Mother, Entrepreneur, Hustler: Sunanda Banerjee on a skill development mission
Even though every professional has the same story - learning and working tirelessly, only some climb the corporate ladder at the speed they want to. Others, meanwhile, lag behind, often struggling to speak up to make the impact needed for professional growth. It is an underrated, unseen challenge around interpersonal/behavioral skills, something that Gurugram-based Sunanda Banerjee is striving to address with her start-up 'CoEmerge'.
"So much more to learn beyond academics"
Born and raised in Bhilwara, the textile city of India, Sunanda always stood out in academics. However, when she relocated to Mumbai for her MBA at KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, she realized that there is so much more beyond subjective studies and academics that contributes to a person's personality and presentability. From there, she tells NewsBytes, her journey began.
Masters from London, followed by corporate stints
After completing her MBA and then another Masters from London, Sunanda returned to Mumbai and worked with several reputed organizations, including Dun & Bradstreet and Mullen Lowe Lintas. On top of that, she has also been a professor and guest faculty at several renowned institutes, a TEDx speaker, while completing her PhD in Neuromarketing along the way.
Many talented people miss out on good opportunities
Throughout these stints, Sunanda realized that there are many bright, academically talented, and technically proficient professionals/students who miss out on opportunities because their presentation skills, confidence, interpersonal skills are lacking. In fact, a 2020 Mercer report states that less than 60% of the workforce is able to adapt to the new world of work, while a Skill India report says only 45.6% of graduates are employable.
To fill these gaps, she started CoEmerge
Though many institutes offer English/communication classes, Sunanda says, there is a skill gap that needs to be filled in for both corporate and education groups - skills that enable people to be street smart and make a better impression. So, in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, she went ahead to resurrect CoEmerge, a skill development initiative she conceptualized back in 2012.
Back then, lack of funding, guidance affected the idea
In 2012, too, Sunanda had tried starting CoEmerge but could not sustain it due to lack of funding. Now, she is pushing it again, with a small team, and hoping to make a difference in the lives of many students/professionals.
Creating an impact through personalized workshops
Unlike the "one-way, pre-recorded" methodology adopted by new-age platforms, CoEmerge's experts take sessions aimed at better equipping learners through a systematic pre and post-training assessment. "It is my job to make life of learners easier and real-time improvements rather than one-way template-style learning where measuring change is impossible," she says. "There is a lot more scope to create impact, quality through one-on-one, one-to-many workshops."
"Innate ability to deliver the message"
"This innate ability to connect to deliver my message, and tweaking it according to the audience has been my proficiency," Sunanda explains, adding that "a banking salesperson might not be cloning tactics from a salesperson of an FMCG brand. It has to be more personalized for the group." "Same goes for executive coaching and, diversity training and communication upskilling," she adds.
The bold, risky jump to entrepreneurship
Tellingly, for Sunanda, a single mother fighting many personal battles, the shift from well-paying jobs to entrepreneurship in the middle of a pandemic was not an easy decision. However, she says, her child and the challenges she faced made her strong enough to take the risk. "Most of the power to take these calls come from being the mother I am," she asserts.
"Nobody else could have given me this immense strength"
Sunanda adds, "I would owe my risk-taking ability, tenacity to being a mother. It gives me immense strength that nobody else or no other thing could have given me. That quest to make my child see the successful side of me has driven me."
Positive response on starting out
Speaking on her work, Sunanda notes that when she was just mulling to restart CoEmerge, she already had two major projects: one from a major media powerhouse of the country and a Swiss MNC. From there, she took the leap of faith, got the website ready, and started reaching out to her ex-clients, friends, and network to connect with and rope in more clients.
First three months of growth
As the ball started rolling, without major investments and no financial backup, Sunanda geared up to reach close to her salary number in the third month itself. She has since hired a few people for business development and related tasks, and handled skill-development workshops, sessions for multiple clients, including the aforementioned ones, leading educational institutes, start-ups, and a small but coveted government project.
More than 5,000 professionals, students trained
In the short span since starting her venture, she has been able to clock more than 3,000 hours of upskilling sessions and train more than 5,000 professionals and students.
Target to reach tier-2, tier-3 cities
Currently, Sunanda is eyeing corporate projects to scale up and carve CoEmerge's name as a leading knowledge partner. In the long run, she plans to target tier-2, tier-3 cities, where a large number of students/professionals face skill issues. "There is nothing people can't learn...But yes, the art of accepting the gap and willingness to do something about it, is all it needs," Sunanda says.
Skilling of students from small-town colleges, schools
"My long term idea is to reach out to these small-town colleges and schools...hone the skills of aspiring students and professionals to help them gain that motivation and that ability to surpass in confidence and present their best foot forward."
Mulling possibilities of a tech platform
While many have suggested Sunanda that she should have her own tech platform for scaling up CoEmerge, she is mulling over the possibilities. "Interpersonal skills need a two-way dialogue, immediate correction," she says, adding that she is currently more focused on using a tech-enabled platform like Zoom to upskill 25,000 students/professionals in the next 2 years, with minimal investment.
Will pave way for better employment opportunities, happier people
Ultimately, she concludes, CoEmerge will pave way for better employment opportunities, more confident and motivated professionals, and most importantly, happier people.
