In a conversation with Joshua Prottoy Adhikari, Regional Growth Manager of South Asia of Eskimi. Eskimi is a full-stack programmatic AdTech platform. He has shared with us about his professional life experiences, his leadership style, about Eskimi and more. So, let’s get started.
Q. You are the Regional Growth Manager of South Asia at Eskimi. That is quite a lot of responsibility together. How do you manage to do that? How do you handle having multiple tasks at once?
Responsibility towards any role is equal to me, if you take full ownership of it. Doesn’t matter on which role you are in. And managing any role or task successfully depends on planning. The well one can plan their day and tasks; handling multiple things and responsibilities are much more manageable. In short, respect the value of time, and plan, manage and utilize the time efficiently.
Q. How do you make sure projects and tasks stay on schedule? How long have you worked in this field? What is your most & least favorite part about your job?
Good planning and clear communication with the team and stakeholders make the entire job very easy. Planning and communication are the keys to make sure that all tasks and projects stay on schedule. Eskimi is an organization that is very tech and data-driven. We use CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools to create a transparent ecosystem, making the job much easier. I have been working in the Ad-tech field for over ten years. I believe in “Do what you love and love what you do”, so I love every bit of what I do. But the most interesting part is networking, which allows me to meet new people all across the region.
Q. Please tell us about your organization Eskimi. Its services & countries where Eskimi has its operation.
Eskimi is a full-stack programmatic Ad-Tech solution which means we have tools for advertisers to run their digital campaigns known as DSP (Demand Side Platform). To make those campaigns successful, the targeting must be accurate and precise; the platform requires user data, and we have a DMP (Data Management Platform) through which we collect, store and use those data for the campaigns. Also, we have SSP (Supply Side Platform) for publishers to monetize their websites. We are the first full-stack programmatic platform in Bangladesh. Our head office is in Lithuania and currently operates in 130+ countries.
Q. Eskimi uses a positional or tagline, “The only AdTech platform that adds a +1 to your marketing team!” Would you kindly elaborate on adding +1?
As I said, we are a full stack programmatic solution, but apart from that, we have a strong in-house team like Client Service, Account Managers, and AdOperations, who can bring a lot of value to your campaign execution. Their expertise in planning and executing the campaigns gives our partners an added value to their existing marketing team, which means Eskimi works as an added resource for their marketing team.
Q. Kindly Tell us about industry trends you’ve noticed lately and how you’d implement them?
Every market trend is different. Globally we are seeing massive shifts of budget from Adnetworks and social media towards programmatic, as the entire process is automated, transparent, and easy to manage. We are trying to build this awareness for our partners through various training and events.
Q. In your free time, What do you do to relax? & how do you spend your free time?
I spend my free time with my family, listening to music, reading books and Newspapers or Magazine articles, and watching many educational videos and documentaries.
Q. What professional accomplishment are you most proud of so far? What leadership skills do you find most useful & How do you describe your leadership style?
Being Bangladeshi, my most significant achievement is to become the Regional Manager for a multi-national company and show our capability in the global or regional arena. I personally prefer to work in a team model, which is more like leading or managing a sports team. Transparent, clear communication and feedback are appreciated. I must thank to Eskimi for ensuring the organization’s culture and environment.
Q. As the Regional Growth Manager of South Asia at Eskimi, you had to make a lot of difficult decisions many a time, I think. Tell us about some of the difficult decisions you have made.
During political or economical instability, it is always tough to ensure the business flow and keep the resources motivated. Maintaining balance on both sides is very tough to manage such situations; every decision made during that phase is the toughest.
Q. In your opinion, In what ways can managers increase productivity? What do you do when employees in junior positions start to underperform?
The best part of working in a team is that everyone has their own role and responsibility. As the ownership and responsibility are distributed, a manager’s job becomes very simple. The major responsibility is ensuring that each individual on the team gets the ideal deliverable environment. Again the key here is transparency in communication. It is challenging for someone to maintain the same performance every month; therefore though sales are the key performance indicator but we also measure how much effort they have given to meet the goal. And as a manager, I always keep myself approachable so that teammates can reach out to me instantly whenever they feel they need my involvement to reach their goals or targets, which allows me to work closely as a coach with them and work on improvements.
Q. What are the future prospects of Eskimi? What is the Key Strength of Eskimi that helped it to grow more? Kindly tell us about Business expansion, value-added service, etc.
In a tech company, innovation is always the key to growth. We as an organization boast of introducing unique innovations to the market, which we will continue doing in the upcoming days. We started in this South Asian Region with three resources, and now we have around 100 resources. We have local teams in every market in this region. Our next plan is to empower all these teams from each market and operate independently.
Q. Do you want to give our audience tips or advice for joining any Multinational company or corporates, like the essential general skills?
Good communication skill is a must. Knowledge about the industry trends and a thirst for learning is essential. Most of the Multinational companies and corporates have started Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and other automated tools, and training on such tools can be a plus.
