In these crazy times, remote work has become global, and Eskimi is not an exception. However, Sujayet was working remotely even before the pandemic. Sujayet Ekhlas is a Country Head for Myanmar and his “office” has been his home since he joined Eskimi.
Sujayet jokes that he’s in a long-distance relationship with the company: “Honestly, Covid-19 helped me in a way: it started six months after I had joined, and suddenly everyone was in a long-distance relationship just like me so everyone could understand me. That was quite a new experience.” When talking about the overall impact of Covid-19, Sujayet also finds positive aspects. “It was bumpy, like a roller-coaster. But I see I can motivate people. I try to make others feel positive, and it works for me. While working in programmatic advertising, we can take the chance of it. People spend more time on the Internet, they are more into games and conversations, and we can implement this by making creative and efficient solutions employing the data”, he says.
Grabbing experience in opposite sides of the world
Passionate about the digital world, Sujayet joined Eskimi in September 2019. “I’m a risk-taker. I feel the challenge in my mind all the time. So, I came here, and at first, I had to understand how to educate the market”, the Country Head for Myanmar admits the local market is not acquainted with all the technologies that Eskimi works with. What helps is meeting a lot of people and trying to understand them.
Sujayet’s past is impressively international. He grew up in New York and worked there as a business analyst. Then he got a scholarship to study in New Zealand. “There, I graduated from the economy and got an understanding of how business works. That made me interested in how can things be more accelerated, more automated, more precise”, Sujayet talks about the new spark of interest. “And this is the experience I brought to Eskimi. Now, I want to explore what customer experience is all about.”
At first, his job was business development, but now Sujayet works more with “Growth Hacking”. “I’m also looking for local publishers that give more of high visibility. I work with creating strategies, too. In the last three months, Eskimi recruited a lot of people, so I get more support there. I’m working mostly with four people that are responsible for ad operations, creatives, and strategies”, he talks about the responsibilities. Sujayet says his responsibilities are growing high just like the business is growing up.
Passion for innovation and daily learning
Why did he choose the industry of programmatic advertising? Sujayet loves numbers and data and how they can drive many decisions. “I really love innovation. I dived into programmatic advertising in 2016. In my previous workplace Celtra, I worked with dynamic content optimizations, and I was bringing new things to the market. I love how creative content and data can mix”, he discloses his passion for digital technologies and their novelties.
Also, a dynamic environment drives him: “In programmatic advertising, a new solution comes up every month. You can never say, “I’ve seen and tried everything here.” You have to update yourself daily, to learn every day. This sector is about data, innovation, and daily learning”, Sujayet emphasizes the fast pace of the industry. “For example, our platform is connected to many other platforms, so you also learn about them. My weak point is I try to know everything about how a thing works. But sometimes I don’t need to think about it as it gets easy to lose the focus”, he shares about the deep curiosity that has two sides.
Besides the hard skills, Sujayet emphasizes the importance of personal skills. “I learned a lot of soft skills and noticed the value of transparency. Vytas [Vytautas Paukštys, CEO of Eskimi – ed.] created the company in such a way. Everyone knows about what is going on everywhere”, he underlines openness and collaboration. Sujayet also values trust and the right environment for growth: “People have their responsibilities, and they can take everything on their own. Here, I learned to see my vision, goals, and muscle them up. And it gave me confidence. Everybody has their limits, but after all, you can cross it because I believe the sky is the limit”.
“Success for me is an addiction”
Like at any job, Sujayet faces some challenges. “Among the biggest ones is talking to local managers. Here, they are all the “yes men”. I had to learn that yes in conversations very often means no”, he reveals cultural peculiarities.
However, it seems nothing can stop Sujayet. He believes that there aren’t impossible things to do. “After four or five months, I realized I opened a new chapter. I go to the window every day, look at the city, and I say to myself: I’ll grab this city at any cost”, he shares his mindset. “I always talk to myself how I can change things. Success for me is an addiction, it never stops. Every day you move from point A to point B, and the road never ends”.
Feeling connected in separation
When talking about how he feels in Eskimi, Sujayet appreciates the strong connection. “Everyone is convenient to talk and cooperative. In our industry, decisions are made in micro-moments—take scrolling on Instagram as an example: how do we decide whether we ‘love’ something, watch a video, click the link, and we finalize our decision in a moment. And in our management, it’s the same principle. The decisions are made quickly, nobody is kept waiting”, Sujayet illustrates once again how he loves the dynamic working environment.
Still, there’s one thing he wishes would be different: “I would love to have a yearly gathering. I work for Eskimi but never saw all of my colleagues physically. We work in different countries, even different continents, and I believe live meetings create more value, as you bound better with everyone and feel more motivated afterward.”
