Micro Management won’t help if you want to move with everyone in a specific direction – Vivek Saraf

Can you take us through your professional journey so far? How have things moved for you since the time you have taken up your first job?

With 8+ years in this industry now. I started as an executive in 2011 in Digital space with no idea what Digital fraternity is. I was a fresher and post the technical training I was put on the client which was US based. I worked in night shift close to 2 years and was enjoying this time as there were many things to learn and the best part is I was learning almost everything on Digital “Trending” during that time. Since then I have worked really hard, took risks, climbed every step to reach where I am today. When I started in 2011 the Digital space was picking up and was clicking in the industry as it was price competitive as compare to traditional media (TV, Newspaper, etc). Today in 2018 Digital has become mandatory if you want to make an impact for your product to be recognized in the market.

What are three major trends that stood for you in the last three years and why were they game-changers according to you? 

“They say every day you learn something new” and the person who said it must be from the Digital Industry HAHAHAHA. The industry has changed a lot in the last three years, today digital space has a cut-throat competition. With Programmatic Advertising stepping in and Native Advertising introduced there is a lot of competition in the market. An advertiser wants their target audience to be targeted with correct messaging. Advertisers cannot afford to miss on the opportunity today when the brand needs the spotlight ON. Right place at the right time is what advertiser wants. Today advertisers expect high ROI on their campaigns. The advertisers are now more vigilant on the performance before they release the next month budget.

You must have a big team to handle, how do you make sure that each of your team members is equally productive? 

Yes, I have a team 7+ working with me, for the team to be productive you must give them space, an opportunity they need to perform. I handled an equivalent number of team members with the organization I worked before and learned that the Team, when given a free hand, works more efficiently. Give them the decision making power, tell them they are the brand owner, Trust them, allow them to speak and see the wheels moving in the right direction. Micro Management won’t help if you want to move with everyone in a specific direction, for a team to perform you need to give them space and what they want when they need it the most.

What has been your biggest challenge at work recently and how did you and your team overcome it?

The biggest challenge that I have come in my life is to deliver an extremely important project which needed extra resources to work on and had to be delivered before the go-live date without disturbing other client projects which were also going hand in hand at that time. This huge project that I am talking was a very important one with HUGE Spends and was an offer related stuff. The offer was rolling out in the market in a couple of days and we had to work on the same to deliver it at the time. I and my team almost worked day in and day out on the project to be successfully delivered. In order to set everything right, I had to pull few members from the other team working on the similar fashion like we do and make sure that the execution was correct and everything is delivered as promised and we did it. 🙂