Don’t let others to choose or control your career options after 12th

Hi, I am Yadu Muntha, and am passionate about inspiring entrepreneurship. I have 12+ years of experience in building business, sales, cross-functional leadership and strategy, and in enterprise technology space.

Who is a Business Development Expert?

Business development expert is the one who helps the organization to expand its products and services to acquire clients, capture maximum market share and profitable growth using his knowledge on sales, marketing, P&L, product and solutions, competitive analysis, operations, R&D, etc.

In short, he is the one who takes right decision with his leadership capabilities and assist the management or company to build a profitable organization.

What motivated you to become a Business Development Expert?

To be frank I was dreaming about two different paths. I wanted to be a successful entrepreneur, at the same time I was interested in civil service. My way of thinking changed after joining engineering, there I started connecting technology with business and I will tell you how.

In engineering they teach us, what is a device/instrument and how to use it or how to design an instrument using a product X, etc. Majority of us will stop learning after acquiring some knowledge from classroom, books or from the internet, but for very few the real journey will start at this point. Typically these people love research and they would like to know more about the product/device. They come up with numerous queries, such as;

What is this device all about?

What are all the things you can do with this device?

How old is this device?

Which company manufactures this device?

What is the market share?

How dangerous is this ?

What are the other instruments that can be designed using this device?

What is the scope and scalability for this device or solution?

About the competitors, etc…

This kind of learning will make you a scientist or an entrepreneur in your teenage. As we hear, a teenager who built a device to predict “Silent Heart Attacks” , world’s Youngest Programmer at the age of 19 and many more.

What are your specific activities within the organisation?

I have spent major part of my career with startups including the current organization Getactive, an innovative Gamified technology solution designed to help employees stay healthy and fit.

I am chiefly tasked with building annual strategic sales business plans to drive revenue and increase the company’s market share and assess market potential. Apart fro that I am assigned to identify new business opportunities and synergies by building, developing and managing sales revenue expectations in lieu of company strategies and tactics.

What advice you have for the present younger generation?

Find yourself and connect to the core.

Finding the real you is a great experience. But when you don’t know who you are and what you are upto, it’s hard to become successful either in personal or professional life.

Find a job with the following combination – money, satisfaction and scope of learning.

Think twice before you join any organization. Just ask yourself few question like, is this ideal job for you? What interests you in joining this company? Is it for money, brand or the role ? Doing a job just for money is not going to work. Money is an important factor, but more than that is the job satisfaction. It’s important to find a job that gives job satisfaction and scope for learning new things.

What do you love about your current role?

The team is like a family and provide necessary support system required for efficient functioning and excellent achievement. No one acts senior or junior, each and every employee has equal respect and opportunity and therefore our work environment is filled with challenges, fun and above all it’s rewarding.

What are the challenges you face in your career?

As I work with startups, I find issues with stability and pay.

What type of sales experts will be high in demand in the near future?

Good listener.
Quick and continuous learner.
The one who understands Customer problem.
One who gives importance to time management.
A person with cross functional leadership skills to manage and lead different teams.
Capable of building trust and loyalty between customers and business.
A real sales expert is one who not only make the sale, but create a long-lasting impact on the customer.
Multitasking, focusing on tasks sequentially and seamlessly moving from one to the other with a key focus on priorities.

Can you please summarise your career journey?

Education:

+2 – MPC (Maths, Physics, Chemistry)
Graduation – B-Tech in Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, Acharya Nagarjuna University.
Post Graduation – MBA, Adam Smith University.
Currently pursuing Psychology.

Expereince:

SPSS
CTE
Netcore
Ubona
Danvanthiri IT Healthcare
Current Organization – Getactive

Certifications:

Diploma In Leadership & Management
Psychology of Sales
HIPAA Certified Professional

What are the skills and education required to be a Business Development Officer in 2020?

Leadership quality.
Passionate about doing things.
Good communication, negotiation and good listening skills
Ability to learn new things and keep updated.
Finally, always be POSITIVE.

I am 17 and I am planning for a similar career path like yours. What advice you have for me?

General Advice:

Choosing your career at 12th standard is too late.

10th Standard is the time where you have to identify your interest and plan your career options. I saw many people who has converted their hobbies as career and they are successful too.

Again same boring question, “Ask yourself what you want to become?”

Set a Goal and prepare for that. “Goal Setting is Important”, you can’t achieve anything unless a goal is focusing the effort. When you set a goal for yourself you make yourself accountable to finish that task, but identify deadlines and time frames related to each activity to achieve your goal. Hence, don’t forget that there is no replacement for your goals.

I suggest MBA with tech background will have high impact. B.Tech(Electronics or IT or CS) + MBA would be ideal for Sales/BD. We are in a technology space and technology is ruling the world. For a non-technical guy the career path and growth is very limited in Sales/BD.

What are some alternate career options for a sales expert?

Manager Sales
Regional Head Sales
Business Head
Vice President-Sales
Director Sales & BD
CBDO (Chief Business Development Officer)
CEO
MD

What do you think potential recruiters look for in a growth hacker?

Qualities like confidence, leadership, strategic planning and execution.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Mostly with family. Apart form that I spend limited time in social activities like teaching kids on the street about how to live and what to learn. Also I give my free time on mentoring startups.

What are some resources you use to keep yourself updated about the industry?

Linkedin and AngelList.
Prominent people and their posts
Journals
Networking
Startup forums
Seminar and conferences

What do you think everyone leaving higher secondary school should know?

Practical knowledge is very limited in institutions. You can’t learn everything from classrooms. Try and explore the world of opportunities. Work on part-time assignments/jobs or work as a freelance consultant or join as intern. I suggest prepare a proper business plan and approach startups. Tell them how you will generate leads and business and a right medium to market their product and solutions. Therefore, startups are the best place to learn and work.

What’s your stand on failures in life ?

Highly successful people are the ones who have failed the most. Failures are common in life, no one is perfect in this world, and we all fall on hard times at some point or another. If you want to live life so carefully avoiding failures, you will never teach yourself how to manage a failure.

Managing a business or region or team is not an easy task. Therefore, failures are inevitable, but what matters is how you deal or manage with it at critical situations.

Any final thoughts?

Don’t leave your passion. Take your career seriously. Don’t let others to choose or control your career options.

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