Bhuvana Subramanyan: Chief Marketing Officer, Randstad
Bhuvana Subramanyan is the CMO of Randstad in India, and a leader in the space of marketing and communications in the corporate world. With more than 20 years of experience under her belt, she shared with us how sponsorship has been a catalyst for growth in her journey.
Bhuvana’s sponsor, Deepali Naair:
Deepali has been one of Bhuvana’s sponsors. Their association began in 2018, when Bhuvana was Portfolio Marketing Manager, at IBM and Deepali was Director, Marketing. Bhuvana’s first connect with Deepali was at a one-on-one that Deepali had set up with each member of the team. The subsequent connects happened at informal dinner and one-on-ones initiated by Bhuvana.
What stands out in Bhuvana’s #sponsorher story is her sponsor Deepali Naair’s gesture of “opening doors within IBM” for conversations and Bhuvana’s ability to recognize the opportunity to learn and grow.
As Bhuvana fondly recollects her journey with Deepali, she shares how Deepali would create space for her to ask “How can I do better?”. She deeply appreciates the time that Deepali would take out for one-on-ones, and based on her sense of what would serve Bhuvana the most, she would challenge her to get involved with various initiatives. This helped Bhuvana understand that leaders believe in her. Bhuvana appreciates how Deepali invested in getting to know what was important for her and also the fact that she always kept her informed about what she was doing for her as a sponsor. This transparency is something Bhuvana deeply appreciates.
Building a relationship with a sponsor:
Having been through an enriching sponsorship experience, Bhuvana shares, 3 key ways of showing up that make a sponsorship relationship constructive:
- Clearly articulate what you are looking for from the relationship
- Leveraging opportunities offered by sponsors to have conversations and seek support
- Taken on challenges that emerge from these conversations.
