People of Beam Suntory: Deepti Divakaran
People of Beam Suntory: Deepti Divakaran
“Dance has always been a passion of mine. It’s something that I’ve been doing since I was five years old and it’s one of the things that brings me true joy in life. Through dancing, I’m able to focus, shift my mood and gain a more positive attitude when I’m feeling down. I am trained in Bharatanatyam, which is the oldest classical dance form in India that’s recognized for its unique footwork and a sophisticated vocabulary of sign language based on gestures of hands, eyes, and face muscles. I trained for eight years, perfecting my skills, even going on to perform with a stage company during my school days. I didn’t dance as much after college, but over the last few years, I’ve been getting back into it.
Dancing requires a lot of hard work and patience. Some of the Bharatanatyam programs run for as long as four hours. All the training and practicing has been a huge benefit to my time management and team building skills, which I use daily in my work.
Originally, I’m from India’s southern-most state of Kerala. Over the years I have worked in different parts of India and now I am based at Hyderabad, Telangana which is India’s biggest whisky market.
As I continue to grow and explore my role, I rely a lot on my time management and team building skills that I developed through dance. It’s important that my team is as diverse as the markets we are in. I’m recruiting from different states, cultures, and backgrounds, as well as bringing more women into the sales team, which is typically a male dominated function in India.
Just like dance, I am passionate about my work. Part of my job requires that I go into markets and conduct customer & consumer research. I enjoy learning why consumers buy certain products and what they want more of. My curiosity and a constant urge to learn help me understand our customers better and thereby help service them better. As a result, I have been able to help premiumize our portfolio in certain markets.
I always strive to leave things a little better than they were before, I believe that is one of my purposes in life.”
- Deepti Divakaran, Zonal Sales Manager, India