Gurpreet Singh: An inspiring story of growth through consumer electronics, automotive and data analytics, embracing and creating change.

In this episode we are celebrating the career to date of Gurpreet Singh.

Gurpreet is the Founder at 3rd Eye Consulting in Dubai in the U.A.E.

Born in India, he started his career in consumer electronics with LG before spending ten years in the Indian automotive market, first with Maruti Suzuki and then BMW. He seized an international opportunity to join Jaguar Land Rover in the UAE where he spent a further 7 and a half years until he left to start 3rd Eye.

3rd Eye aims to be the MENA region's Agency of choice when it comes to Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Media and CRO Services. They uncover insights that help clients take the meaningful decisions that matter most for their businesses. Their Tech partnerships with industry leading OEMs put them in the driving seat to bring cutting edge solutions and solve problems with the utmost efficiency. All this is done by a highly skilled, experienced and accomplished team who are on a mission to help their clients unlock the tremendous growth opportunities hidden beneath reams of data.

I had the pleasure to first meet Gurpreet when I was in India around 10 years ago and we have kept in touch.

I am grateful to him for sharing his life and career journey with me and look forward to hearing what resonates with you.

Connect with Gurpreet on LinkedIn: Gurpreet Singh

Email: gurpreet@3rdeye.ae
Website: 3rd Eye Consulting

Thank you to our sponsors:

ASKE Consulting 
Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

Aquilae
Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror 

If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app. 

Episode recorded on 23 November 2023.

Transcript

Gurpreet Singh: 0:00

At three months I was told I was the worst employee. There were 52 area managers at that time. And at the end of one year, I was sent to the corporate headquarters in Korea as the best performer of LG Electronics. Wow. So next nine months was just a roller coaster. I just locked my mind on not allowing myself to exit this company as a failure.

Aquilae: 0:25

Welcome to CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, the automotive podcast that goes behind the scenes with key players in the industry looking back over their careers to share insights to help you with your own journey. Here's your host, Andy Follows

Andy Follows: 0:57

Hello, listeners, Andy here. Thank you for tuning in. We appreciate that you do. We're also very grateful for our guests who generously join me to create these episodes so that we can celebrate their careers, listen to their stories and learn from their experiences. In this episode, we're celebrating the career to date of Gurpreet Singh. Gurpreet is the founder at Third Eye consulting in Dubai, in the UAE. Born in India, he started his career in consumer electronics with LG before spending 10 years in the Indian automotive market. First with Maruti Suzuki, and then BMW, he seized an international opportunity to join Jaguar Land Rover in the UAE, where he spent a further seven and a half years until he left to start Third Eye. Third Eye aims to be the MENA region's agency of choice when it comes to data analytics, business intelligence, media and CRO services. They uncover insights that help clients take the meaningful decisions that matter most for their businesses, their tech partnerships with industry leading OEMs, put them in the driving seat to bring cutting edge solutions and solve problems with the utmost efficiency. All this is done by a highly skilled, experienced and accomplished team who are on a mission to help their clients unlock the tremendous growth opportunities hidden beneath reams of data. I had the pleasure to first meet Gurpreet when I was in India around 10 years ago. And we've kept in touch. I'm grateful to him for sharing his life and career journey with me. And I look forward to hearing what resonates with you. Hello, Gurpreet and welcome. And where are you coming to us from today?

Gurpreet Singh: 2:36

Hello, Hi, Andy. Good evening. I'm coming from Dubai 630 for me in the evening. I'm pretty happy to be to be here with you today.

Andy Follows: 2:45

Well, thank you very much for joining me from Dubai. Let's start as I like to start where did your journey start? Where were you born?

Gurpreet Singh: 2:54

So I am from India. And I was born in New Delhi. It's been quite a nostalgic journey for me coming from New Delhi to Dubai, where I see a lot of Indians as well. But that's where that's where it started. And I think it's a journey, which is still pretty much in progress.

Andy Follows: 3:12

What can you remember about your family situation growing up? What were your parents doing? And did you have siblings? Or do you have siblings?

Gurpreet Singh: 3:22

Yeah, so I have a younger brother, who's now settled in, in the US. And my parents, both of them are working. So not something which was very common at that point in time, especially in India, where where, you know, I mean, we live in the world of gender equality these days, but it was not so common back in the day. And I was obviously a proud son of a mother who was working, who was also taking care of multiple responsibilities. So we did have both of us, me and my brother had a childhood looking at both of our parents working extremely hard. And when we reflect back on their journey, obviously our journey looks much easier, devoid of the kinds of hardships that they would have possibly seen in back in the day. What sort of, were they doing? So both of them were in the same office national hydroelectric power corporation is a semi government company. My father used to work on the engineering side my mother on the administration side so me and my brother have spent quite some time alone because you know, they would go to the office we will come back from school, open the house, do a couple of fights, you know, here and there. mess about each other. And by we used to throw quite some dirt around each other and you know, play in the park and the gardens anywhere where you have the memories.

Andy Follows: 4:37

And what about school, Gurpreet? What memories do you have of school? How were you as a student and more importantly, perhaps, how would your teachers have described you?

Gurpreet Singh: 4:46

I am not so fond of or rather I don't have too many memories. And this is a slight regret that I have. I think I did not make enough memories. I was very boring as a student. And when I say a student is boring, it also means that the students Does hard working. This is where sometimes I feel that I was a bit too serious in school, I was not a kid where a lot of people will come through, you know, a lot of kids will say, I want to be friends with this guy, because he's so funny or easy, so jovial he expresses himself. And that's something that I think I should have done a lot more when I was in school. So I did not make a lot of memories, I was just so much into studies. And I think I was trying to find success in the results and results, let's say in India, or any part of the world, but especially in India, that pointment you're scoring very well in your school, and you're doing well in examination. So I was basically very, very focused on that aspect of learning and

Andy Follows: 5:40

How competitive it was at school, and how much encouragement were you getting from your parents to try and excel at school?

Gurpreet Singh: 5:48

I was very competitive. Obviously, it gets competitive when you are competitive, you're always finding that reason to do better excel at what you're doing. But then the measurement of that competitiveness was being sought in the kind of, you know, what kind of marks what kind of scores are you getting, and I think that's a that's a flawed way of obviously looking at things because I guess at some point, I realised, and much later in my life, I realised that my actual learning did not happen in school, I just focus too hard on those cores. And I missed out on some of the aspects of learning, which probably, you know, when I look at stuff now, I'm much more curious. I'm much more inquisitive, I wasn't so inquisitive, back in the day back in this in high school, you know, I was always looking at, okay, if curiosity is going to take away so much time, I'd rather invest that time into scoring quick marks, you know, and that's something, it becomes like a process and it kind of consumed you. And very quickly before you know it, school days are over. And you know, you can't get them back. But that's a reflection that I have from my school and being highly competitive. Or at least in my eyes. I do remember that there was a girl who always used to come first, and I was the second one. And I always had something to chase. And I remember that it was either grade seven or eight, when I ended up being forced in the class. And I do remember feeling that I was completely lost. I didn't know, you know what to do, what do I have next as a target. I was always chasing targets, I was always chasing results. And that day was hard to explain. But I was completely lost. And this happened again later in my life and in my career. But I do remember this feeling very, very strongly from from those times.

Andy Follows: 7:31

Wow. So she was like your pace runner?

Gurpreet Singh: 7:33

Yeah, yeah, she was laying the road, you know, and I was basically running on that road very, very fast trying to catch her, you know, it's, it's always about beating her at this game. And when it did happen, it wasn't a good feeling. To be honest.

Andy Follows: 7:48

You lost your purpose, all of a sudden, I love this idea of you chasing girls, but for completely different reasons, if you like for in terms of academic success. Thanks for sharing that. And I think you did the right thing at the time. With the system that's in place, you did the right thing to progress and to be able to now find yourself where you are. And we'll talk about the journey from there to now. So what was your journey? When you came towards the end of school? What did you want to do? How clear were you about what direction to go in? And what did you actually do?

Gurpreet Singh: 8:23

At some point in my school, either at grade seven or grade eight, one of my teachers asked me, What do you want to do when you grow up? I had absolutely no clue of a lot of things at that time. But I did somehow answered that with a lot of precision. And my response was that I want to work with BMW one day. And the reason I said this was because just the day before, one of the teachers had asked me, What's your favourite country? And I had absolutely no clue at that time. So this is something I had to completely, you know, I had to make up. So I just said, Germany. And she said, Okay, why Germany? Now, I said, one of the most random things that I could have said, I said, just because it's starting with GE, and my name is with GE Euro. So I think I would like to be in Germany. And now when I went back, I obviously fell, you know, I like to reflect a lot. So when I went back from school, I said, Gosh, why did I say Germany? And you know, this is such a random answer. And at that point, I was also buying some posters. And you know, I was I was collecting some, some pictures of cars, and so on and so forth. And BMW, at that point was one of my favourite cars. So I say, Oh, this is also from Germany, and you know, it's stuck. And then next day, I said, I want to work with BMW when I grow up. Now, when I said it, obviously, I did not visualise it, you know, I always wanted to chase a dream, follow a target. Now, this somehow, in a very random way became my target. From there on it just stuck. And then anytime anybody would ask me What do you want to do when you grow up in life? And I had a ready answer, you know, I did not have to jog my memory, I did not have to think about it. I said, I want to be in Germany, I want to work with BMW. And they were very surprised at, you know, this kid who's got so much clarity about what he wants to do,

Andy Follows: 10:15

what sort of age would you have been good at, when you first blurted out this random vision or idea,

Gurpreet Singh: 10:22

I guess I was about 11 or 12, maybe. And then, since I logged in on my target, now, I was trying to find reasons to make this happen, you know, trying to justify, because this is not enough. My name starts with G is not enough to be in Germany,

Andy Follows: 10:36

it's not the most robust of reasons

Gurpreet Singh: 10:43

is again, not enough to work with that brand, or that company. So I started finding more and more reason, then along the way, I found many different reasons. And And what started to happen was that my infatuation with BMW started to grow. Obviously, there was no BMW in India at that time, they were not present, there were very few luxury cars, you know, they will I think, only Mercedes at some time, they were the first ones to come in. So they will, these cars are not there physically, it was just, you know, the pictures that I'd seen through some friends here. And then and I was just basically at the site, and you had no internet, you know, you did not have access to all these resources. So if there was ever a conversation or a talk about cars, you know, I would be very interested in anything to do with BMW, I would follow some of the races as well, if I can get a recording from somewhere on TV, you know, so it just grew from there. And then it continued to grow. And to a point where it just became a mission to kind of, you know, just get this done somehow, I do have very fond memories of when I landed up in the BMW offers, then I was sat at the at the reception for my interview, and before the interview. So all my family, my friends, anybody who knew me very closely, they started congratulating, they said, so how the first day and BMW i said, guys, I haven't been interviewed, yet, I'm just sitting at the reception, this is our command, this is, this is just going to happen, because nobody can stop you. We've been hearing this for years, there is no way that you are not going to work for this brand. You know, they're just going to see it right through. And there is nobody who can say no to a candidate like that, who's been thinking and dreaming and, you know, talking of a brand like that for so many years that we've known you for.

Andy Follows: 12:29

How old were you when you went for interview?

Gurpreet Singh: 12:31

I was 29 years. So yeah, it was a good 17 1819 Whatever years, since I first talked about it, and then it just stuck. Other than that, I had no clarity, you know, what do I want to eat for lunch? I don't know. Where do I want to go for university? I don't know. There were so many steps where I just didn't know

Andy Follows: 12:53

that one's fascinating. You pick that and you get reinforcing it. And eventually, you found yourself there. And we'll talk a little bit about what happened when you started. What had you studied? When you got to the end of school? What did you study?

Gurpreet Singh: 13:06

Yeah, so I went to university, I did my mechanical engineering. And I think that was the turning point for me in my life. Up till high school, I was living in a cocoon of security of, you know, the safety net that your parents provide. And being a shy kid at that time, not letting myself open Express, making a lot of friends. Not a very talkative guy at that point. So when I went to university, it was a completely different experience. Something that I feel is a pivotal point in my life from, you know, my parents coming in to trot in the university, I was one of the very few kids whose parents came at that age, you know, your 18 year old lad. So I do remember that I asked my dad to not leave me because I was just not used to it. So there was a hostel. And I did not let my parents go. So then my dad was a bit disappointed, because he wanted me to be my own man, you know, take care of my life. From here on, you're 18 years old, you know, go on. But I was I was very scared. And he stayed with me, by the way, in the in the hospital for a few days. You know, I think it was five days. And then he said, That's it no more. I'm going back, you know, whether you cry or not, I don't care. And I think I was the only kid in that hospital of 1000 Odd kids who were there. I was the only one that my dad. So he left me. And I think that's when I started to realise in the next few days, weeks and years, my very close friends, they saw me changing completely, and they've seen that change up close. And normally when you're with somebody, you're looking at them very closely on a daily basis. You don't realise that they are changing because you're looking at them every day. But then these guys still been my roommates after many years. They said the kind of chain that was happening with you on a daily basis. It was mind boggling. And I think I started to discover some of the later In our, let's say, the dome and aspects of my personality at that time, we just started to come out a nice way to express myself and I started to talk to people. And I started feeling comfortable with stranger than, you know, just completely different from my school, and I made so many memories in my university that we can go about for days and days in direct contrast to my school life.

Andy Follows: 15:22

Wow, it sounds like you really blossomed. And what were some of these characteristics that emerged during those four years, then?

Gurpreet Singh: 15:30

I don't know, I made 1520. Friends, you know, we're still friends all over the place all over the globe. So I made so many connections. And I realised that when you have connections, and you talk to people, there's always meaning behind that you should not be chasing an agenda when you when you're speaking with someone, because when you do that, the relationship doesn't last, when the transaction ends, the relationship also tends to end. And that's something that I realised after my university, and I started to work and you know, I started to forge those connections. So I always, at least right, from my point of view, that I'm, I'm not just speaking to people just for the transactional side of things, you know, it's also because there is some meaning in these connections in these dialogues and these conversations, and that's something that I started to realise. And, and I think that university allowed me to do that. So it opened me up, I found my expression. Yeah, so when I came out of university, I think I was prepared to enter the Doggy Dog world of corporate,

Andy Follows: 16:27

It sounds like you took a lot from that it's a lovely segment that in that passage of, of your life, to hear you describe it, and to imagine the personal growth, and you discovering the joy of connecting with other people, and the way you've described, it is beautiful. It's not a transaction, it's not about what's in it. For me, it's just about the joy of connecting with another human being and having a conversation. So thank you very much for letting us know about the transformation that you underwent at university and what impact that has had so coming out of university, what did you do work wise, you said, you've just entered the doggy you are ready to enter the Doggy Dog world of corporate or commercial life. So tell us about your entry to that world.

Gurpreet Singh: 17:20

Yeah, so I was prepared to you know, kind of come in, but I was still lost, I did not know what to do. Because obviously, there was no BMW in India even then. So you know, I beyond that, I did not know what to do so and my dad said, if you want to study, this is still good time, don't just rush into the world of working. And you know, once you start working, you'll never find time to study. It's very difficult people do that, because it's very rare. And

Andy Follows: 17:50

Was that because he had done that or because he hadn't been able to do that and recognised what an opportunity it is.

Gurpreet Singh: 17:56

So he had done that himself. So he had lost his father at a slightly earlier age. So he had to do both simultaneously, he was working and he was also studying and it was extremely hard for him. And out of that experience, he was saying that, you know, it can be done. But you know, you have the means and the resources to study more. So I will suggest you do that, unless and until you don't want to, it's your choice at the end of the day. But I would urge you to consider that. Don't rush yourself into the world of working. And I still had no idea. I spoke with my friends, you know, what are you going to be doing? In India, it was a lot of following the herd mentality of boss, the other guy doing what am I friends up to? And some of them said, you know, we are going to be doing master's in business administration, we are going for our MBA. At that point, this combination of engineering and MBA was a very sought after combination in the world of corporate. So all the companies were looking at these kinds of guys who bring these two together. But yeah, everybody was kind of following the norm. So I also started look at a few colleges again for my post graduation. And then I just decided to follow one of the friends very close friends, you know, so he said, I'm going to be going to this college, I'm going to be doing MBA, and I thought okay, here I come. So I just landed up in that college with him. We had a lot of fun in that college again, and that's where I found my wife. So those two years were in fact, again, very eventful, and also my life partner comes from there so they have a lot of meaning in my life. I don't know Andy if I can remember correctly, but if I will, then your seven habits training. She She embodies almost all of those habits and you know, when I was doing that, I've done seven habits twice. I think one of it was with you. So in the programme normally the trainer tends to ask, can you think of somebody who represents this habit in your daily life? So almost in every habit I was naming her was almost unbelievable. Then the trainer said that This is almost to the point of absurdity. You know, now it's a joke, obviously. Now I know you're making all this up, because how can somebody just talk about his wife all the time saying that he describes this habit to its entirety? So the reason I'm mentioning this is because I think I found one of the best partners that I could have in my life, because she then allowed me to grow even further in my life and my career in my thought process. I just found the perfect person in terms of balancing my reflections. And you know, so I talk to her all the time throughout the day, whenever I'm thinking, you know, I'm basically so I think, I think a lot. So when I'm talking, I'm also thinking, and that allows me to do a certain reflection, and then come up with some ideas. I start talking sometimes without that idea, but by the end of it, I'm absolutely clear on what's going around. So so that's my process.

Andy Follows: 20:55

Let me take a moment to tell you about our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by ASKE Consulting who are experts in Executive Search, Resourcing Solutions and Talent Management across all sectors of the automotive industry in the UK and Europe. I’ve known them for almost 20 years, and I can think of no more fitting sponsor for CAREER-VIEW MIRROR. They're the business we go to at Aquilae when we're looking for talent for our clients and for projects that we're working on. ASKE was founded by Andrew McMillan whose own automotive career includes board level positions with car brands and leasing companies. All ASKE consultants have extensive client-side experience which means they bring valuable insight and perspective for both their employer and candidate customers. My earliest experience of working with Andrew was in 2004 when he helped me hire Regional Managers for my leasing sales team at Alphabet. More recently, when Aquilae was helping a US client to establish a car subscription business, ASKE Consulting was alongside us helping us to develop our people strategy and identify and bring on board suitable talent. Clients we've referred to ASKE have had an equally positive experience. Andrew and the team at ASKE are genuinely interested in the long-term outcomes for you and the people they place with you. They even offer the reassurance of a 2-year performance guarantee which means they have‘skin in the game’ when working with you. If you're keen to secure the most talented and high potential people to accelerate your business and gain competitive advantage, do get in touch with them and let them know I sent you. You can email Andrew and the team at hello@askeconsulting.co.uk or check out their website for more details and more client feedback at www.askeconsulting.co.uk . ASKE is spelt A S K E You’ll find these contact details in the shownotes for this episode. Ok, let’s get back to our episode. So a very valuable couple of years not only academically but in terms of finding your life partner who sounds absolutely wonderful. And coming out of that then what happened there how what was the next step?

Gurpreet Singh: 23:07

So I was again, extremely competitive in my MBA, topping the class, but now this time around with a lot of fun, you know, it's it was not just about studies, it was also about exploring all the facets of, of life, making friends, you know, knowing people and so on and so forth. So, my university journey has been quite exciting. And that's where most of my memories were made. So I still tried to top everything that I did, and I did do that in MBA as a result of HR was placed on zero day now they call it zero day. I don't know whether that's

Andy Follows: 23:41

I don't know that term. No, what does that mean?

Gurpreet Singh: 23:45

So there are a few companies that basically get the privilege of coming before the actual placement season starts. And they get that privilege because they have a relationship with the university. They get access to all the best students, you know, so they do not want the placement season to start and you know, maybe sometimes the best of the best students are taken away and they don't get the pool choice. I got placed in LG Electronics they gave me an offer on zero day and I was distraught. LG Electronics was such a powerful brand and in that time in India, it was the number one consumer brand everybody wanted to work for them. highly prestigious, very big organisation. Every household had some LG product, but I was distraught because I wanted to be in automotive and I asked my academic director that I want to still interview for for some automotive companies. And he said no other other policy of the university once you place you out because you know every student needs one shot. So we cannot have multiple interviews going on. So you placed off Hugo and I was absolutely distraught at the idea of not being able to interview now for automotive companies with a regret Hi joined LG Electronics, I was not looking forward to it, but then if I look back now, it was the most challenging companies to work for. And this was not just my idea. In fact, six months into the organisation, there was a report in economic times, which is a which is the leading business newspaper in India, there was a report of the worst Companies to Work For from an employee standpoint, LG Electronics topped the list out of 1000s of companies in India, and most of the employees working in that organisation said was company to work for on various parameters. You know, basically, when we talk about work life balance, it was highly skewed in favour of work. Me me not being able to see my parents coming home at two o'clock at night, my parents leaving for work in the morning. So, it went on till the point we come to Sunday, and we meet on that day. And then I again for another six days, we don't see each other. So we started as 25 management trainees in LG Electronics 25 People from from various universities were hired in that year. So six months probation period in that organisation, and out of 25, only four were left at the end of six months, there were 21 people who had retired they had chosen to leave Exactly So, most of them had no job, but they still decided to leave LG Electronics because they could not continue. So, with

Andy Follows: 26:24

what you understand now go pray about business and systems and culture and so on What was the issue.

Gurpreet Singh: 26:32

So,LG Electronics as a as an organisation at that point was highly focused on on the sales delivery the entire organisation, it was oriented around sales, if you speaking with somebody, even from finance department, they are oriented towards sales, they would let go of certain processes to enable sales, the network team will take a few exceptions so that you can deliver sales results. So the whole organisation understood that. Normally, in big organisations, you will find checks and balances, where you know, the other other functions will say Hang on a second, you cannot do this. But in LG Electronics, nobody could say no to sales. So sales is basically the department which is dictating everything that you do.

Andy Follows: 27:13

This is music to the ears of some of our listeners, they're thinking, Yes, this is how the world should be. This is. But clearly it didn't work. Or it wasn't it wasn't great for employees,

Gurpreet Singh: 27:24

That is an environment, whether it's good or bad is just an opinion. You know, it depends on the relative degree of you as a person, how much can you tolerate? And how much can you adapt? Now, for me, it was always about trying to adapt to the environment, I think I was not very vocal in terms of expressing my disappointment of things, but rather looking at things that you know, if this is the situation, if I cannot change it, let me try and work around it. But still, I have to deliver because I could not just go away with the fact that all my life, I have been an achiever. And in this organisation in month three, I was told by my manager, that you are absolutely useless. Because you've come up with a bunch of degrees. And at that time in LG Electronics ever, not too many people who were highly educated, you know, they were educated, but they were not highly educated. Because ultimately they had to deliver sales numbers, you know, you did not need PhDs to sell that stuff, you know, you needed basic education, and then you go about doing your job. So I was the most, let's say, educated person in that sense in the office. So my manager ridiculed me in front of the whole office, he made me stand in the middle. And he said, this month three, you are absolutely nowhere close to delivering on your targets. And this is what happens when people just spend time studying all the time. And you know, but this is the real world. So what is the application of this knowledge that you've gathered all all these years, you've studied so much, but look at you, you were one of the worst performers. It brought tears to my eyes, you know, I just could not see myself as a failure. That was the first time that I realised that even after putting in so much work, and so called learning that I've been gathering, I'm still not prepared, I'm still not ready for this kind of an environment. And then I just went back and I, I started to now learn to live in this environment that I will now forget about all the learning that I've done. Here is a bold, and I need to pick up some nuggets, some pieces of information and knowledge and learning from here as to what is required to succeed here. I mean, I also look at it from a feeling of pride because at three months I was told levels, I was the worst employee. There were 52 area managers at that time. And at the end of one year, I was sent to the corporate headquarters in Korea as the best performer of LG Electronics. Wow. So next nine months was just a roller coaster. I just lost my mind on not allowing myself to exit this company as a failure. You know, I said Okay, forget about everything that I've learned. And let me just read human myself rehash myself to this environment. And I will now do what it takes to succeed here. And I just went absolutely maddening pace and you know, focus at everything that I'm doing. And in the next nine months, the results that were coming in, were absolutely astounding, I could still never do my target. So So I was the highest, I was still not doing my targets, I was close to that. You can never do your targets in LG Electronics, or let's say in that company, or, you know, they are very ambitious the way they design their targets, but, but I was beating everyone in the game. So.

Andy Follows: 30:30

So what were some of the things you said he had to forget about everything you'd learned in terms of models? And I can imagine all the theoretical concepts she'd brought from your MBA and so on. So what was it you had to forget about? Or what was it rather that you had to adopt? What new practices did you have to adopt or mindsets to get yourself to number one,

Gurpreet Singh: 30:48

so I was in the in the highly challenging mobile handsets, division, LG never used to sell handsets, even known for the TVs for their refrigerators, for the ACS, etc, the white goods. And they launched this new division of mobile phones highly, highly challenging, so nobody knew about it. But then I realised that I could use the existing network of white goods, because LG was a number one company in that in that area. So they were, they were the brand leader, they were selling the most amount of TVs, most number of refrigerator bases, everything, the mobile phones for the struggling division, so I started to ride on the existing network. And I started to use the existing set of area managers who are handling the white goods and the and the network around it. So using them, we started to place mobile phones and every existing network, and I started to take decisions. I think, when you're young, you're always following. So the headquarters tells you to do certain things in a certain way. And when they don't work, they immediately blame me. And I realised that it's been a few months of this, right. So they are telling me to do this is not working. And then I'm the only one to blame. But I'm just following what you're telling me. So I decided to take decisions, right? So if I'm being judged on the results, I will do what it takes to get these results. So take the ownership of the whole thing. Now. I started to become very creative, in terms of selling those mobile phones, I remember, we did a campaign where LG had computer system, then there was some very nice speaker, very nice output. I went to the PC team. So I said, Look, guys, you have a load of inventory of this audio system is not selling, why don't we bundle this up with the mobile phone. If we run a campaign where you get rid of your inventory, I give an offer which has never been done in the market. You know, so when when these guys obviously we're thinking, you know, this is nuts. This is a nonsense, how would somebody want to buy something like this, they are looking at a mobile phone, not speakers, but they still did it because both were desperate, I was desperate, they were desperate. And ultimately, when we did it, it just flew. And everybody was looking at LG mobile phones and you know, the number started to quadruple every day and you know, so it just it just snowballed into something. And, and in our region, we started to do numbers, which were never done before. So there were there was obviously creativity involved, there was decision making involved there was, you know, existing network, the strength of the network. I mean, doing a lot of things, I was not asking anybody for guidance, you know, I was still looking at, but I knew that there are not too many people who will tell me what to do in this environment. So I have to use the network, but they are not going to tell me but they are going to enable some of my work. Now to do that work, the decision has to be taken by me, they are not going to say good preview, you should take these speakers and run a campaign. But if I take this decision, they're going to help me in that decision. And I can enable that. So kind of putting all this together, you know, finding ways to kind of sail through and I was quite happy when I left LG on my own terms.

Andy Follows: 33:53

I love that story. And thank you for sharing what you actually did and took ownership and had some creativity and decided you were going to make some decisions and not just be blamed every month for the fact that their plan from headquarters wasn't delivering. So you're just saying sorry you were when you left LG

Gurpreet Singh: 34:11

Yeah, so I was I decided to leave LG it was actually a bittersweet moment because I was living the life I was you know killing it. I was I was the number one performer it was just a year and a half the point of exit came when I had to marry now you know my to be wife she said or rather she not she but her parents you know, they were eager they say you know you guys like each other just get sorted because you know, just get married. So this is also something that Indian families like to do very quick. So that's when I decided that I cannot do that unless and until I'm out of LT because you know I'm I have no personal life here. I will not say I was happy but I was I was writing on my success. You know, I was in that organisation now. Nobody was pointing fingers at me. They were giving my examples. I was kind of now becoming to some extent But role model for the newcomers who were coming in because people had a very low shelf life analogy. So there was always a churn which was happening. And a few guys who are under distress, the whole was talking to me, you know, how do we recover from this, and I will always sharing my story because I had been there. And I was trying to help them. And I spoke to so many guys. And you know, I could still see that sometimes at work, but most of the times, they still did not work, because I'm a big believer, and you have to go through the grind yourself, right? And I mean, you can listen to somebody, but at the end of the day, you still have to experience it yourself. And so that's when I left LG, there were two reasons. The first one that I was getting married. The second one that I found a job in an automotive company. Yeah, so that was Maruti Suzuki is more known as Maruti in India, because it's almost a homegrown brand, even though you know, it's a joint venture with Suzuki, but it's their own thing, right. So it's so big. They sell, I don't know, 200,000 cars every month. Wow. They are massive. Like the volumes don't make any sense. When you have any outside India when you're in India, you feel there's always when you're in sales, there's always that pressure that by you selling for less, why you just selling 200,000 cars a month, right. So we have a new see from outside inspector. So that's that's what happened. And, and I was obviously excited at the fact that I was not looking forward to Maruti as such as I will look into the prospect of using this experience to pave my way to work with BMW at some point that I was logged in into this for many, many years. So fast forward five years in Maruthi. And then I did end up working in BMW. The day, I got selected in BMW, I was obviously very, very happy. But in the next few days, same feeling came back, you know, every time in my life, when I ended up achieving something that had so much desired. And then I started to feel that what's just happened now, what's next for me. And I think I spent about five years in BMW. And for those five years, I had no clue of what's coming next for me, I was the most lost in my life, because for 18 or 19 years, like I said, I've been dreaming of this. And now it's happened. And now it's manifested. So what do you do after this. And they came came in a point where, you know, one learning that very strongly coming to me was my transition from my school to my university. And I realised that even though I never wanted to let my parents go, eventually I blossom when they went away, we talk about change all the time, we obviously read about it changes good, it brings you out of your comfort zone. But then when you read it, you don't feel it. But when you go through it, that's when you so that's where I started to feel in BMW that you know, if I do not create another change, and this is now where I would say I've lived two lives and this is my third life. So my my first life was no change, full security, safety, you know, a cocoon, my second life where I did not have absolute security and safety to some extent, and some forced change on to me. And now is my third life where I am currently, you know, where I do not wait for change anymore. So this started with BMW, I think when I was in BMW, I started to think that earlier, I have waited for change. And you know, I build the tenacity to say that, okay, if change comes, I will accept it, I will embrace it. We talk about embracing change all the time. And I started to think What about, I do not even wait for it, and I start to create it. Because if it's not coming, then I can't wait. I'm just a bit too restless now. So now I evolve. And I develop this feeling and this mindset, very, very often in my practice in whatever I do. So very happy days in BMW, obviously the most exciting time the best of cars, whatever I could dream of, you know, whatever I could experience and drive and whatnot. And obviously going to Germany, my dream country

Andy Follows: 39:02

was it as good as you had expected. When you went to Germany,

Gurpreet Singh: 39:04

I did have I will say I had a lump in my throat. I'm not joking when I landed in Germany, because you have no reason right? But you do remember that you said something like this so many years ago, like decades, and the plane lands in Munich. And I'm like, I've got a lump in my throat. Really, I'm in Germany now. God sake, I mean, this is something that I could never believe and it had just become too big. You know, that it can never happen. It's just like a fairy tale imagination, all of those things. Otherwise, if somebody asked me what's so special about Germany, you know, it's just an emotional reason nothing else.

Andy Follows: 39:38

You made it special. Yes. of layering, thought upon for comment, a bomb comment and you turned it into something huge for you.

Gurpreet Singh: 39:47

Yeah, so it was amazing. I mean, I absolutely loved my time in in BMW and then yeah, after that, I realised that a change has to come. I still love the automotive industry. What can we do? What What else is there to look at? So at that point, I started to feel that maybe, maybe I'll look outside India, I want an international assignment. I want to explore some other markets, I want to gain experience. And this is where Jaguar Land Rover came in. And you know, I got an assignment with them in Dubai,

Andy Follows: 40:17

how did you actually go about that? Because that's, you said it very quickly, as though it was very straightforward. But once you decided, right, I need to create some change for myself, because it's not happening. That how did the JLR opportunity arise? What did you do? What was the process for getting yourself onto that and out to Dubai?

Gurpreet Singh: 40:37

Actually, nothing's come to me on its own, you know, and this is also something that I don't think anything comes to you. It's only when you design it right? At least in my experience, I've always designed my work with BMW will also design. So when I was working with Maruti and I'll go back to BMW because this is interesting. So, I wanted to work for BMW, I call up their headquarters as soon as they arrived. And I was told there is no vacancy and and this was a bit surprising, obviously, you know, you just come in, how can you not be hiring and then I was also told that you know, looking at candidates from the mass industry, you work with Maruti is not luxury, here, we are looking at luxury industry, so, and I was not ready to accept this, because, you know, they don't know your story. So that conversation ended, but I was not prepared to obviously accept this because I had been, you know, there was no way. So now I have to design this, right. So this is where I found out that there is a person in BMW who's now buying a Maruti. And this information was relayed to me by one of my dealers that I was going through the inquiry list, I was in sales, and I spotted this, you know, this person is buying a BMW so so okay, I'll personally look into this. And, you know, we'll make sure that there's absolutely fantastic experience and all of that. So I did do that I did work for my switch to BMW, I made a connection with that person. And I told him a bit about me, that this is something that I've been dreaming of forever, and I do need a shot at something. And I cannot believe that the organisation is not hiring. So he said, No, obviously, we are hiring. We are a new company. And, you know, let me see if there's some vacancy, which comes around, and in a few days, I do get a call from the same person because I was chatting with them, you know, so there was this network that I developed with them. We were chatting, while yes, I mean, he did play a big role in in terms of at least, informing me that there is an opportunity, and that's when I went back to the same office, I spoke to HR, obviously, you did not remember that, I was told that I'm not fit for this organisation. So that's how it started. So I to design the whole thing for myself.

Andy Follows: 42:42

I love it. I love the level of ingenuity and ownership.

Gurpreet Singh: 42:46

I mean, you, I feel if you will lock down to your results. And I've always worked like that. I kind of triangulate my result, my goal, my purpose, my objective. And then I try to find ways to kind of go about the, this has been like a mechanism which I practice. And I don't think just by being passionate about something, you know, and when we say we are passionate about something, I think we are saying that we are making efforts to make that happen, not just a feeling right, so it also translates into actions. You're

Andy Follows: 43:19

making me think of a phrase that I don't know where I picked it up, Gurpreet but it's simply, what else could I do? And it's that when you hit a roadblock, you know what you want to do, and you hit an obstacle or a dead end. And the first thought that comes to mind is what else could I do? What else could I do? And I remember working with salespeople, or anyone who seems to be comfortable with getting to a dead end and thinking, Oh, I did it. I tried to thing you said and this is what happened I got to a dead end as if that's job finished. To then impart Well, what else could you do? What else could you do?

Gurpreet Singh: 44:03

But the dead end is always in your mind. It's not out there. It's it's when you decide this is the dead end. It's the dead at this simply as simple as that.

Andy Follows: 44:10

Yeah. I'm really grateful that you're sharing, you know the details of what happened and how you got into those positions. Because this flushes out that level of ownership, the level of commitment and perseverance that is often happening behind the scenes with people who are navigating what looked like good journeys.

Gurpreet Singh: 44:31

I suffer from over expressing myself. So pardon me for that. But yes, I think if

Andy Follows: 44:37

no, no, not at all. I was genuinely I want guests to tell me. I want to know the nitty gritty. I want to know what the conversation was because that's the bit that people otherwise don't get to hear. They see you go from Maruti to BMW. They have no clue what happened and the fact that you actually had to really persevere to get in that's that's helpful, I think and also that you don't accept if HR tell you we don't have this need, thank you very much. You don't say, Oh, right. They don't have that need. You say, Well, they must have. That's ridiculous. That's not feasible to admit

Gurpreet Singh: 45:13

there are two ways to look at it. Right. One way is that you, you're disappointed, but I think I was driven to such an extent that when I was told that there is no need, I almost bended I almost ignored it. It had no space or no place in my head. Yeah, as if I did not even hear it. I was like, Okay, let's find another way to get in here. Because there is no way you know, I'm not going to work for BMW. Yeah, it was asked here that's in my head

Andy Follows: 45:39

is a perfect example of okay, so thanks for that. What else can I do? You're not my route. What else can I do?

Gurpreet Singh: 45:46

And quite a similar thing with Jaguar Land Rover, as well, not as dramatic, not as difficult, I will say. But again, it was not something that came to me obviously, it was it was again, something that I had to design. And I did. And I landed up in Dubai, and worked there for seven years.

Andy Follows: 46:01

How did you design that one.

Gurpreet Singh: 46:03

So there was, I would give an example quickly. So Emirates Airlines, they buy a fleet of luxury cars for the limo service for the limousine service in all the countries and you know, for their business class, etc. So generally, they buy Mercedes. And at that point in time, when I was in BMW, they were again out in the market to buy a few 100 cars for their business class passengers. And I started speaking with them and pitching BMW now, we knew that they traditionally by Mercedes, but they were still out with a with a tender with RFP and whether they they really wanted to buy BMW or Audi or even consider them only they would know. But again, you know, they will, they will still do a tender. So I worked on that for more than a year. And I was absolutely behind that deal. Because it was a very prestigious deal. You know, and I being in corporate sales at that point. It was also for my career, you know, and for my my drive, it was important, you know, to have Emirates on the portfolio. So I was absolutely behind that deal. And I did mobilise a lot of resources, network, from trainings from meeting Emirates people in the mobility provider, the rental company, etc. Basically, everybody who was involved. And at the same time, I had also started to look out in terms of opportunities. Now, the people who were on Jaguar Land Rover side, they were speaking with Emirates, the I was speaking with Emirates, so somewhere, they also heard about me in Dubai. And now, at that point in time, there was no corporate sales department, or let's say, corporate sales manager. So they were looking outside. And that's where something like this happened, where a common connection kind of said that, by the way, we are speaking with them in India, and you know, the sky, and I also happen to reach out to these guys at the same time. So it was like two things happening at the same time. So I get a call from the JLR headquarters in Dubai. And we started talking and it happened very quick, you know, within a month, I was in Dubai. Wow. So, yeah, that was start of a new journey for me, obviously, very exciting to be out of out of India and exploring, you know, it was like, again, going from school to university. So from India to the world, because I had only known India, you know, until that time, so I was I was going to university now I was I was basically ready for a new experience with a multinational crowd, Dubai as a place, which has obviously, so many, I think, the most number of nationalities in the world. And that started and, you know, since then, it's been a fantastic journey in Dubai. And now it's my ninth year. Yeah, so, almost seven plus years with Jaguar Land Rover flew by quick lot of learning again, I had to also let go of a lot of learning because you know, I was coming from, I will say, a market which was much more dynamic and competitive to a market, which was very different, the dynamics of the market are different. When you come to a market like this, sometimes you have to downscale you have to pace with the market dynamics, and adapt, you have to blend in with the environment. Because if you are operating at a different platform, and the market is operating at a different platform, then obviously you will not make sense, you know, you're not thinking you're not wiping in with the cultural aspect of the market. So you have to adapt to the dynamics. And this is why I say that, okay, this not needed this not needed, you know, and I have to pace myself in such a way that I am in in sync with what the market expects out of me.

Andy Follows: 49:27

That word sync is very much synchronising the two sides, really so making sure that what you're doing is in sync with what the market wants,

Gurpreet Singh: 49:36

I think it was, again, an experience of you need to know all the levels, you know, you need to have the capability to operate at all levels. And you just have to pace up or face down accordingly to the to the you know, to kind of situational awareness it's about trying to not change the environment, but trying to adapt to the environment. And also, if you're logged onto the results. I mean, that will get you results faster because you were you focused on the results and not not basically changing the external factors and everything around it. And I think it was, if if Dubai would not have happened to me, I would have possibly not even had the courage to do what I'm doing today. Because

Andy Follows: 50:18

so you've learned in your Dubai phase you grew? Again, I'm not surprised now. Now I know what I know about your journey. So far, I'm not surprised that you disrupted yourself again, if you like and decided to move away from JLR. You're saying that your time in Dubai, you continued to grow. And that enabled you to do what you're doing now? Is it time to talk about that, go for it, then leaving JLR? And

Gurpreet Singh: 50:44

I guess I brought a lot of things together, you know, not embracing change, but creating change, this became one of my life principles. Another one was to identify my values. Who am I as a person? You know, I struggled with that for many years. But my wife told me, what are my values? I think it's easier for somebody who's watching you day in day out. So she's the one who said to me, she said, I will tell you what are your values, and just see if this makes sense. And it made absolute sense. I realised that I was not able to put words to it, I was not able to articulate it. But within myself, I knew what are my values, I was very happy to give words to them. Can I ask you what they are? For me, fairness has been extremely important. And when I say fairness, it transcends it extrapolates to a lot of areas personally, professionally, you know, fairness, you play hard, and you fight hard, you know, you do not try to gain undue advantage. And also you do not accept those kinds of situations given to anybody else, you know, you you want an equal playing field, obviously, the world doesn't operate like that. But fairness is an extremely hard value to live by, because it puts you to a grinding test almost on a daily basis. And I am find myself at those junctions almost on a daily basis, I will not lie about it being honest. I do try to not cheat myself when I'm at those junctions, because it's very easy, you don't even come to know about it, you know it's a bias, you justify the actions that you take. And you feel that no, this is extremely fair. But no, it's only fair to you not to the other person. And that's not the definition of fairness. So I question it almost on a regular basis that it should never be about me, it should be about all the parties involved. And if that's happening, if everybody's saying this is fair, it is fair, it's very hard to do, I think one of the most difficult values to live by,

Andy Follows: 52:39

it does sound like a difficult one.

Gurpreet Singh: 52:41

And the other one is, I can't say if it's a value or not. But I and most of the people suffer from procrastination, you know, delaying stuff. And I've realised that whenever there's such a situation, you just got to ask yourself one question, is this something that you will be able to do without if you ignore it? And if the answer is no, then do not even delay it by one second, just do it immediately. Because, you know, we hear about eating the frog, and I keep talking about it also to my team, sometimes with customers. So if you realise that frog is the only food that you're gonna get, and it's essential for your survival, then I will say, eat it when it's young. Because if you eat it, after two days, it's going to be stale number one, it's also probably going to be a little bigger. So it's going to be more difficult, if you decide to eat it, after five days, is not just going to be stale, it's also going to be rotten, maybe it's dead. So decide whether you're going to eat a young healthy frog or a dead rotten frog. In either case, you got to eat it, eat it now, you know, I love it. So I try to practice it comes with a lot of pain. Obviously, every time I have this feeling, I see that frog, but I just put it down my shove it down my throat, you know, it's got to be done. So that's something that I try and practice. And just trying to also be honest with yourself, this is the third one, you know, I'm trying very, very hard to do that. And I express it now very frequently. There are times when you just go around, and you try to say something in a way, which makes things easier sometimes, you know, I'm a very direct person I, I have disrupted relationships because of being too direct. But eventually those people have I think somewhere they they also appreciate the fact that it is what it is and you know, at least I told them. So that's something that I still do, even though it creates a lot of pain on either side, sometimes most of the times stress and relationships, but I still try to live by that. So so all the values, I guess when you discover them, and when you decide that no matter what, you're not going to find shortcuts on them. Life does tend to become very hard, very difficult. You know, it's not easy. I don't want to advocate this because it does make life very serious, very difficult. But to me, it gives me great joy and satisfaction that when I feel that I don't have anything to hide. It's very liberating for me, and I think the more I I'm going ahead in my life, I'm feeling that it's helping me in some way.

Andy Follows: 55:04

Excellent. So this was part of the growth that you experienced in your Dubai years with JLR. And then you took a lot of this, all this learning from your whole life experience and career experience, and you decided to make another, another change. So tell us about that.

Gurpreet Singh: 55:21

Yeah, the domain that I work in now, this is a data analytics company, very, very different from anything that I've done in my life in my career, you know, most of my career spent in automotive in the commercial side of business. And this is something which is supposedly technical. And I do use the word technical, because you're not techies or tech, people who are non tech, the word tech is very scary. And it does tend to bring, you know, oh, my God, this is rocket science. And to some extent it is. But then I think one of the reasons that I could possibly think of doing this is also because I realised that everything is scary, till the time you are in it. It's been almost two years for us in this journey. And I think you're not doing too bad. You're still not stabilised in that sense. And I think I will never be stable, I will never, I will never settle down, possibly in that sense. But again, we are finding ways and we do find ways to keep it going. And not just keep going. I mean, I do not have a vision of survival. I have a vision of excellence, you know, when you're operating from a survival mechanism, then you're taking decisions, you're taking actions, which are not good. Generally, you know, you're panicking. But my vision is of excellence, it's not even survival. I mean, there is, again, no question in my head, whether this will work or not, you cannot operate from that mindset or that principle? How would you

Andy Follows: 56:42

describe this vision, to help us understand what it is you do, and what the business does and where it's heading.

Gurpreet Singh: 56:49

So we are a data analytics company. And as we progress in this world, you know, I think everything is about data. When I speak with customers, I ask them, you know, what do you do? What is your business into, let's say, if you're speaking with a car manufacturer, and they say, We are into the business of selling cars, you could be into the business of selling cars today. But tomorrow, you are going to be in the business of data. And if you're not going to be in the business of data tomorrow, then you're going to be non existent, because it is going to be so important for your sustenance. And when I say data, data around everything, because without data, you will not be able to take any decision going forward, data will enable decisions. So just to give you a simple example, data around your customer, you know, do you know your customer, to the extent what data tells you not the gut feeling, not the, you know, gone are the days when when salespeople wouldn't know the pulse of the market, they will know the gut feel all of those words that we use to use, just because for scaling and operation, you know, your gut can only do that much. And once you're scaling, then data takes over. And data has the ability to give those insights which will enable decision. So we are into the world of data. And I think the entire world, all the businesses have to be into data. Obviously, when I realised that data is something which is not going to go away, it is only going to be a bigger frog. So again, same principle, you know, it was hugely scary for me, it still is. But if a decision is is about, you know, it cannot be dictated from a fear psychosis. It's got to come around from an opportunity. Obviously, there is a risk plan, you know, how can I mitigate that risk? How can I make sure that I'm not taking wild decisions, putting that mental model in a way, which doesn't take you back to survival mode every now and then? And then taking some decisions? Finding solutions? So so let's say when I speak with my team, and we say, what are we trying to do? Essentially, we are a solutions company, when a customer tells us that this is the problem. Generally, in the world of tech, there is a very common habit of talking about technology very quick, for example, you know, somebody from my team would say we are a partner of Google, Google Analytics is one of the best products you should deploy it. And you know, it will give you fantastic measurement of your data, and you will be able to take decisions based on that data. There is another way of doing this, you know, so I feel that Google Analytics or any kind of tech is obviously there to help you. But if you do not know, what is the real problem, so let's say when I was selling cars, I also saw salesman who immediately started to talk about the horsepower, you know, the torque, zero to 60 02 100, stuff like this. But sometimes the customer who's listening to this, he's saying that I have to generally use it for my family for our commute. And he's not thinking about it wanted but we are talking about talk and other stuff because we are just obsessed with the product and we have to say everything. So essentially my training even at that point to my teams and salespeople in the dealerships was we are not selling cars, we are selling solutions, we are selling mobility, we are selling a convenience to the customer from point A to point B and now we have to fit the product in a way that takes most of the boxes Within that solution, so bringing this example back into this world, now, again, we have various technology. But I do feel that people tend to become slaves to technology, they take tech, and they start to operate around tech, which is, in my view, not the right way, you have a problem. And we should understand the problem and devise a solution. And now try and see which tech will support the solution. So tech always have to have a lower place underneath the solution to kind of enable it and not the other way around that we are creating solutions for tech.

Andy Follows: 1:00:33

So it sounds like you spend longer exploring the problem with your customers, really understanding the problem and identifying the solution. And then and only then deciding what kind of tech is going to enable that solution.

Gurpreet Singh: 1:00:46

Andy there's one thing, which my wife has been telling me for a very long time that you have a consultant in you, and I have not been listening to her. So you know, she's made sure that I know what's what's next in my career, if I'm not doing it, you know, I should start doing it immediately. But that's been something that I've been doing forever. You know, in my career, I have always been doing consultative selling, I've never been doing product selling or just basically shoving what we have to a customer straight away. It cannot be just about me that I have this product, and I will send it to you. It always has to start from you on the other side, what do you need. And then if we are able to create a common win for both of us, it's only then that the relationship will grow and you know, it will last forever. Otherwise, we will just end up doing a transaction. And that's it. And the transaction is over and beyond to our separate ways. So

Andy Follows: 1:01:37

sounds very much like if we're going to reference the seven habits, it sounds very much like habit for think Win Win and mutual benefit long lasting relationships based on mutual benefit. Can I just check, I want to make sure that we make it really clear if people are listening, what are some of the kinds of projects that you get involved in what are the sort of customer types where it would make sense for them to contact you if they want, they want to have a conversation with you about how you might help. So we

Gurpreet Singh: 1:02:07

work with a lot of domains industry domains, airlines, banking, retail, e commerce, you know, any business which is primarily b2c in nature. And we target a lot of marketing outcomes in our solutioning. So marketing outcomes to do with customer journeys, customer audiences, segments, designing those journeys, and everything around it. So so basically across the marketing funnel, and across the journey, customer journey, we have various solutions. And we work with a variety of industries. We also work with some organisations which are which are b2b in nature, just because it doesn't matter whether it's b2b or b2c, if there is a problem, and we have the intention to help them we find a solution. So this is not something that we were doing initially, obviously, my team also had a certain amount of resistance, because traditionally, we had been doing b2c. But again, I mean, if there is an expertise, and we can be inventive, and still use our skills to kind of bring it into the b2b domain, then why not? So we started to work around that. And we had a fair amount of success doing that as well. So now we are progressing in that area, also. But yes, we work with airlines and banks and many other so we've got a good client base in the Middle East and also beyond. Now, we are a global supplier to some organisations, and how could I not work with automotive so now we work with almost 25 automotive brands in the Middle East OEMs basically all the automotive brands that you can think of as

Andy Follows: 1:03:33

fantastic, what a lovely little aspect of the story. Congratulations on that and we'll put the details we'll put your LinkedIn we'll put email we'll put company website in the show notes to the episode so is there anything I haven't asked you Gurpreet that you'd like to just have an opportunity to comment on or have I covered? Have we covered covered everything?

Gurpreet Singh: 1:03:54

No, I think I'm fairly happy with almost I think you made me reminisce on on a lot of periods which possibly I wouldn't have done in a long time. But this is for me more about reconnecting with you Andy, because I think what you are doing is so focused on the others and not only yourself that it makes me feel that why am I not contributing to this aspect? So it's not about me being in the centre stage here you know, is I think more about you and I still want to ask you how do you do it and why do you do it?

Andy Follows: 1:04:25

Well, I'm very grateful for you joining me because this doesn't work if I don't have a guest you you have played a remarkable role in this episode. So thanks ever so much for joining me and for sharing so openly your story it's been an absolute pleasure.

Gurpreet Singh: 1:04:45

Thanks for this wonderful to be speaking to you want again. Bye bye.

Andy Follows: 1:04:49

Bye bye. You've been listening to CAREER-VIEW MIRROR with me. Andy Follows depending on your unique life experience where you find yourself right now and your personal goals, you'll have your own takeaways from Gurpreet's story. Some elements that stood out for me were he's been results focused from a very young age. That sense of being lost he talked about when he finally overtook the girl at school whose results he'd been trying to keep up with, how much he blossomed at university and how much he grew during those four years, how he decided at an early age and almost randomly that he wanted to work at BMW and how he finally made that happen. His father's supportive guidance to carry on studying whilst he had the opportunity, securing not only an MBA, but also a wife from that two year programme, the story of him being ridiculed at LG, and then turning the situation round to be the number one area manager. His decision to leave LG to be able to commit to his marriage, getting his first automotive role with Maruti Suzuki, being told he wasn't suitable for BMW but finding another way in creating a reputation for himself on the Emirates deal with the result that his name was passed to JLR in Dubai. That leading to his first international role and seven more years of growth with JLR and Gurpreet again taking the decision to not just embrace change, but to create it if it's not happening fast enough, so that he's now building his own business in Dubai. I'm proud to have shared Gurpreet's experiences and learnings with you. If you'd like to connect with Gurpreet we'll put his contact details in the show notes to this episode. If you enjoy listening to my guest stories, please could you do me a favour and share an episode with someone you lead parent or mentor or perhaps a friend of yours who you think would also enjoy listening? Thank you to Gurpreet for joining me for our conversation. Thank you to our sponsors for this episode, ASKE Consulting and Aquilae and thank you to the CAREER-VIEW MIRROR team without whom we would not be able to share I guess life and career stories. And above all, thank you to you for listening