Wearer Of Many Hats

Designation

Liasion representative for India, Buffalo

Job Profile

As liasion representative for India of Buffalo Inc, Thapa’s major responsibility is to foster good relationship between the company and its Indian partners. She is responsible for handling the entire Indian operations including sales, marketing, PR activities, channel engagement programs and keeping her counterparts in Japan abreast of the market information on local competition.

Anju Thapa

Background

A graduate from the Delhi University, Thapa did her MBA in HR on organizational development consultancy from the UK-based Henley Management College through distance learning. She began her professional life in Nepal as a facilitator at the International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO). Later, she did what she was best at; moved on to become an organizational development consultant. It was during this stint that she met a Japanese gentleman from Buffalo in Nepal. He talked about spreading his business in the Indian market. Thapa realized that this was the ideal opportunity for her to prove her mettle and she started preparing the groundwork for the company’s entry into India. She studied the buying patterns and market viability for Buffalo’s products in the country and presented a strong case for it to set-up its business in India. Enthused by her work, Buffalo shortly took her on board in November 2004 as their representative in the country.

Challenges

Since she doesn’t have a marketing background, Thapa considers it as her biggest challenge. But, she is not one to give up easily. Over the years, she has been working hard to entrench Buffalo in the country and gain a stronghold in the channel market. As a typical Libran, she always tries to balance everything to give her best output and it’s only sometimes that she fails to meet expectations.

Strengths

Thapa believes that her missionary school background has helped her in maintaining good relationships, which works in her favor. She treats her team as family and her office as second home. Rather than expecting others to change she is good at recognizing an individual’s potential, enhancing it and helping the person to excel. She has no hang-ups about being a boss and does not demand special treatment. During her initial days in India, she was not very comfortable interacting with the channel community at places like Nehru Place, etc. But today, she has mastered this art and is friendly with most of the partners in the region. Coming from a non-IT background and achieving this much is something she had never dreamt of, but is glad she accomplished nonetheless.

Family

Thapa got married six years ago and today is a mother to two sons. In her early days of marriage she was working with INGO, and her in-laws and husband were very supportive of this decision. Her husband runs a fast food catering service. Being the sole caretaker of Buffalo in India, she has got a lot of professional responsibilities.
But her family played an instrumental role in making her a winner in whatever she does.

Hobbies

She loves music, especially old Hindi movie songs. She also loves to dance. But her first love is traveling and meeting new people. The only difference now is that she tries to take her family with her whenever possible.

Future Plans

Her priority is to find a dealer in Goa who will sell Buffalo products. She also hopes to club this appointment with some personal time at this dream destination. She is also aiming to help Buffalo touch a sales figure of $3 million in India.

SYEDA BEENISH KHALID