
In an exhilaratingconversation with the Startup City Magazine, Pritha talks about her venture,highlighting on her mantra, clients, trends, industry scenario, plans, andmore. Read more on her insights in this up-close and personal conversation with the dynamic coach.
Startup City Magazine: How dynamic is your story of success, tell us yourmantra?
Pritha Dubey: My Fatheralways used to encourage me to attempt. He would say, "What do you fear willhappen if you attempt? You may end up getting a zero, right? And what do youget when you don't attempt, still a zero. So attempt, at least then you have achance to score 1." And this wisdom stayedwith me through every endeavour that I explored.
I did not have avision when I was growing up, unlike many of my school friends. Which means Iwould always cross the bridge when it came? And this visionless journey made metake a long route to success. I moved from one job to another in search of mycalling, not knowing what it is actually. And finally, after 11 years ofsearch, I got introduced to a work that would change my life. To help me succeed, all my experiences at those different corporatehouses, under so many leaders, and with various team members, gave me thecontent, context, and concept of success that I wouldimpart toothers to make their journey to success, shorter. My mantra is straightforward, "Attemptevery work that comes your way, no matter how scary it is. Unless you attempt, you will never knowwhat your true potential is."
SCM: What nature of clients are you associatedwith currently as a financial consultant and a coach?
PD: Research conducted by Harvard University,the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Centre have all concluded that85% of job success comes from having well‐developed soft and people skills, andonly 15 % of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hardskills). Through this research, it is apparent that almost every professionalneeds to develop soft skills. My clients are all those organizations thatbelieve in developing a well-trained team of leaders and performers, who willhelp grow the organizationfaster, retaincustomers, gain new markets, and build more profits. As a coach, I work withsenior leaders fromacross theindustry and help them remove cobwebs from their minds to help them see clearly,decide without struggling, create an environment of engagement, and grow.
SCM: What market strategies do you follow tospread your brand name?
PD: I am a fan of social media. And I believeone should use this extensively to build their brand. Brand Image is theperception that others have about us. So how we come across to others istotally on us. You will find me usingLinkedIn very actively, and I use it to share my success stories, myviews on subjects, to impart knowledge. I have close to 7000 first connections,and I must add value to these connections.Through them, I get a lot of work. I also believe that branding happens everyday, from the moment we step out of our comfort zone. So I treat every interaction of mineprofessionally. My participants and clients help spread the good word andsupport a lot in my brand building.
SCM: How do you treat competition, does ithelp in growth?
PD: I don't believe in competition, Icollaborate instead. Each one of us is a work in progress. Every new person wemeet knows something we don't. Every trainer, facilitator, coach, is busyupgrading their knowledge and skills. Why? So that they can keep adding valueto their clients, each one of us is different and unique in our style ofdelivery and methodology. And therefore, collaboration helps us succeed.
SCM: If I was a consumer, why would I chooseyou over others?
PD:
The question here is, why do you needa coach? Why is a coach so vital for you, and what do you stand to lose if you don't get yourself a coach?
I will not go anddo your job for you. I willnot fight on your behalf with all those who are misunderstanding you. I will not get your team members to love and respect you.I will not solve the office politics.
But I will guideyou. I will give you the right tools, methods, and the knowledge that will helpyou sail through your struggles. I have a unique style of working – and it requires acorporate or an individual to have an outcome in mind. And I design the course,keeping in mind the output, and I follow through to help achieve it. When itcomes to coaching individuals, to have awill is essential to me, so after my 1st day's assessment of the individual, Idecide if I will take the person up for coaching or not.
SCM: You're a successful coach; do youfollow what you preach?
PD: I am conscious of what I am doing is allthat I know. And what I acknowledge is that a human mind is far too capablethan we probably can fathom. And no matter how much we know, or learn, emotionsmake us slip up, at times. I strongly believe in expression of emotions. What I havedeveloped through coaching others is that I have stopped reacting. Instead, Irespond to situations. This one change has made me look at things from allvantage points and, therefore, has helped in my relationships with others.
SCM: Do you feel the journey for a womanentrepreneur towards success is it?
PD: A journey of an entrepreneur has nothingto do with being a man or a woman. It involves a vision to start with and thendedication, hard work, investments, accountability, agility, sacrifice, andlearning from mistakes. Anyone who can go through this kind of a journey willcome out victorious as an entrepreneur. The reason many struggle is becausethey are not clear about what they want, and somewhere along the way, they change their priorities, and also because gettingfunds is not easy, and not everyone can invest personal capital.
SCM: How effectively does your brand infusetechnology and innovation with business?
PD: I am glad you asked. Infusion of technologyis the need of the hour and we strongly support the use of technology. We havepartnered with an analytics company who we use in our Train the Trainerprograms. We video record every trainer's delivery and analyse it to understandthe engagement levels of the trainers. E.g. When could they get theparticipants very active, what percentage of participants got engaged, How muchof facilitation vs. presentation, When was the energy of the class very lowetc. From this analysis, the trainers understand their gaps and scope ofimprovement. We are also working on creating a few learning contents based ongamification. My clients are from across regions. We have started usinggamification in a few of our programs like Leadership, Building Collaborationand Sales. We also conduct coaching & training sessions through webinars.
SCM: How do you choose your target market,what's the analysis that goes into it?
PD: Before choosing a market we choose anIndustry and our go-to industry is the banking and financial services and ourskill to start with is selling. We understand how important it is for allbusinesses to generate revenue and the team that is responsible for generatingthe same has to be adept at it. Banking and financial services have hundreds ofdirect sales force, and we have found that getting an edge over the competitionis critical. We have a very robust sales force effectiveness program forbanking sales; it is customizable as per the region and customer segments.
SCM: Do you feel the industry has transformedover the years in respect to acceptance for women leaders?
PD: Oh yes!! in its meeting on 28 Mar'18 SEBInotified that the Top 500 Listed Cos' in India must have one Woman IndependentDirector by 1Apr '19 and the Top 1000 Listed Cos' must have one WomanIndependent Director by 1 April 20! This is a sign that women leaders areneeded and the corporate world is opening up to having more and more of womenleaders in their system. In the latest Fortune 500 list published in May 2019,33 of the companies on the ranking of highest-grossing firms are led by femaleCEOs for the first time. Considering last year this number was 24, this jumpshows a change in the mindset. I conduct a program for women leaders called"Breaking the Unconscious Bias" I would also like to urge all women to not bestuck in their own prejudice. I still findmany women not taking up a certain job, not because the organisation won't giveit to them, but because they feel they can't do it as good as a man. In one of my live chats witha few women leaders, I received questions like "how do I get my team of malesubordinates to listen to me" Now this question very clearly highlights the prejudice a woman leaderholds herself. Leadership as a skill is a human competency, not a gendercompetency. As we were growing up, our parents exhibited leadership skills. Ourmother was no less a leader that our father. Their styles were different, butwe got influenced pretty well by both.
SCM: Does the government play any role foryour industry, if yes; is there anything you believe should change?
PD: Govt of India has initiated its SkillIndia project with an ambitious target of imparting skill training to 500mnpeople by 2022. The MSME and Mudra schemes would help leverage adequatefunding. 100% FDI (automatic route) is allowed in the education sector inIndia. G.O.I has taken initiatives like National Accreditation RegulatoryAuthority Bill for Higher Educational & the Foreign Educational andInstitutions Bill. IMF has predicted India to be the 3rd largest economy by2030. So the Corporate & Retail training Industry has a lot of catching upto do. And many from my fraternity have expressed that there is a need for amechanism to rightly connect the knowledge seekers to the knowledge givers. Thisindustry needs to get structured.
SCM: Do you remember any complex situation thebrand faced and overcame like a pro?
PD: Like any brand that is starting,initially we too had our fair share of highs and lows, and we came through eacheven better and stronger because we learned from every such experience. Webelieve in adding value and getting our clients their return on investment. Andmost of the organizations I meet have very capable representative heading thelearning & development division. At the same time, we also come across afew L&D specialists who have a yearly calendar chalked out for theiremployees but have no vision of the output expected or value delivered. Allthey need is training to be delivered at the lowest possible cost to them. Theseare the places where we feel our brand may get compromised and hence as apolicy we refuse such work.
SCM: What core values and compliance do youfollow to maintain the name across the market?
PD: We are a quality friendly firm. Hence, accountabilityis our biggest value. We will always give more than what we have been hiredfor. Whenever we associate with any trainer/facilitator, they are alwaysgroomed on our core values V.I.T.A.M.I. N i.e. value creation, integrity,trustworthy, accountability, mindful, insightful, nurture. We evaluateourselves basis the net promoter score and the performance change reportcollected from the client. Our programs are curated keeping in mind the finaloutput expected, and we never compromise on this process since this is whatmakes us deliver what we commit.
SCM: How do you rate yourself on the qualityscale of customer services out of 10?
PD: Our quality standards are measured by twothings 1) the net promoter score. We aim at scoring 80% and above. We take theparticipant feedback very seriously and incorporate their suggestions whereverpossible. 2) As I mentioned earlier we are output focused. So before the startof the program, we collect the performance data based on the output criteria.We also decide the turnaround time to show performance change. We then collectthe post-training performance data to measure the needle shift. This is themost crucial evaluation report for us. And so far we have managed successfullyto keep our commitments.
SCM: You're setting an example for innumerablewomen out there looking for inspiration, how do you feel about it?
PD: Humbled, I wish to inspire many more. Iwish for more and more women to live their dreams and achieve their desires. Irun a woman entrepreneur academy that works towards helping women entrepreneursbecome successful and realized that most of the women entrepreneurs, who arestarting, are pulled back by just one thing – Fear, I want to take that Fearout off them.
SCM: What good is your brand doing for thesociety (in terms of CSR)?
PD: I am involved in grooming a lot of kidswho are from a not-so-privileged background, yet have the desire and the fire tosucceed. I volunteer as a mentor on online platforms like Jobs4her andMicromentor. Apartfrom this, we are always available to any school/ college in tier 3 & tier4 locations to help in skill development and grooming.
Pritha has not hadit easy and hasn't always seen gains; she has struggled to reach the greatheights that she has today. She has had her share of bad bosses and made herset of wrong choices, taken some poor calls and survived massivedisappointments. But what she has learned from all these experiences that itwas necessary to have this ride to be a success story that she is today.
