A Mom, Marketing Professional, and An MBA: Amrutha Ananth Reflects Balancing it All
By Shivani Shah
“Balancing Semesters with Trimesters” - Today’s woman dreamer, Amrutha Ananth, is a marketing leader to know, with experience in both in the US and India with leading companies including Dell Technologies. A creative thinker and a tactical project manager, Amrutha’s path reminds us “consistency and creativity can coexist”. In this inspiring Women Who Win interview, she shares her career journey and reflects on her experience with pandemic pregnancy while pursuing her MBA. Her top tip for staying organized - “Plan your work around your most energetic, creative time of day, and then allow yourself breaks and time to recharge your creative pool - you can get a lot more work done without sacrificing the quality of your insights and set yourself up for success.” Check out her story!
1.What are you currently working on professionally?
In my current role at Dell Technologies, I proactively build and execute partner marketing approaches that involve evaluating, maintaining, and growing the loyalty and value of our partnerships through brand awareness, and communication programs. The eventual goal is to translate these efforts into lead generation & sales, and ultimately business growth. I also don another hat as the Business Operations & Communications Strategist for our family-owned business.
2. What draws you into your field? Any advice for those going into Marketing and Communications?
I have always enjoyed stitching consumer behavior with product innovation, developing creative campaigns to attract customers, and using the latest tools to translate raw data into insightful messages. The transformation that a good marketing campaign can bring about when multiple disciplines synergize is truly rewarding. What excites me about Marketing & Communications is its horizontal competency and the indispensable role it plays in any line of business and the fact that the field of marketing keeps evolving repeatedly. Yes, there are marketing principles that offer guidance but there is no single formula that always works.
My suggestions for any aspirant would be -
The only way to learn is to dive deeper. Develop a keen eye for branding but also understand media production methods. Read up on old marketing case studies while being aware of the latest trends. Practice writing effective one-liners and equip yourself to write an elaborate technical brief.
Practice skills through volunteering or other avenues outside your day job. For e.g., I translate my love for marketing communications in whatever way I can. At Dell Technologies, I am the co-lead for Cross-ERG liaison and facilitate collaboration. Through this, I flex my ‘brand-building’ muscles. On the other hand, as the Social Media Manager at Boston Content, I let my creative and analytical juices flow as I design campaigns for digital platforms. And while I was in India, I worked as a freelance journalist for leading newspapers and magazines which helped me expand my skillset in my day job.
3. You’ve been in the Marketing & Communications field for a decade now. In both India and the US. What are some trends you’ve noticed in the field and how has the experience differed between the two countries?
I would like to approach this question in the context of ‘trend in the business’ and ‘trend in the business setting’ – and thereby bring out the differences I experienced between the two countries.
The trend in the business: (Features vs. benefits) I started my career in India as a Creative Strategist in an advertising firm and then shifted to a corporate setting. When it came to messaging for marketing materials, the mandate I received in India was predominantly focused on highlighting “product features.” On the other hand, in the US, I have always been tasked with highlighting “product benefits.”
The trend in the business setting: (Generalist vs. Specialist) In India, I was required to be a "specialist at being a generalist". Let me give you an example – I used to develop and execute campaigns end-to-end. This meant I needed to broadly understand the entire gamut of marketing including product marketing, brand and creative, communications, digital, events, field, and channel marketing. When I moved to the US, I saw a different trend while giving interviews. Specialists who have deep expertise in a particular facet of marketing were preferred. But like any other industry, trends are changing here too and in the last couple of years, the roles are expanding to T-shaped marketers. I opine that any upcoming marketer should first establish their base knowledge and build their marketing foundation before choosing their expertise areas.
4. We’ve read that in your past experiences you express how “consistency and creativity” co-exist. Could you elaborate more on this concept and how you have come across it?
Achieving creativity seems straightforward on the surface but it’s not always simple. Being consistently creative is a difficult feat and to achieve a certain level of consistency, establishing a sound routine is important.
The key here is to settle on a realistic output for yourself — enough to sharpen your skills, but not so much that you feel burnt out. You start figuring out what works for you, improving your technique, and gaining the skills you need to streamline your process.
Solving problems creatively is about the systematic exploration of ideas and not about deriving solutions from thin air. And to know how to direct it, it is important to have ‘consistently’ practiced your ‘creative’ instincts.
5. Your influential story of a pandemic pregnancy while doing an MBA is quite inspiring. How did you find a healthy balance in this while doing due diligence on all? Do you have any advice for those struggling to find balance in their intense situations?
Since my childhood, I was taught by my parents to have a schedule to be able to do a little bit of everything that I was interested in. I would say ‘scheduling’ is what carried me through the pandemic pregnancy while also pursuing MBA at Babson College, MA. When I learned that I was pregnant, I replanned my MBA path by overloading subjects during my second trimester and enrolling in just a minimum of two subjects during my third trimester. In addition to learning the art of ‘Balancing semesters with Trimesters’, I understood the importance of tactical planning in the context of business.
My suggestions: Plan your work around your most energetic, creative time of day, and then allow yourself breaks and time to recharge your creative pool - you can get a lot more work done without sacrificing the quality of your insights and set yourself up for success. Prioritize what needs to be done instead of looking at your to-do list in totality. There are various free time management apps/tools that one could leverage. My advice would be to find the right framework that works for you and do it consistently - consistency beats perfection!
6. The concept of “Winning” takes on many meanings for Women Who Win. What’s another aspect about you that makes you a “winner” and/or what is your “winning story”?
Winning and losing are part of our lives. The important thing is to keep trying and believe in your abilities regardless of the circumstances you face. Here are some winning moments from my life that I believe bring out my qualities as a winner –
Starting all over in a new country: When I moved to the US from India, I was at a stage where I had already built an amazing career trajectory, rock-solid family support in my vicinity, and a wonderful set of friends who always had my back. This move to a new country meant I had to uproot myself from this full-proof support system and start all over again. But I made the choice to take the plunge, and here I am, four years later.
Job hunting and Postpartum: For anyone who has undergone either or both, you would agree that both these situations can cause severe stress. I had to embrace both these tight spots in addition to the challenging economic conditions that loomed due to the pandemic. There were days of burnout and there were days of persistence. Tackling both these circumstances simultaneously, I can safely say that I can manage to lead myself regardless of the environment around me.
7. What is the dream you are chasing now?
Although there's no doubt that women have made great strides in the workplace over the decades, there's still a long way to go. I am focusing on building a women-inclusive work environment by getting involved in forums and mentoring platforms. I am particularly interested in championing possibilities for women to get back to work after taking career breaks. I feel strongly about this cause as I was in the same boat when I initially moved to the US. I am an ardent advocate of creating safe spaces for women to voice their opinions without being judged for their choices.
Thank you Amrutha for sharing your inspiring story with us. We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!
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BIO: Amrutha’s experience in the field of Marketing & Communications spans the areas of Partner Marketing, Corporate Communications, Branding Strategy, Digital Marketing, Content Curation, and Employee Engagement. A big brand thinker and tactical project manager, Amrutha has worked both in the US and India with leading companies including Dell Technologies, PayPal, and Polaris. She has also worked as a freelance journalist for various leading publications in India and enjoys writing about Culture, Lifestyle, and Food. With a strong passion for Indian Classical performing arts, she has undergone intense training in South Indian Classical Music & Dance and has performed in various venues in India and the US. An amateur photographer, she still holds her decade-old DSLR camera dear. During her free time, she experiments with new recipes, writes blogs, adds ‘new places to visit’ to her bucket list, and catches up with movies/tv-shows. She is a Mom, Marketing Professional, MBA
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