Hey! I'm Shekhar
Having 23-plus years of diverse global experience in Sales and Business leadership positions with businesses of varying sizes including large Fortune MNCs and Start-ups. I have successfully demonstrated visible & quantifiable results in Leadership Positions in Individual as well as Cross-functional Team Contributor roles.
I describe myself as strong senior Business & Sales Leader with grassroots level direct experience in ‘Hunting’ as well as ‘Farming’ roles. My core strength lies in leadership, coaching and mentoring teams and to motivate them to strive for excellence; Also, establishing excellent long-lasting Business Relationships with customers and partners.
Shekhar Sahu
Business & People Leader, Coach, Entrepreneur, Executor
Phone:
9900086179
Email:
shekhar.conservation@gmail.com
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Date of Birth:
October 15th, 1976
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CAREER
Founder, Savinayam
Dec 2019 - Present
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During my career with IBM and Career Initiation, I interacted with thousands of students and young professionals who were aspiring to have successful careers. I had a deep desire to contribute towards their success.I took a sabbatical from my career and went through the intensive 21 week Hatha Yoga Teacher Training Program at Isha Foundation which is a not for profit global organisation founded by Sadhguru.Immediately after this program, I founded Savinayam, as an offering to people. ‘Sa-vinaya’, in Sanskrit literally means ‘Humbly’. Savinayam is a registered trust with the primary offerings being - imparting Yoga training, Skill development training for rural youth, and Natural Farming training for farmers.Savinayam was built from scratch; the first program having 4 participants. Since then, after 4 years of its inception, despite the challenging times during the Covid pandemic, Savinayam has scaled up manifold to reach thousands of people in India. Corporate programs, retreat programs, rural programs, and regular trainings have been the primary revenue sources which enable the organisation to run the free programs for the rural population.The key success metrics for the success of Savinayam are leadership, direction-setting, planning, sales process, execution, and problem-solving.
Founder & Director, The Career Initiation
Nov 2017 - Oct 2018
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Having interacted and observed thousands of students pursuing professional courses, but still not being able to bridge the gap between academia and the industry; I started this business to address this gap.Career Initiation's focus was to blend it's simple yet unique training services with the academic curriculum of professional colleges.
Innovation Center For Education, IBM
May 2016 - Nov 2017
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- Sales and Business Development for Innovation Center for Education (ICE)
- Education Industry
- Customer Advocacy/Voice of Customer
- Partner Management
- Hunting and Farming
- Strategic Initiatives
- IBM 'Design Thinking' Practitioner
- IBM 'Agile' Explorer
Director, Corporate Gurukul
Nov 2014 - 2016
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Corporate Gurukul is a start-up education training, consulting and assessment organization. I am responsible for PAN India Sales of its suite of products to Institutes of Higher Learnings. I have a thorough understanding of the market and have strong relationships in Government and Private sectors. I have thorough know-how of the decision making process, and have mapped private and government institutes at various levels - Decision makers, Influencers and Political thinkers including Education Ministers. I am directly responsible for Revenue Generation, Overall P&L Management and Partner Management. I have successfully signed MOUs with several Top Universities, colleges and state governments across India and was instrumental in translating them into visible revenue. I have good market intelligence of the status of funds and the approval process for TEQIP-II institutes, CFIs, RUSA and private universities across India.I am accountable for P&L, forecasts, coaching, and pipe-line/funnel management. I have the ability to build strong relationships with customers.
Senior Sales manager, UTC Aerospace Systems
Apr 2011 - Aug 2013
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Goodrich Aerospace (An UTC Company), a Fortune 100 company, is the leading global supplier of systems and services to the Aerospace and Defense industry.I own the P&L including the topline and bottom-line, CSAT, and Budget and am responsible for the $ 6 Mn revenue through the sales of enterprise products, services and aerospace engineering manufacturing solutions. I have demonstrated sales results of over $3mn in emerging sectors. My role involves predictive analysis and business forecasting; and leading the sales function for new sectors. I have strong relationships with businesses of varying sizes. The Indian subcontinent, North America, and MEA are my strong markets. In addition to direct sales I am responsible for managing Key Accounts with a spread of programs amounting to over $ 30mn in revenue. I work closely with the delivery and QA teams to ensure a high level of CSAT. I am accountable to meet the annual growth quota of these accounts including exploring new penetration opportunities.
Founder, SPS Retail Analytics
Nov 2008 - Mar 2011
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I founded this company from scratch in August 2008 to gather valuable entrepreneurial experience. I run various functions of the organization successfully. The company provided Retail Analytics Solutions to mid-size retailers. Sales, Predictive analysis, forecasting and Budget Management were my forte. I completely owned the P&L, raised funds and hired good talent to grow the team from a mere 1 member team to 29 people. I achieved sales worth INR 50mn in a span of 2 years. I created patent-pending Analytic Process, and developed several long-lasting relationships with customers. The business was diluted in March 2011. In this entrepreneurial venture of mine, I gathered hands-on experience in all facets of running a business and ownership. Needless to say, I was responsible and accountable for decisions from the smallest to the largest ones.
Senior Sales Manager, Unisys Global Services
Jun 2007 - Oct 2008
UGSI is the Indian arm of Unisys which is a Fortune 500 organization. UGSI specialized in providing Managed Services in the IT Infrastructure domain to global clients. I had the overall ownership for the sales of the Indian arm of Unisys. I created a pipeline worth $500K and achieved sales worth $600K in the Indian market. I created $2mn sales and a pipeline of $5mn. I was also responsible to managing the growth of key North American accounts.
Business Development Manager, Aricent
Apr 2005 - Jun 2007
Aricent is a USD 500mn+ KKR and Sequoia Capital company which focuses on Communication Software Services. I managed the P&L of a large program spread around Israel, USA and India for a large Communications Applications OEM. I grew the program from a small 40 people team to 350 people. I successfully accomplished the challenging task of setting-up and managing the ODC lab in record time. At the time of being transitioned to take up a new role, the revenue of this program exceeded USD 1.5mn. I owned the profitability and scalability of the program. I was successful in creating a strong value proposition and demonstrated visible ROI for the customer and FSS. My contributions were strongly recognized by the company management for building a strong relationship with the customer with high expectations. I moved to a Business Development role in this organization where I responsible for Sales of Communication Applications in the NA region.
Senior Sales Consultant, Planman Consulting
Mar 2004 - Apr 2005
Planman Consulting, an Arindam Choudhuri initiative, forayed into the ITES business for the first time. I was responsible for maintaining and managing a steady pipeline of revenue from the global market. Completely a start-up environment. I successfully juggled across multiple roles of front-end sales, account management, pulling leadership attention to secure deals. Amongst several other deals, I secured a large UK government deal worth USD 1.6mn.
Business Manager, Plutus Systems
Mar 2003 - Mar 2004
Plutus Systems is the Enterprise Software Application Development division of UAE based Infonet Systems. I headed the business operations in India and later on set-up from scratch the entire operations in Cairo, Egypt. I played a key role from conception stage to the ready-to-market stage of a multilingual customer support application. A voice based, call centre was established by me to cater to the needs of the EMEA market. Generated business of USD 4mn.
Engineer, KCSE
Jun 2000 - Aug 2001
KCS Engineering is a medium sized contractor for construction work in building highways, bridges and large steel plants. My role was to supervise the execution of such projects. The role also required micro-management of daily-wage laborers which provided me with an in-depth understanding of people management at the grass root level.
EDUCATION
Indian Institute Of Planning And Management
PGDPM, Marketing & Finance
Bachelor Of Engineering
Nagpur University
St. Paul's School, Rourkela
ISCE, Science
SKILLS
Business & People Leadership
Coaching & Mentoring
Enablement
Insights
Problem Solving
Influencing