"With great power, comes great responsibility."
Chara Yadav has been a media professional since graduating with an honors degree in Journalism. When her cousin Piyush asked her to become the press director of AskAnyDifference she readily agreed as she loved the idea of helping people to better understand the world around them by appreciating, and comparing the similarities and differences between the things that make up and fill the everyday world.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Chara Yadav: I’m Chara, and I started my professional life as a journalist before being asked by my cousin Piyush to join him in his new venture called AskAnyDifference. Becoming part of the core team responsible for creating and building the business was one of the easiest and best decisions that I have ever made.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Chara Yadav: I never thought about it if I’m honest, and before I became the CEO of AskAnyDifference, I never even imagined myself in that kind of role. All I ever wanted to be was a journalist, and I was good at my job, but I think the skill set that made me good at that job, communication, establishing the validity of facts, and constructing a cohesive narrative that could easily be followed, made me ideal for the position of CEO at AskAnyDifference.
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Chara Yadav: For me, it was cousin Piyush who believed that I could do the job and my colleague Sandeep who helped me find my footing in the business and guided me through some of the more difficult choices and decisions that I had to make when I took the first tentative steps on my new career path. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Chara Yadav: It started with a simple request from my cousin and a desire to be better at my job than anyone else. The main obstacles that I faced were entirely due to my gender. In India, it’s incredibly rare for a woman to become a CEO of any company as it’s traditionally seen as being a male role, so I had to work longer hours and twice as hard as a man in my position would have done to be taken seriously by the businesses that we work with domestically. What I learned is that the biggest hurdle that any business faces is social constraint and ideology and that to truly succeed, we have to forget about gender and make business about what a person can achieve and do, and not whether they wear a skirt or trousers.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Chara Yadav: We outline describe, and explain the differences between products for business and individuals who aren’t native English speakers for them to be able to establish themselves in an international market. I’m responsible for the look of the site that lies at the core of our business, ticking the boxes on what we do or don’t need to do, communicating with other businesses, and ultimately finding and hiring the researchers and writers that my company is dependent on.
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Chara Yadav: Leadership, guidance, and success. A CEO is the role model for their employees as well as being the voice of a company and should be strong enough to know that the buck for every mistake, big or small, rests entirely on their shoulders. They need to provide the guidance that every employee needs to be successful and productive.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Chara Yadav: I wasn’t sure what to expect, so nothing is a surprise, it’s more of a learning curve that I’m still traveling along.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Chara Yadav: A CEO needs to focus on the wellbeing of their staff, as without them, they wouldn’t have a company to lead. During the pandemic, I had to lay off a lot of old staff and hire new writers for whom English was their first language, and my first “job” was getting to know each of them as well as I could so that I would know what their strengths and weakness were and how they could be used to both the companies and the individual employee’s advantage. Even a weakness can be a strength if it’s properly focused.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Chara Yadav: Success, for me, is all about ensuring that everyone you’re responsible for and that the company you lead, continues to grow both personally and professionally. Success is something that every employee should share in, and when they do, they’re more receptive to new ideas and working to make the company better in every respect.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Chara Yadav: I had to lay off a lot of staff who I had come to know as friends during the first three months of the pandemic. I made sure that I told everyone who was losing their job to their face, as I thought that was the least that they deserved. It was the most difficult thing that I’ve ever had to do, as I was taking away the livelihood of people with who I had worked side by side for years. But our changing business model made it necessary, and after recruiting new writers and researchers, and teaching them how we operate, we’ve been more successful than ever.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Chara Yadav: I’ve always been good at communicating and listening, a skill set that served me well as a journalist, but I’ve had to learn how to curb my desire to speak from my heart and only talk when I have all the necessary facts and information that I need. It wasn’t easy, but I think I’m better as a CEO for learning how to do it.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Chara Yadav: I had to recruit en entirely new team of writers and researchers to establish our new business model, and if I hadn’t, I don’t think that we would be here today. That’s probably the only major upheaval that we’ve faced. but was a significant one.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting on their journey?
Chara Yadav: Listen to everyone. Every single member of staff has played a part in the companies success and every single role is important, so take the time to talk to everyone, listen to what they have to say, and base your ideas, targets, and goals on everything that you learn from your staff as well as your gut instincts.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Chara Yadav: I wish I could understand mathematics, but I’m terrible with numbers and always have been!
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Chara Yadav: The title? It would be the same advice that Uncle Ben gave Peter Parker, “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility”
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Chara Yadav for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Chara Yadav or her company, you can do it through her – Facebook
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