Insights and possibilities explored from BACON’22 , the conference for Business analysts
5 Business thoughts for your entrepreneurial journey from business experts
by Rahul kumar
BACON — Exploring the Possibilities, was a single day event hosted by CoffeeBeans Consulting LLP on 8th of January, 2022. In accordance with our tagline, our goal was to bring people from different verticals together to give insights into how businesses were evolving, the key role that disruptive technology had played and the future of business through it. It was also in our interest to hold up to view the career journey and experiences of a Business Analyst. We wanted to provoke discussions and raise insights, which we believed would be an asset to the participants.
The Takeaways
K Hari Prakash emphasised the importance of being a good decision maker for Business Analysts and Product Managers.
He talked about a practitioner in product management and how he had seen over the years, the importance of business analysis, data, information, and how important they have become in industry making. Moreover, he detailed out the pathway of how a Business Analyst could start behaving as a product manager which would eventually lay foundation for product manager. Decision making was something that make you a good product manager. Through his life experiences, he threw some light on important skills needed as a BA like providing cross-functional leadership, most notably between engineering teams, sales and marketing, and support for successful delivery of product.
‘Data helps you scale businesses better by automating the processes’, says Sourav Saha
He initiated the talk with a great phrase ‘In God We Trust, Rest Bring Data’. He mentioned how Business analytics gave business an excellent overview and insight on how companies could become more efficient, and these insights would enable such business optimize and automate their processes. He discussed how technology would allow companies to interpret and draw insights from massive datasets to gain a better understanding of their customers and overall operations. Along with this, he helped participants understand the basic differences between a business analyst and a data analyst which gave people clear understanding what responsibilities came with individual role.
‘Understanding technologies to improve customer experience aids in extensive business analysis’: Siddharth Bhatter
He started the floor by explaining what IoT was and how it was changing the way we operate our life. He gave few examples like smart lights in our living room which we could control with a smartphone app, or the activity tracker that we use to monitor our sleep and daily activity.
He stated that the Business Analysts who could expand their knowledge and experience in how IoT impacted customer experience, buying journeys and business models, could stand out from the others and drive their careers towards the future.
‘The first secret of creating any design is noticing its users’ bebehavior according to Kartikey Hariyani’s observation.
Being from electric vehicle space, he stressed on how BAs were required to apply creative thinking to increasingly complex business problems to achieve user-centric outcomes. Design Thinking could function as a roadmap for BAs who want to maintain a user-centric approach while they keep stakeholders engaged and apply a business framework.
He used a lot of his own business examples of creating electric mobility solutions coupled with charging stations to make the conference participants understand how by introducing a designer mindset into their analytical processes, BAs could manage requirements more effectively, define project scope more clearly, validate decisions based on evidence and, eventually, build better products. Design Thinking allowed BAs to be more analytical and effective.
He also focused that rather than traditional business planning, EV space required a lot of customization as per user experience to make this space more dynamic. A lot of competitors had shifted their concern towards EV. This could be the next future and to sustain the future, one would have to be creative and innovative both at the same time.
Tech-enabled disruption of products and services has become a battleground for industrial companies accept panelists
Each of them with over a decade of experience in creating digital products and seeing business processes changing, they came with a different viewpoint. Lot of discussions evolved around how technology had disrupted the entire organizational structure, it’s strategy and reaching out to their respective customers. Neil focused on how businesses using technology had shifted focus from multi-channel to omni channel marketing giving consumers a totally similar experience both online as well as offline stores. Vishnu came with a contrast what was happening then and now with the changing technology. Sagar & Mitesh laid stress on how technology had acted as a superpower in changing how we explore the opportunities, learn through them and grow eventually. It was such an insightful session from speakers coming from different verticals and domains.
Challenges We Faced While Preparing for The Virtual Event:
· Choosing the right virtual platform for our event
The range of platforms available was overwhelming. Each platform came with different ways for engagement, but they all had some limitations, so it was important for us to find something that worked for the event. Finally, we decided Zoom would be an ideal platform for conducting our event.
· Registration numbers were less than you expected
Hopefully, we already expected attendees from our common connections and friends. However, reaching new attendees was very difficult and took a lot of time and a cadence of emails, blog posts, social sharing, etc. Regular follow ups with the attendees and looking to their queries helped us to cater to the better and more informed audience.
· Decision making was stalled
We had some overall agreement on the event, but we couldn’t seem to move on the details, and were waiting for someone else to make and execute decisions. We sometimes need to wait for good amount of time in order to have approvals for our event designs, posters, logo, speakers etc.
But with proper delegation of tasks and using Trello board, we were able to monitor and track every activity’s progress towards the event.
· Difficulty in having Virtual Rehearsals before the event
Rehearsals were necessary. Rehearsals could fine-tune any event changes, sort out any technical issues, and allow to fix any scheduling problems. While everyone moved to the office a day before the event for proper coordination, it gave us the time to see what was working and how we could do it.
Comments We Received
Event Learnings
What People Said About the Event
About Speakers
· K Hari Prakash, Ex — Senior Director, GIBS Business School
A highly experienced professional with accolades in global & leadership roles. He is a marketing & sales enthusiast who has worked as a strategic leader for several big brands like CEAT, Tata Motors and more. He is currently active as a coach & consultant at GIBS- Bangalore.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hari-prakash-karcherla-70347155/
· Dr. Lakshmi Vishnu Tunuguntla, Area Chairperson — IT & Professor, Goa Institute of Management
A highly qualified professional passionate about teaching & has contributed to GIM to consolidate the operations and IT area with cutting edge electives. He has executed several international assignments in IT process improvement which are transformational and strategic in nature.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-vishnu-tunuguntla-9470b16/
· Neil Barman, Chief Growth Officer, Yellow.ai
Neil has 20 years of experience in SaaS and direct-to-customer sales and marketing processes. He is one of the founding members of Sales Enablement society in India and Malaysia and Ambassador for Future of Sales — APAC community.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-barman-a9360832/
· Sourav Saha, Academic Dean, Praxis Business School
An experienced educator in Advanced Analytics having expertise across multiple domains like Digital Transformation, IoT & more. He is passionate about the application of ubiquitous technology for people at the bottom of their analytics pyramid.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahasourav/?originalSubdomain=in
· Siddharth Bhatter, Founder & CEO, Karkhana MakerSpace
A young leader passionate about coding and electronics creating innovative solutions for modern day problems. Founder of EdTech start-up Karkhana which aims at promoting STEM education at the grass-root level. He is an instructor with over 8 years of experience in curriculum development and educational content creation.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkbhatter/
· Kartikey Hariyani, Founder & CEO, Charge+ Zone
An entrepreneur by passion with experience across multiple domains focussing on green solutions like Green Hydrogen, EV Charging and more. With a high level of expertise, he has worked closely with government sectors & state departments.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kartikeyhariyani/
· Santosh Sagar Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO, CoffeeBeans Consulting
He spent the last 16+ years of working on cutting edge technology, building great products. Worked for 11 Years at ThoughtWorks, he helped building complex mission critical bespoke software solutions and systems for global companies.
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/santhoshsagarreddy/
· Mitesh Bulsara, Co-Founder & CTO, CoffeeBeans Consulting
He has worked with multiple clients in multiple domains — from Banking for major US banks to Image Processing for Olympus to Smart meters for Scottish Power to encouraging Less Paper in Cockpit initiative for Airbus. He also founded multiple start-ups including Motorpsychos (Renting Motorcycles) and HitchKey (Carpool solution).
Profile Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitbulsara/
Rahul Kumar
Associate Consultant, CoffeeBeans Consulting
