A Marketer With A GM's Mindset

Sonam Bikram Vij completed her master's degree from MICA (Ahmedabad) in 2008-2010. Her campus placement was with Carlsberg India (2010 - 2013) where she joined as a management trainee. In less than a year, she was promoted to being an integral part of the core brand team to lead the flagship brand Carlsberg.

Delivering Right Results

“I am grateful for my brand-building experience in India, developing growth strategies, innovation strategy, communication development, campaign planning, media management, consumer insights and strong execution capability delivering the right results for brands and organisations,” says Vij. 

Her 14 years of experience saw her work in top companies such as PepsiCo, Unilever, Ferrero, Carlsberg and PaGaL GuY. Vij started her career as a management trainee at Carlsberg India, a global alcobev manufacturer and went on to lead the Quaker portfolio at PepsiCo India. “The work experience was amazing. I worked on the most loved campaign ‘Imagination Ko Jodo’ of Kinder Joy. At Quaker, we developed a strong purpose-driven initiative #SalutingOurHeroes,” she adds.

Double-digit Growth

Despite two challenging years amid disruptions, Vij helmed Quaker to deliver strong results with consistent double-digit growth of more than 15 per cent over two years. According to her, she was able to foresee the long-term vision whilst solving immediate problems quickly and efficiently. She can approach any given situation from multiple perspectives, which allows her to build a long-term strategy and drive short-term agenda. 

“I am a self-critical person. Despite reaching the end goal, I feel that I could have done more. This often leads me to overwork myself. Over the past few years, I have tried to take time off to look at my achievements objectively and celebrate the wins.  I am very goal-oriented and work hard to complete anything I take up,” says Vij. Another aspect that adds to her leadership style is that she prefers to work in groups and finds her collaborative nature as one of her strongest attributes.

“I’m a marketer with a GM’s mindset. I have a diverse experience working across consumer segments and categories that includes delivering strong topline and bottom line results,” Vij says. On many occasions, her work has been recognised by several internal and external authorities. For instance, Lay’s Smile campaign bagged more than 50 awards and the Quaker #SalutingOurHeroes initiative won more than five awards.