“An open mind and zeal to learn, these are the key components which help a person to scale bigger heights every passing day. This is the mantra I follow for my professional stint as well. I joined Ninjacart with absolute zero knowledge of analytics. From then, to becoming a Senior Business Analyst within just 3.5 years has been quite a journey and I feel grateful for the opportunities that Ninjacart has accorded me.”
–Kesavan Lakshminarayan – Senior Business Analyst, Business Analytics & Consulting
Getting promoted – Increasing my confidence
When I joined the Ninjacart Analytics Team in 2019, there were only four members. Hailing from a Mechanical background, as a fresher, I had zero knowledge about the world of data and analytics. So, I worked doubly hard and within a month picked up the necessary skills like SQL, Excel, etc. After my training period, I became a Data Analyst.
The first major project I worked on was the management of the procurement dashboard with a focus on ‘Farmer Reliability Score’. It focused on sourcing measured data from the weekly plan to see what percentage of material the team would actually supply.
I worked as a Data Analyst for over 2 years and then received a double promotion to become a Business Analyst. I was elated. It gave me the confidence to keep going with greater speed and efficiency. This year, I have been promoted to Senior Business Analyst, with added responsibilities. “An exciting journey lies ahead and I’m ready!” said Kesavan.
Learning through the challenges
With the outbreak of COVID-19, another challenge that accosted us was ‘Work From Home’. Initially, it became very difficult for us to manage on that front as we had to shut operations for various initiatives. Numerous experiments were carried out and as a part of the Analytics Team, it was our fundamental duty to bring in dashboards to ensure the progress of the operations without fail.
Previously in Ninjacart, experiments would take place only in one department, but in June 2020 there were multiple experiments being done in all major BUs. Like, in Sales, there was the launch of satellite cities to the procurement team, which started doing CC sales, and so on. So at a single point in time, I was liable to manage dashboards for three verticals: Category, Sales, and Procurement, altogether. This was a monumental task for me, but this entire phase helped me to scale and learn more, not only about the expanding business, but also about managing multiple dashboards simultaneously. With this, I started becoming more reliant, and this also helped me learn the art of team management prompted Kesavan.
Growing and adding value – Grateful
For the past 3 years, I have been working closely with all the business verticals, which has given me greater clarity on how Ninjacart’s business functions end-to-end. So, now I want to leverage my business knowledge more on the technical & data science front and add value to the businesses at a broader level.
“Ninjacart’s open culture is the prime reason why I have been able to better myself professionally. The learnings that I have sourced from Ninjacart are huge. The time when I was working closely with the co-founders helped me broaden my vision and think at a broader level. My managers, Dhileeban and Vignesh, and the co-founders have helped and supported me a lot throughout my journey, and that’s a big reason behind how I have been able to reach where I am today. ” said Kesavan
Nice story