A day in the life of…Harjit, Strategy Director at Torpedo

Looking for a game plan to position your new product, or turn prospects into customers?  Our Strategy Director, Harjit takes us on a whistle-stop tour of her day and tells us what makes her role so exciting…

What’s your role at Torpedo and how long have you been here?

I’m the Strategy Director and I’ve been here over a year now!  Where did that time go?

Strategy is one of those nebulous terms that we all use widely but it can mean different things to different people depending on the context in which they operate.  The way that I like to think about strategy is that it provides the scope within which a business operates:  Who are they targeting?  With which products and services?  What’s the point of their differentiation?  What’s their tone of voice, look and feel and how will we help them achieve their goals? Such parameters become the boundaries within which people are given the freedom and the autonomy to operate and try things out.

What exactly does your role entail? Can you run us through what you might get up to today, for example?

I work closely with our client services team on strategically complex projects; those where we need to do some digging and require research, planning and strategy development.  This strategic thinking informs the creative campaign, the solutions and activation plans.  I also work with clients to identify opportunities/”white spaces” to help them set their strategic direction.

The range of projects I work on is really broad, it may be drafting a three-year marketing strategy, developing a product launch strategy, a brand awareness campaign or a new website.  So today, for example, I am working on a project where we are developing a new website for a client.  My role is to ascertain who we want to visit the website, for what purpose and determine the high-level content for the website.  Obviously this will take longer than a day.

Recently I’ve also been involved with some content creation for Torpedo including one our recent blogs highlighting the key challenges that CMOs should be aware of in 2023.

What tools/resources/people do you depend on to get your job done?

I use many tools and strategic planning frameworks to get the insight needed to develop customer focussed strategies, and the ones I use depend on the project objectives.  Desk research is normally involved.  I might also carry out customer or stakeholder interviews or run workshops.  Strategic planning models are plenty and examples of what I use include SWOT analysis, perceptual mapping and segmentation.

If there was one resource that I couldn’t live without, it’s the internet, as it helps me discover insights and trends at speed.  I also love a good old mind map, which just lets your mind wander in lots of different directions and definitely helps me with creative idea generation.

What do you love most about your job at Torpedo? What’s the highlight of your day?

I love the variety of jobs and projects, every day is different, working with different teams within Torpedo and seeing the creative ideas take shape and crystallise.  I also love learning from the many subject matter experts that we have in Torpedo.

And what do you find the most challenging?

Occasionally you get a crunch of many deliverables. Juggling these can be a challenge at times, it’s a good problem to have though!

Is there a particular piece of work/project that you’re really proud of?

Difficult choice, but I’d say Autodesk Tandem (image below).  There were many facets to this project but the one I enjoyed the most was developing their marketing strategy. This involved a programme of work including stakeholder workshops, competitor analysis and persona development.  The really exciting bit was pulling out the insights from this information and developing the Tandem proposition and narrative.

Digital twins are emerging technology in the built environment, so being part of the journey to position Autodesk as a leading and preferred solution provider is very exciting.

What did you see yourself doing when you were a kid?

Hairdresser, solicitor, doctor.  I had no idea!  I liked solving problems, anything related to that was probably where I was going to end up.

If you weren’t a Strategy Director, what do you think you’d be?

Ok.  Are you ready for this?  I’d go into public policy making, so solving real-world problems and making the world a better place for all.

What made you choose this career path?

When I was at university studying maths, I got a placement in a marketing department at a large food manufacturing company.  On my way to the interview, the taxi driver said to me ‘you’re lucky to get an interview there, most people would give their right arm to work there’.  At that point I thought I better give the interview my best shot!  Well, I did and I got offered the role.  At that time, I had no idea what marketing was.  It didn’t take long after starting there to work out that marketing was for me and I was for marketing.

When your OOO is on, what are you likely to be doing?

I’ll probably be with friends or family either at my place or theirs, chilling and relaxing.  Or I might be planning my next trip abroad, exploring the big wide world out there.

I’m also interested in interior design.  I just love getting ideas and inspiration from events like Grand Designs Live. More recently I’ve become more hands on with this and I’m looking forward to implementing some new ideas in our home.

What’s your favourite memory of working at Torpedo to date?

Winning the first pitch I was involved in!  It’s a great feeling, and also to see the business grow and be part of that.

What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever been given?

I am a bit of a perfectionist and I like things just right.  The 80/20 rule has really helped me work out when to stop and when things are close enough.