Amit Mahajan
MBA from All India Management Association (2005), Bachelors of Arts in sociology from Osmania University (1993), Business and management Consultant at Entrepreneur (2007-2009), CSR Consultant at Microsoft (2009).
| Headline: | Entrepreneur |
| Skills: | Business, Design, English, Entrepreneurship, Event planning, French, Italian, Languages, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Public speaking, Retail, Sales, System Administration, Web design, Windows, Windows applications |
| Interested in: | Brainstorming, Finding business partners, Finding cofounders, Finding team mates, Meeting new people, Professional opportunities, Promoting my startups, Recruiting for my startup |
| Schools: | All India Management Association, Harare Polytechnic, Osmania University |
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | Microsoft |
| Position: | Strategic Partnerships/ CSR Consultant |
| Time period: | March 2009 - November 2009 |
| Description: | (Eurasia, Middle East and Africa).
Focus Areas: Business networking, Market research, SWOT analysis, CSR engagement strategy and execution, partnership building with government and donors, technical assistance and solutions development. Conducted full country market study – Algeria, Libya and Kenya. Assessed development goals, strategy, policy and commitments of government and donors. Developed partnership engagement strategy for Microsoft’s CSR program with key government ministries and officials, donors, UN and the banks. Achievements: Developed creative solutions with partners in Kenya – Office of the President, UN, USAID, AfDB. Developed strategic solutions for Microsoft technology to be showcased – Prison reform, Early Warning Systems, Entrepreneurial portal, Parliamentarian portals. |
| Employer: | Entrepreneur, Vienna, Austria |
| Position: | Strategic Partnerships/ Business and management Consultant |
| Time period: | July 2007 - November 2009 |
| Description: | Focus Areas:
Business/ marketing consultancy, marketing research support, partnership,NGOdevelopment. Consulted SMEs/ Entrepreneurs and startups in marketing, marketing research and business development in India, Austria, Romania, Middle East, Finland and Africa. Supported marketing research agency on health, hospitals and consumer goods in the Gulf. Built trade leads for Indian IT companies in Europe for outsourcing ICT and BPO services. Provided consultancy to NGOs on programme development, CSR tracking, resource mobilization. Achievements: Launched my own business social networking site for professionals (BETA Stage). Launched the web portal http://http://www.act2free.com to help trace missing and trafficked people. Helped generate project worth $ 50,000 in renewable energy in Romania. |
| Employer: | United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, Vienna, Austria |
| Position: | Strategic Partnership/ Resource Mobilization/ Private Sector Partnerships Specialist Consultant |
| Time period: | April 2007 - April 2008 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Social marketing, corporate social responsibility, research business process and supply chain, marketing research, resource mobilization/fund raising, public private partnerships, communication, event management, project management, anti human trafficking, woman & child protection & empowerment.
Create partnerships & mobilize resources from multilaterals, especially from the nontraditional sector. Create a global resource mobilization strategy for UN.GIFT. Create a global communication strategy for the cause and for the UN.GIFT project in particular. Engage with the non-traditional partners to adopt anti human trafficking policies. UN Coordination on anti human trafficking with the private sector. Research CSR programs of MNCs and develop opportunities for involvement in UN.GIFT. Achievements: Created partnerships and mobilized resources ($300,000) with Fortune 500 Companies like Microsoft, GAP, Manpower, TATA, McCann Erickson, Marie Claire, BBC, ARTOC, Suez Bank, World Economic Forum, Ricky Martin Foundation, Prince of Wales International Business Leader’s Forum and NGOs. Helped create UN.GIFT partnership with Ted Turner’s $1 Billion UN Foundation and UNFIP. Co-organized the UN.GIFT South Asia and the Vienna Forum events. Created the private sector roundtables and forum for UN.GIFT. Created UN.GIFT brand and proposed a system of supply chain certification and trade mark for trafficking free products. |
| Employer: | United Nations Development Programme, Lusaka, Zambia |
| Position: | Strategic Partnership/ Resource Mobilization/ Programme Capacity Development Specialist |
| Time period: | September 2005 - April 2007 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Strategic partnerships, project management, MDGs, environment, heatlh, HIV&AIDS, communication, resource mobilization, donor research, CSR, donor management, Paris Principles, programme monitoring & evaluation, UN Co-financing partnerships, 1UN, UN harmonization, elections, e-governance, capacity development, programme management support.
Provide programme support to the office. Mobilize resources from bilateral and multilateral partners. Identify new opportunity areas and partners for UNDP Zambia to engage in and with. Provide management support to the top management in UNDP Zambia. Achievements: Led the programme management support unit in UNDP; monitored programme budget of $11.4 mill. Developed co-financing partnerships worth $ 200,000 with Zambian government and bilateral donors. Coordinated the United Nations Harmonization process and the 1 UN for UNDP Zambia. Co-drafted the country cooperation framework document for UNDP in Zambia for 2007-2011. Co-drafted the UNDP communication strategy and part of the UN country team communication team. Developed and managed projects on various developmental issues such as environment, capacity development, e-governance, aid management, wildlife, HIV&AIDS, women empowerment, microfinance, human rights, rule of law, Prison reform … |
| Employer: | USAID – Kosovo Business Support, Pristina, Kosovo |
| Position: | SME Business Consultant |
| Time period: | January 2005 - October 2005 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Business development, management, marketing, advertising, marketing research, PR, trade, pricing, entrepreneurship, supply chain, branding, communication, market intelligence, capacity development.
Provide management, entrepreneurial and business support for SMEs. Develop capacity of Kosovo business’ in post war restricted economy for export and growth. |
| Employer: | DAJTI Shpk Holding, Pristina, Kosovo |
| Position: | Business Development/ Marketing Director |
| Time period: | March 2003 - January 2005 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Marketing, marketing research, new product/brand launch & management, advertising, branding, communication, logistics, procurement, sales, retail, supply chain.
Launch and grow laundry and household cleaning category for a startup company. Manage the business for profitability and expand the brand internationally. Achievements: Developed business worth € 2 million for 5 brands (6% market share in the 1st year). Developed marketing, media, brand and communications strategies (€ 300,000 budget). Created the brand and the new product launch – from inception of brand identity to personality. Created an extensive marketing intelligence system for the product category. Launched the brands in Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Albania. |
| Employer: | USAID – Carana Corporation, Cairo, Egypt |
| Position: | Principal Consultant |
| Time period: | April 2002 - February 2003 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Social survey, statistical analysis, project management, report writing, data mining, human resources, questionnaire development, client servicing, field work, qualitative & quantitative survey design.
Gather data on early retirement from the Government and provide strategy for future early retirement policies in the state owned companies undergoing privatization. Achievements: Managed the $220,000 project on time. Supervised a team of 6 people to mine data from 8 ministries. Presented a future strategy for early retirement to the Minister of Privatization. Conducted the extensive survey through large scale data mining of non computerized public records and quantitative and qualitative survey instruments. |
| Employer: | Directions Marketing Research & Service, Cairo, Egypt |
| Position: | Founding Partner/ Managing Director |
| Time period: | October 1998 - March 2003 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Business development, marketing research, general management, marketing and business consultancy, human resources, agency management, social research, questionnaire development, client servicing, field work planning and monitoring, qualitative & quantitative survey design, statistical analysis, branding.
Building the company from scratch. Building new clients and winning new business. Quality control of research projects and strategic management of the company. Achievements: Founded the business and led it to an globally reputed research and business consultancy company. Developed business worth $ 450,000 in 2002 (approx. 15% of ad-hoc consumer research). Developed new business and clients among Fortune 500, leading regional companies and international organizations like MobiNil, Bayer, Vodafone, Ericsson, Nokia, Nestle, TetraPak, Pepsi, Syngenta, GM, Barclays, Hilton, Conrad, Citibank, Orange, Orascom, Tarek Nour, DDB Nedham, Grey, LG, GFK, IMRB, Toyota, USAID, Government, WHO, UNHCR, etc. Managed and supervised over 250 projects - qualitative & quantitative surveys on social, product and brand attitudes and habits, advertising/ communication testing, awareness and recognition surveys, social habit studies, product tests, taste tests, mystery shopping, customer satisfaction surveys, household expenditure surveys etc. Created an internal trademark control system for data quality spanning the data chain. Grew the company to 120 employees strong. |
| Employer: | Market Insight Yankelovich, Cairo, Egypt (Now part of GFK) |
| Position: | Research and Business Development Manager |
| Time period: | January 1998 - October 1998 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Marketing, marketing research, marketing consultancy, business development, profitability management, questionnaire development, client servicing, qualitative & quantitative design, statistical analysis.
Manage the research unit in Egypt. New business development. Achievements: Developed business worth $150,000 with Fortune 500 multinational companies like PepsiCo, Kodak etc. Supervised all projects and the client servicing staff, and managed trademarked research products. Designed customized research studies and presented results to top management. |
| Employer: | AC Nielsen |
| Position: | Senior Researcher/ Client Service Executive |
| Time period: | January 1994 - January 1998 |
| Description: | Cairo,Egypt(01.1997-01/1998);Nicosia,Cyprus(01/1996-01/1997);India(01/1994-01/1996).
Focus Areas: Marketing, marketing research, social research, international project coordination, business development, client servicing, questionnaire development, field work, qualitative & quantitative survey design, statistical analysis, branch management, human resource, retail audits. Primarily responsible for all customized research surveys and proprietary consumer research. Client servicing in Nielsen proprietary Retail Audit. Managed the branch office in New Delhi, India. Achievements: Developed business with various industries and brands across Europe, Egypt and India. Serviced Retail Audit clients like Kraft, Lever, P&G, Philip Morris, Wrigley, TetraPak, Cadbury, Nestle, Henkel etc. Developed new business worth over $200,000. Managed and coordinated multi country large scale habits and attitude studies across Eastern Europe. |
| Employer: | BASIS Consultancy, New Delhi, India |
| Position: | Client Service Executive |
| Time period: | January 1992 - January 1994 |
| Description: | Focus Areas: Social research, marketing research, social marketing, business consultancy,
Consulted clients on various projects like market and product development strategies, golf course marketing, market segmentation strategy, communications strategy, and marketing research based consultancy etc. Social research projects included women’s empowerment in rural society, potable water, AIDS prevention strategies, birth control effectiveness programme. |
| Employer: | “The Executive” Retail Outlet, Harare, Zimbabwe |
| Position: | Retail Manager |
| Time period: | November 1991 - March 1992 |
| Description: | Managed the retail fashion outlet including sales, space, shop displays, inventory and procurement.
Responsible for advertising the retail shop on TV, Radio and Print Media. |
| Employer: | Olivine Industries, Harare, Zimbabwe |
| Position: | Marketing Support Executive |
| Time period: | March 1991 - November 1991 |
| Description: | Developed brand image and product development strategy for Olivine’s range of products. |
| Employer: | Cresta Hotels, Harare, Zimbabwe |
| Position: | Marketing Consultant |
| Time period: | March 1991 - November 1991 |
| Description: | Developed brand image and service offer strategy for the new Cresta Safari Lodge.
Conducted research on international travelers’ hospitality service usage. |
| Employer: | World Business Machines, New Delhi, India |
| Position: | Sales Executive |
| Time period: | March 1987 - March 1988 |
| Description: | Developed business for office automation and communication products in Delhi
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EDUCATION
| University: | All India Management Association |
| Time period: | 2005 |
| Degree: | Management, MBA |
| University: | Osmania University |
| Time period: | 1993 |
| Degree: | sociology, political Sc. & public admin., BA |
| University: | Harare Polytechnic |
| Time period: | 1992 |
| Degree: | Higher National Diploma in Business Studies |
