Ramya Parashar: Making a Difference Through her Unique Qualities and Skills
Many organizations have realized the importance of women’s leadership. When women become leaders, they provide a different set of skills and creative perspectives. They not only make bold and wise decisions but also make the team environment more cooperative. They are good communicators which helps them to enhance meaningful conversations with employers, co-workers, and partners, thus creating an open communication stream that creates a sense of clarity. Ramya Parashar is one such leader who brings skills, different perspectives, and innovative ideas to the table.
She is the Chief Operating Officer at MiQ, a leading programmatic media partner for agencies and advertisers. Being a graduate in Electronics & a certified digital business strategist and an organizational performance expert from IIM Bangalore, she is responsible for CoE strategy and execution. As part of MiQ’s global operational board and representing the voice of India, her role is to enable teams to consider the bigger picture and think about multiple angles on how to deploy MiQ solutions that drive competitive advantage. She operationalizes the strategy and approach to business from a creative point of view by driving operational excellence at all layers, be it spanning from design to implementing operational rhythm, managing the bottom line, or establishing policies that promote company culture and vision.
Company at a Glance
MiQ is the leading programmatic media partner for agencies and advertisers. MiQ Digital is a leader in data science, analytics, and programmatic trading. The company connects data from multiple sources to unlock interesting insights and ensure that its clients are always making the right media investments. “Brands not only need to connect all their first-party data but also enhance it with the right second and third-party data. After analyzing it with data science technology and resources, they must use the acquired insights to build creative content with the right messages and target them to the right audiences with programmatic trading expertise. This is where MiQ comes into the picture. We connect the right people, industry partnerships, and technology in a complete programmatic stack to solve our client’s business challenges. By maximizing the value of their data, we try to deliver the best programmatic campaigns and high-value insights,” explains Ramya.
MiQ aspires to create an environment where its people get to work with the best minds in the industry, solve the best problems, and earn the best. “Our business strategy is to have a view in the rare view mirror but also an eye for sustainable long-term growth. We stand out from the crowd by constantly focusing on building capabilities, enhancing our agility and resiliency, and finding new sources of business growth. Our defined vectors of growth building on a strong track record consist of organic and inorganic streams,” she asserts.
The company has a diversified customer base of >2000 advertisers with an 89% net revenue retention rate. Their client base is vertical, channel-agnostic, and varies from data partners, DSPs, and ads partners who help them deliver superior ROI for their clients. MiQ addresses the need of all relevant parties in the ecosystem through diverse routes to market.
Bringing Fresh Outlooks and Perspectives
Ramya believes in bringing out the best performance in every individual. She focuses on remaining purpose-driven and strives to continuously learn and improve the team. She finds new ways to allow employees to take radical approaches that help the organization move in the right direction.
She is a firm believer in habits and makes a point to follow a routine. She not only wakes up at 4 am but also follows a regime that keeps her mind and body healthy. “A routine provides a structured and organized way of living. When our daily routine is well structured, we can utilize our day in a better way,” she says.
According to her, hobbies are an important form of creative expression. Having a hobby can be a creative outlet, a great way to meet new people, and help you be successful in your career. She encourages people in the organization to have interests outside of work which boosts creativity and strategic thinking. “We give our employees the freedom to experiment, explore, adopt or discard a multitude of opportunities. We offer the right culture, mindset, and processes to make an organization future-ready. At CoE, we are working to build the power of collective and operating through ‘Capabilities’ focussed mindset for sustainable and scalable growth,” she explains.
Ramya has turned her challenges into opportunities. She says, “When I first moved into the role of leadership, improving my network was the last thing on my mind. I was prioritizing the hours to guide my team through a major upgrade of the production process, thinking about strategic issues, and devising an execution plan. Soon I realized that networking is essential for growing a business. So, I started finding new ways of defining ourselves and developing new relationships to anchor and feed their emerging personas. This helped me manage current internal responsibilities, boosted my personal development, and opened my eyes to new business directions and the stakeholders that could help me.”
Future Endeavors
MiQ is on a mission to build a forward-looking talent practice that drives Inclusive High performance at all levels. For this, they have strengthened their data-driven decision-making pillar through robust, real-time insights into their workforce and culture at all levels.
“My future endeavor is to build a sustainable CoE. One cannotbuild a team with all point guards! I believe in putting the best team together to do the job. I look for people who make me uncomfortable and are different from me in terms of perspective and ideas. This helps us to generate new innovative ideas and grow as a company,” she avers.
The company plans to grow through organic and inorganic streams. They are looking at accelerated growth drivers for all existing geographies, all client types, and all programmatic products. they are also leveraging their global delivery platform – the backbone of tech, partnerships, data, and people assets globally.
Ramya Parashar concludes by saying “Love your business problems and drive transformational change to adapt to an ever-changing business environment. Having a seismic impact in the talent marketplace is key. As leaders, we need to balance Digitization, Innovation, and Performance to stay on the right trajectory but also continuously evolve and future-proof our business.”
