Focusing On Being a Market Leader Avinash Gupta of Dun & Bradstreet India is blending agility, collaboration and learnings in the new normal

Avinash Gupta, MD & CEO, Dun & Bradstreet India is executing drastic changes in the new normal, looking at their real estate usage, redesigning the work, hybrid mode of work and controlling costs. But when asked about the defining moments in his professional journey, he is a different person. He says, "For me and most of us, 9/11 was the most defining moment that changed history. In my own professional journey, one of the biggest impact points was the global financial crisis of 2008. There were many colleagues, clients and people I know who lost a lot of money and their livelihoods."

"The other was last year, when during the pandemic many people lost their livelihoods and also their loved ones. It was during this time that the aspect of empathy did override a lot of hard, cold, financial facts. It's not the pandemic, but the events around it and the effects of it, empathy combining with everything else in our professional lives," adds Gupta.

Barely a year into the new role and the company has been growing as per plan under his leadership. He says, "We have a plan to execute business as usual, to execute some of our new products and services. So, it's a marriage of what we do every day and the new things we bring to clients. We have had a good year so far. As for India and the international markets, we are doing very well."

Says the finance professional on his management style, "It is very accommodating, consultative and also about being able to take a decision quickly."

On the daring step in his current position, he says, "The most daring step is now, when me and my team under my leadership are accelerating our growth and the positioning of our platform through various inorganic ideas. Inorganic growth has its own challenges of integration and disruptions. We have vetted a lot of ideas and are now in the process with some of them so that we will be able to accelerate our growth. It is the ability and the keenness to partner with people in the external world, to be able to take solutions to market faster, be able to manage solutions with what we have in our suite of products and our knowledge base."

And on the accompanying challenges in the industry, says Gupta, "Generally, a large amount of data is available. Then, it's the superior skills of doing the analytics around it and providing the insights. Second, there is the entrepreneurship which is happening in the fintech space. So many new things happening, we need to marry our base business with agility, so that we are able to bring new products needed by our client base across corporates, BFSI sector, and also in some of the other businesses."

Gupta has handled many businesses before and learnings are ongoing. On the learnings as a CEO, says Gupta, "At Dun & Bradstreet, India, the learnings have been very good, but also virtual, unlike before. So, the learnings in this stint are, how do you make use of all your networks, all the technology, all the goodwill from colleagues, the ecosystem to make the company do much better in a new direction. I have also learned skills on how to communicate, because our business is a lot about making sure that everybody is looking in the same direction."

On the growth strategy, says Gupta, "A lot of what we do about providing financial information is about making credit more easily available to large sectors of the economy. The second thing, is helping SMEs get credibility and visibility out into the ecosystem with our products. The third is, helping people find the right kind of customers, the right kind of marketplace."

"Our biggest sector is the BFSI, where again, because there is a huge need to give credit out at the right cost and in an easier way, all our products are very helpful. All our strategies are around that."

"We aim to be a more dominant player in the financial and the corporate ecosystem."