Aravind Santhana Krishnan, Manager – Business Development

Aravind Santhana Krishnan

Manager – Business Development

Cognizant Technology Solutions

Location
India - Bengaluru
Education
Master's degree, Masters in International Business Management MBA (IB)
Experience
12 years, 2 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :12 years, 2 Months

Manager – Business Development at Cognizant Technology Solutions
  • United Arab Emirates
  • March 2012 to April 2024

BFS Vertical - Commercial and Govt. Pursuits Practice SBUs
• Business Development for North America Banking Global client accounts - Retail, Corporate and Consumer Banking
• Business Development - pan-global Govt., state owned enterprise and quasi-Govt. organizations
• Account Support, Pursuits Management and Bids Support
• Opportunity spotting, Qualification Assessments and Go-no-Go decision support
• Consultative Sales initiatives - client / customer interactions
• Pricing preparations and commercial (Licensing) modeling of solutions
• Client / Customer Profitability analyses and presentations to Commercial Teams / Account Leadership
• Alignment with Service Lines - Solutioning, Resource Planning, estimations and pricing modeling
• Proposal structuring, writing and coordinating inputs from service lines
• Contributed to key extensions and new logo wins for the account teams

Market Delivery Unit responsibilities
• Contribute to SBU Practice Development, Knowledge Management and SBU reporting initiatives
• Analyses and adoption of technology market trends
• Practice utilization of emerging technology concepts - AI, ML, Cloud and Automation
• Knowledge management support through artifact updates and retention practices
• Sales pipeline management support and management reporting for account level updates

Delivery Management Experience
• Handled delivery coordination and project management for APAC BFS accounts' projects (2018-2019)
QEA SAP - Business and Project Delivery Management (prior to BFS experience)
• Business Development and pursuit support for Pan-global accounts across BFSI, MLEU and Retail clients / prospects
• Onsite assignment in SAP completed for a large Netherlands-based Insurance customer
• Handled offshore project delivery management for key retail domain customers - Canada and UK-based clients

Leadership and Professional development
• Deployed Soft and Endurance Skills in all work endeavors
• Effective Communication skills, Team Development (managing and motivating team members)
• Maintained constant client focus for achieving operational successes and excellence
• Relayed and imbibed Leadership Communication for professional / strategic collaboration
• Exhibited situational Leadership - took up proactive measures and built connects with account teams' / SLs' key PoCs
• Underwent trainings in technical- functional skills (SAFe Agile, SAP C&D etc.), soft skills (Franklin Covey Leadership etc.)
• Contributed as panelist in Corporate recruitments as well as Corporate Social responsibility (Outreach initiatives)

Marketing Manager at Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India limited
  • United Arab Emirates
  • June 2003 to July 2005

Club Mahindra Zest (New Product Development)
• Evolved a new holiday offering Club Mahindra Zest, targeting young urban families to be launched in the market as part of the strategic business unit initiative of MHRIL.
• Conducted Market research across the country: used tools & techniques such as conjoint analysis (with visual stimuli)
• Developed plans for market launch and product delivery of the proposed offering: Investment and profitability analysis, expected RoI, assets, financial model and operational sustainability
• Worked with research & consulting partners like AC Nielsen, McKinsey and Blackstone Market Facts to align new product plans with the laid-out corporate strategic plans
• Planned new product's marketing & sales launch, media, technology associations, brand communication & channel strategy
• Planned brand strategic alliances / tie-ups for product launch and ongoing events

Club Mahindra (Corporate)
• Successfully clinched tie-ups, joint promotional activities & sponsorships: marketing initiatives, events for Club Mahindra's premium holiday offering and the new product to be launched.
• Managed Channel partner development across geographies, marketing tie-ups & promotions (for sales worth INR 15 million)
• Business & Key Stakeholders analysis for implementation CRM software. Co-coordinated with KPMG consulting team for: o Identification of key processes: in-bound and out-bound process flows o Gap analysis between as-is and to-be processes for CRM o Shortlisting and selecting 'to-scale' CRM product options in the market o Conducting test-runs for handling change issues

Senior Product Executive at Kinetic Engineering Ltd
  • India
  • May 2001 to March 2002

Achievements:
• Created and managed breakthrough Brand Marketing plans for product portfolio of 5 moped brands and 1 brand of motorcycle from the Kinetic stable (Advertising, BTL and PR works) (corporate creative agency: Grey Worldwide, India)
• Formulated brand architecture & mapping, developed multi channel communications strategy: Print, TV, Radio and Digital
• Revamped corporate product brand identity with new positioning pointers & communication
• Independently handled budgets as part of campaign planning and activity schedules
• Monitored & analyzed campaign expenditures & related sales across markets in India
• Regularly provided market competition tracking and monitoring analyses to top management
• Managed corporate communication activities: dealer development, sales training collateral

Partial List of successfully completed nation-wide Marketing Campaigns:
• Kinetic Challenger Motorcycle Re-launch campaign - Brand Positioning, Campaign material, event planning & execution
• Created TV commercial for motorbike brand: Kinetic Challenger (Agency: Grey Worldwide)
• All-India Launch of Luna CVT, Luna Super 70 and Luna TFR mopeds (50 CC two-wheelers)
• RDDP (Rural Development and Demonstration Program) for Motorcycle and Moped brands in the Indian states of MP, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Vidarbha, AP and TN

Education

Master's degree, Masters in International Business Management MBA (IB)
  • at Symbiosis International University
  • April 2001

International Marketing as key elective - topper in Business Quiz

Specialties & Skills

People Management
Customer Relationship Management
Pricing Strategy
Proposal Management
Business Management
AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
AUTOMATION
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
COLLABORATION
CUSTOMER PROFITABILITY
LEADERSHIP
LICENSING
MANAGEMENT
PRESENTATIONS
RESOURCE PLANNING

Languages

English
Expert

Training and Certifications

2006 Six Sigma Green Belt Certified BSI British Standards Institute Management Systems (Certificate)
2007 SAP CRM Functional Consultant Trained at Siemens Information Systems Limited Certified by (Certificate)
2022 Certified SAFe 5 Agilist (Certificate)
2023 Agile Project Management Agile Delivery Trainings and Certification (Certificate)
2024 Generative AI Landscape and Environment evangelism PMI Certified (Certificate)

Hobbies

  • Technology Marketing, Foreign Languages, Public Speaking, Singing, Outdoor Sports
    Have won many prizes at School, college and Post-graduate level in singing, Quizzing, Literary Events