Hailing from a small village in Vijayapura, Karnataka, Sharanagouda Chougale is a focused and determined individual who topped every course he ever undertook. He learned English by reading the newspaper and watching TV just so he could complete college. Today, he spreads his infectious energy at the Flipkart hub he’s in-charge of and leads by example. Read his #OneInABillion story.
I am 27 years old, and hail from a small village in Vijayapura Taluk. My parents are farmers. I have an older sister who is married and a younger brother who is pursuing his undergraduation.
I studied in Kannada medium till I was in the 12th standard, where I topped my college, but when I signed up for a BBA course in English, the first six months were really challenging for me. I worked really hard. Every day, I traveled by bus to Vijayapura, which is 50 km away from my village. I started reading English newspapers, watching English movies and also Kannada movies with English subtitles. I worked really hard, and it paid off – I ended up getting a distinction.
I wanted to pursue my MBA, so I wrote the CET exams, and got into a good university in Bengaluru. My aunts pitched in for my education because my parents were worried about being able to pay for it. I also got a distinction there, and participated in the college placement process.
I still vividly remember the interview process with Flipkart. I thought I hadn’t made it because of my English. But I spoke to the HR, and they said I was selected for my skills. Over 600 people applied, 25 were selected, and I was one of them. It was a moment of pride for me. I was selected for three companies, and I picked Flipkart because I was really interested in operations.
In my current role at Flipkart, I take care of 360 degree operations in the hub. I take care of the hub the way my father took care of my family. I look at ways to maximize productivity, budgeting, forecasting, planning, scheduling, and do everything we can to clear the floor and deliver every package.
We also enable members to upskill – I am proud to say that we have provided professional development courses to members from our hubs who have grown to become team leaders in other hubs. Basically, we look at employee wellbeing as well as customers’ – we are here only because of our customers.
The lockdown was really challenging. My parents were worried and wanted me to come back and work on the farm. But I reassured them that Flipkart was doing everything to protect us – whether it was providing us with masks, sanitisers or even assisting us with finding beds in hospitals in times of need. Flipkart takes care of us like our families would. We told all our wishmasters to follow the required protocol so customers would feel safe when we delivered to them. At times, us Team Leads would also take up the responsibility of delivering packages so our customers’ orders would reach them on time.
This is my fifth Big Billion Days sale. Hindus celebrate festivals like Diwali. Christians celebrate Christmas. Muslims celebrate Eid. Similarly, The Big Billion Days is a festival for all of us at Flipkart. BBD is a time of enjoyment for us! We concentrate on moving all the packages that come to us and vehicles keep moving. We put all our energy into motivating everybody at the hub, we have a lot of activities for team building. Our hub has been one of the top ones and I’ve even won a trophy for the Bengaluru region for the work we have done.
All I’d like to say to Flipkart customers is that we are raring to go! But we would only like them to keep the rains in mind. We are looking forward to delivering all your packages on time. The entire hub is energetic right now, and anticipating BBD.
Also Read: #OneInABillion: On her way to the top, one step at a time
