A peek at the week: iCubeWire’s Nishant Sharma

Prior to his most recent gig, Sharma was vertical head – sales at iCubeWire itself

Source : Brand Equity | Economic Times

One week old and already in full gear, here’s presenting iCubeWire’s, Nishant Sharma.

Sharma is the newly elevated group head – North at iCubesWire. Prior to this, he was vertical head of sales in the company. In a conversation with Brand Equity, Nishant reveals how everything is same yet different this time around with the new challenges. So much so that it feels like a whole new stint. And as someone who has already been in the system, there hardly is a ‘honeymoon period’ for him. Here is a peek into the first week of Nishant Sharma’s debut daysas group head at iCubeWire.

Pranks follow promotion

The workplace is open beyond comprehension. While I was exhilarated at the opportunity to lead an extremely talented and energetic team focusing on expanding the business operations and leveraging brand visibility for iCubesWire in North region, the announcement was followed by greetings and pranks in equal measures.

THE prank. It was not a regular day. Everybody was getting ready for monthly reviews. And then boss messaged me; “I want to see you in my chamber at once.” The clock was ticking for the review meeting and I was putting last minute touches to my presentation; and now this…I was a bit thrown. I met him and asked if anything was wrong. Without mincing words, he said, “You don’t deserve the position you’re in.” I was dumb-founded. Then suddenly he stepped out of his cabin and announced to everyone, “Nishant is being elevated to Group Head – North.” It was completely overwhelming. No one is spared!

Almost a second home

In an industry where employee turnover is high, having spent over 3 years feels good. It’s such a familiar territory for me to take up new responsibilities, and I’m thrilled to occupy this position in the organization; a seat that, in most cases, would have been filled by an outsider. Responsibilities have definitely increased; sitting on the same workstation I now have 10 more things lying on my table every day. However, at the end of the day, it’s family fun – conference table turns into a tennis table.

More digital than ever before

Over the years we’ve grown in scale with more than 10,000 publishers across social, search, email, display, rich media and videos. One can say that from pure play numbers, we have now become more creative in our output. As a result, often there’s a fight between the right brain and the left brain. But for people with passion, it’s important to get both sides jamming together. Great fun and fabulous results are achieved when that happens!

No honeymoon for me

I take the same route everyday, meet the same people; so in a sense, nothing much has changed. But the new role makes it different. Firstly I have to get the role a proper shape and form since none existed prior to this. Now I want to add more hours to the day. In the newly created position, I can’t take off from where somebody else left. I’ve to build everything from scratch. At the same time, the position requires a lot of business development, which in turn requires persistence and continuity. So sometimes, as soon as I hit the ground, I get into the act – pitches, meetings and presentations. There’s a lot happening…the honeymoon will have to wait!