Snowflake

Forbes India presents "The Data Circle" in association with Snowflake, is an initiative that showcases top tech leaders in a thought leadership format. The selection process takes a comprehensive approach, considering their influence on both their companies and industries. The pivotal roles of these tech leaders drive innovation and breakthroughs within their respective sectors. These agile and enterprising leaders adeptly strategize to manage critical organisational conditions. The campaign aims to acknowledge and engage these exceptional professionals who are shaping the future.

Atique Kazi, President, Data Performance and Digital Products, GroupM India

Tech Wizard

Atique Kazi embarked on his career journey when the digital revolution was in its infancy. He fi nds himself fortunate to have worked with industry luminaries such as Ashok Jain and Ashok Wadhwa, on digital venture ideas, which laid the groundwork for the digital consumer era we know today.

Kazi was a witness to the transformative potential of mobile devices when he was involved with the launch of 3G mobile technology in the UK in 2003. He also worked in the Middle East to launch a D2C website for a consumer electronics giant. This confl uence of technology, advertising and consumer engagement in his career spanning two decades evolved him as a tech leader and today he is president-data performance and digital products at GroupM India.

In his current role, Kazi continues to build on GroupM’s best practices and technologies across the fi elds of data analytics, deep learning, process mining, performance marketing and business intelligence to create effi cient, fast and scalable value-added processes.

For Kazi, clients and consumers are the focus of all their decisions, with the objectives and key results defi ned for individuals, teams, clients and partners within their ecosystem. Kazi believes that data is akin to oxygen, and the work output directly infl uences the volume, variety and velocity of the data. Under his leadership, AI and ML models are used to aid decision-making on audiences, pricing and creatives. Data is also used for consumer insights, market research, operational effi ciency and measurement, with stringent emphasis on data handling and governance.

Kazi fosters innovation and communication through experimentation and A/B testing across all streams of work. They conduct hackathons, and an innovative programme called ‘Excellerate’, incubating company-wide ideas in areas like video advertising, AI and creative applications. One of the notable achievements under his leadership is the launch of India’s fi rst agency Data Management Platform, which garnered a user base of over 600 million, paving the way for substantial growth and operational efficiency.

In Kazi’s words, “In the long run, there is no substitute for hard work.”