WOMEN POWER: A positive Attitude

NAME

Rachna Datta Choudhary

Manager-Product Marketing, Canon

Job Profile

Choudhary drives the product marketing of inkjet printers, AIOs and scanners for
Canon. Her work includes planning everything from launches, to devising new
schemes and promotions for the products and looking after the pricing and
marketshare of the products category that she handles. Though she gives equal
focus to both the channels and end-customers, she believes that IT resellers are
the most important point of contact for her, since when it comes to buying, more
often than not, consumers trust the advice that their resellers provide them.
That is why according to Choudhary, communication and motivation of the channel
partner is of prime importance to her.

Background

A Delhi girl, she did her schooling from St Thomas before joining Hindu College,
where she did her graduation in Maths. From there she moved on to do her MBA in
Marketing from Amity Business School. Choudhary has been involved in selling
office automation products for more than seven years now. She started her career
with Gestetner, where she stayed for two years. From there she moved on to HCL
Info in sales, before joining Ricoh. Choudhary credits her Ricoh experience for
teaching her the basics of the business. She believes that it was during her
stay with Ricoh that she learnt about working with channels, and also got the
know-how of product launches and dealing with high-end products. It was in
December 2004 that she joined Canon, where she started working first on market
planning before moving on fully to take charge of complete category handling.

Challenges

Not a challenge but a fear, Choudhary feels that in such a job there are chances
that one might miss out on career opportunities because of family
responsibilities. The biggest challenge in IT industry for her is to make her
mark in a male dominated industry. She feels that it is most important for her
that every channel partner dealing with Canon should have no pending issues with
the company. That is why she believes in keeping all communication channels open
and strives to find effective solutions to any problem that might arise.

Strengths

Her 100 percent commitment to everything that she does and never-say-die
attitude to every situation are the strengths that keep her going. Choudhary
feels that if you work towards results then there is no problem for which a
solution cannot be found.

Family

Married for the last five year, Choudhary's husband works in Standard Charted
Bank as an Area Sales Manager and she has a three and half year old son. The
credit for balancing her professional and personal life she gives to her very
supportive in-laws who take care of her son when she is at work. She is also
extremely thankful to the partners who understand the limitations that a woman
has on her time and her need to spend time with family over weekends and as a
result of which she is rarely on call on her off days.

Hobbies

Choudhary is fond of painting and listening to music. However, these days she
rarely gets time to paint since all her free time is reserved only for her son.

Future Plans

Not a believer in planning ahead, Choudhary believes in taking life as it comes.
She believes that in life one should give 100 percent to whatever they are doing
and keep looking out for positives.

-Shivangi Yadav