Anyone who has ever interacted with Team Amrutam can attest to the fact that we are a young, dynamic group of individuals who are always brimming with ideas and innovative ways to bring meaningful change. Be it automating processes or designing quirky campaigns that sync naturally with our values - our creative juices flow swimmingly as a team!
As an organization, Amrutam is always looking for ways to give back to the community that raised it. And one such brilliant idea is what led to the birth of the Amrutam Leadership Program - an initiative for young leaders to learn the nitty gritty of running a D2C brand.
Idea behind Amrutam Leadership Program
The curriculum that our present education system offers is far away from reality or what is happening in the world today. Yash Batra, Principal: Economics & Communications, says, "With technological changes like the rise of web3.0, changing marketing properties and such, it is very essential for the young brains to have a platform to be close to what is happening in real world. This is what ALP offers - a platform to be closer to the real world and a chance to nurture and showcase your leadership skills."
“The idea with ALP is to build a community of young creative people, take them through different departments, help them understand the day-to-day working at Amrutam and learn our brand language,” says Agnim Gupta, Principal: Tech & Growth at Amrutam.
Breaking down the idea further, Agnim explains that the short-term aim is to find and set up department leaders who understand the complete architecture of the organization and hence, are able to make better decisions considering the fabric & amalgamation of each department. And the long term goal is to create an environment of people who can bring healthy innovations working as a team, start or take up new projects, build processes and hire talented people under them.
Spanning 12 weeks, ALP is a detailed program including a range of tools and departments like content writing, designing, marketing, outreach and communications and business development. Since it requires a certain degree of commitment, the process of identifying and selecting suitable candidates is quite extensive.
Understanding the nuances
The first step is to shortlist candidates after reviewing their resumes. You don’t have to be from the best or conventionally lauded colleges, but someone who is actively looking to try out their hands in multiple things including extra-curriculars. This is then followed by working on an assignment that Team Amrutam assigns to the shortlisted candidates that they have to submit within a given deadline. The third and the final round is that of group discussion where you are given a topic to discuss with a certain set of rules to follow. The candidates who are able to perform well in all the above steps are finally selected to be part of the 3-month program.
Upon onboarding, the interns are placed under department heads who help them hone their skills depending on what they are working on.
Rohit Ajee, Content Writer at Amrutam, shares his experience of working with the ALP 1.0 cohort. , “The interns were quite eager to learn and the enthusiasm reflected in their work. On the flip side, I was able to gain a deeper sense of appreciation for the progress I had made compared to when I had just started working.”
A singular point that Rohit believes would greatly help the selected candidates stand out would be to come with a personal style with regard to the creative side of things. Although it is important to maintain a similar tone of delivery while working for an established company, he says that a unique presentation style would help them get noticed much better.
Empowering one another
As cliche as it sounds, training and teaching young people can be extremely empowering and Shradha Sabherwal, Content Architect at Amrutam deeply resonated with this sentiment. “ALP 1.0 has been a great experience personally for me. Firstly, I feel it's a great initiative that helps get real-life experience; it opens up a lot of windows and opportunities. You can also connect what you have learnt in a class to real life. For me, making ALP interns learn was very empowering, and at the same time, I was pleasantly surprised to see their interest, dedication and creativity which is always inspiring!”
We also spoke to the interns from our first ever ALP cohort to take feedback on the program. Bhavya Bhat, Intern, ALP 1.0 shares her experience:
“I've always been interested in writing but I never had the opportunity to explore it professionally. So when I learned about ALP and the opportunities it offered I immediately applied. I wished to learn the creative process that takes place behind running a brand. While content writing and copywriting were some of the main skills I developed, I also learned analytics, customer experience (CX), growth hacking, and digital marketing, which were just like the cherry on top.”
Apart from offering a wide range of opportunities that force you to think out of the box, ALP is also an excellent way to enhance your analytical skills.
“I actually had a chance to study the whole brand as part of my first assignment. And after I got selected, I was thrilled to be part of such an amazing team and work culture!” quips Falak Agwan, Intern, ALP 1.0. She also adds that the program is for young college students as working across disciplines will help them find their true calling.
Overcoming challenges
However, there are challenges too. As both Bhavya and Falak were college students at the time of their ALP commitment, they struggled with the designated timelines. “One of the major challenges I faced was managing my time when colleges re-opened physically. It was a completely different scenario and it was difficult to prioritize one thing over another. It was overwhelming.,” explains Falak.
So, what helped? Little things like creating a schedule, making to-do lists and planning work ahead of time and a little help from Team Amrutam! As a team, we try to extend as much empathy as possible since we understand that the work can be overwhelming and it is not possible to stay enthusiastic and creative all the time.
With this, we are once again calling out applications for the next cohort Amrutam Leadership Program!
Who are we looking for?
- We are looking for creative, innovative, out-of-the-box thinkers, doers who are able to not just learn things quickly but are able to understand the ethos of Amrutam and be a part of Amrutam Family.
- We want individuals who might be shy, introverted, outgoing or extroverted but the ones who always work with an intention to add value to the greater good of people.
- The ones who have failed multiple times or tasted success at once but understand that life is a wavy journey - hence always be humble and never fear taking risks.
- The ones who understand that they can never learn everything and that perfection is a myth yet always strive to learn new things with an aim to produce the best quality work!
And the ones who can fit with the Family we call Amrutam. :)
