Asha Kharga, Chief Customer & Brand Officer of Mahindra Group | TBCY
- The mission and impact of Mahindra’s “Kaabil” platform aimed at skilling and job placement for women.
- The strategic principles behind Mahindra’s core philosophy, “RISE.”
Podcast
Overview
Empowering Women and Building Future-Ready Brands: Insights from Asha Kharga of Mahindra Group
Welcome to another enlightening episode of “The Brand Called You” (TBCY) Podcast! In this episode, host Ashutosh Garg is joined by Asha Kharga, the Chief Customer and Brand Officer at Mahindra Group, who brings a wealth of experience from her distinguished career across different industries. This episode is packed with insights about purpose-driven branding, customer experience, and the critical role of women in the workforce.
Asha Kharga’s Career Journey and Expertise
Asha Kharga’s illustrious career spans across notable organizations such as J. Walter Thompson, Unilever, and Access Bank, leading her to her current pivotal role at Mahindra Group. Her journey reflects a robust blend of creative strategy, consumer insights, and corporate branding. Asha eloquently discusses how her earlier roles shaped her expertise in understanding consumer needs and the importance of internal alignment within a company.
The Kaabil Initiative: Skilling Women for the Workforce
A primary highlight of this episode is the “Kaabil” initiative, a platform designed to skill and job place women, underscoring Mahindra’s commitment to integrating more women into the workforce. Asha passionately explains how the platform, whose name implies being job-ready, aims to empower women economically and socially. This initiative is part of Mahindra’s broader commitment to enhancing women’s workforce participation, aiming to skill one million women by 2027.
Corporate Social Responsibility: FICCI Committee for Women Empowerment
As the Chair of the FICCI Committee for Women Empowerment in 2024, Asha discusses her focus on promoting women’s roles in the workforce and various skilling initiatives. She shares exciting news about a study funded by the Leeds Foundation and McKinsey, set to launch in early January, delivering corporate report cards on female workforce representation. These efforts emphasize Mahindra’s dedication to fostering gender equality and empowering women at the grassroots level.
Branding and Corporate Philosophy at Mahindra
Asha elaborates on integrating value creation into a purpose framework, highlighting that doing good and generating profit are equally important for corporations today. She underscores Mahindra’s core philosophy, “RISE,” built on three pillars: creating a more equal world, being future-ready, and generating stakeholder value. This philosophy reflects in their ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) focus, innovations like electric vehicles, and streamlined digital products.
Customer Experience and Corporate Agility
The conversation delves into the significance of customer experience, projected to become a trillion-dollar industry. Asha emphasizes the importance of a brand custodian’s role in managing reputation and customer centricity, especially in the social media age. She shares Mahindra’s agile approach, like using rapid response teams for crisis management, and maintaining a customer-centric organization through actionable metrics like net promoter scores.
Global and Cultural Branding Initiatives
Mahindra’s success in global markets, notably in the tractor and pickup segments, showcases their strategic approach to addressing diverse consumer needs. Asha highlights their decentralized communication strategies, empowering local markets. Further, Mahindra’s cultural initiatives, such as theater and music festivals, reinforce their brand connection with the community, reflecting their enduring RISE philosophy.
Exciting Product Launches and Market Strategies
An intriguing part of the episode focuses on Mahindra’s strategic product launches. Asha recounts her experience at a vehicle launch event in Chennai, emphasizing agile and bold leadership in pricing decisions. The surprising launch price of the Mahindra XUV700 exemplified exceeding customer expectations, reinforcing the brand’s commitment to delivering value.
Conclusion
This episode offers invaluable insights into how Mahindra Group under Asha Kharga’s leadership is forging a path of purpose-driven success, integrating innovative strategies, and enhancing women’s participation in the workforce. Her forward-thinking approach and Mahindra’s core values truly highlight the essence of building a future-ready, customer-centric brand.
Don’t miss out on the full episode to gain deeper insights into the remarkable facets of branding and empowerment discussed by Asha Kharga.
Stay tuned for more inspiring conversations on “The Brand Called You” podcast, available on our website and across multiple social media platforms.
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Profile
- The mission and impact of Mahindra’s “Kaabil” platform aimed at skilling and job placement for women.
- The strategic principles behind Mahindra’s core philosophy, “RISE.”
- Insights into Mahindra’s innovations like electric vehicles and digital products.
- The essence of maintaining a customer-centric organization and the importance of internal communication.
- Asha Kharga’s journey from advertising to her pivotal role at Mahindra and her influential work with the FICCI Committee for Women Empowerment.
