“I keep myself content by doing lots of different stuff, and I make sure that my next role is completely different from the last. I just enjoy the versatility of it, the challenge of doing lots of different things”, these words by David Thewlis, a famous English actor, is how Sayee Bhuvaneswari leads her life. Sayee is the founder of Dheemer Consulting, which deals with Management Consulting, Sales Consulting Professionals and life coaching and counselling.

Before venturing into the world of entrepreneurship, Sayee led a successful corporate life working for leading giants like HCL and Hitachi Solutions in various management positions. Sayee believes that everyone has the power and the pen to write down one’s destiny. A truly multifaceted leader, Sayee also pursues fitness as her passion and teaches yoga and boxing to kids in her free time. She is also learning martial arts like Silambam and Kalaripayattu.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur magazine, Sayee gives a detailed insight into her professional journey and tells us about her roles at Dheemer Consulting.

Tell us about your professional journey and what inspired you to establish Dheemer Consulting.

After completing my Bachelor's in Computer Science Engineering, like everyone I jumped onto the bandwagon of coding life. Being an extroverted person, I got bored of the behind-the-desk job and moved on to a business application role, having worked with the likes of HCL and Hitachi Solutions for 19+ years. I have a degree in executive MBA from IMT, Ghaziabad, and a master's degree in Psychology, which helps me understand people better.

When I started my corporate life at the age of 22, I wanted to be a CXO at 40 and slogged and sacrificed like many others to reach my goal. However, on my 40th birthday, I took a giant leap leaving the power, success, and financial upside of corporate life, and decided to set up Dheemer Consulting.

What services do you provide at Dheemer Consulting and could you also describe for us a normal day at work?

We offer consultancy in three different streams. First is Management and Consulting, wherein we specialize in process optimization, mentoring teams/start-ups, and sales consulting. The second aspect is coaching and counselling in which, I coach a lot of corporates, leaders, and teens and also provide psychological counselling to individuals. Third, I am also a practicing hypnotherapist and a Master Practitioner of Neurolinguistics programming certified from NFNLP, USA and Reality therapy faculty with William Glasser USA..

I became the boss of my own time at 40, so my working hours are very flexible, and I try to practice the same around my team. We focus on the work at hand and the targets - Working hours are up to the employees as they are empowered to handle their responsibilities as well as time.

What are some of the challenges you faced as an entrepreneur and how did you overcome it?

Yes, there were many challenges along the way. I have worked with HCL and Hitachi Solutions during my corporate life. So, the switch was difficult for me initially. I went from, working for a brand to being a brand. The second is the fact that there was no salary. Everything relied on efficient networking and my ability to attract talent to work for me. The third challenge involved training my ego and understanding that I had to do everything on my own unlike my time in management positions in corporate companies. “Unlearning the learning was the toughest part.”

What are some of the significant milestones that you have achieved throughout your professional journey? What were your takeaways from these experiences?

Career growth in the IT sector without any godfather and shortcuts has been an important achievement for me. I got many opportunities to attend Executive level meetings and sometimes I was the only woman in the room. I believe if you are sure of what you want, you can get there with hard work despite gender disparity. Another feather in the cap was starting Dheemer Consulting for coaching and counselling. It was a new venture for me and I had to practice a lot of patience but this opportunity helped me to relook at myself in a better way.

“Dheemer consulting Wants to become a Consulting company With a vision to Transform people's”

Where do you think the business consulting industry is headed in India? Are there any trends in the market which might have a strong impact going forward?

People are brand conscious but they are giving niche consulting partners the opportunity as well. Digitization has become very prominent these days therefore in consultancy, knowledge about both the technology and the domain practices has become important. Another important trend that I see emerging is the importance being given to collaboration. Earlier it used to be very competitive but now the market demands are changing and people are willing to complement than compete against each other

Please share with us the future vision you have for Dheemer Consulting. What does the roadmap look like?

From the coaching space, we are developing a psychometric tool that will be using a psychoanalytical concept to understand the employee's needs and match them with the organization's mission. This will also be enabling comprehensive coaching programs based on the tool’s analysis. Right now, it is in the Proof-of-Concept stage. Dheemer Consulting plans on having this ready by April 2023. From consulting perspective, we are trying to diversify into the digitization part and launch into hardcore technology consulting by next year.

Sayee Bhuvaneswari, Founder, Dheemer Consulting

Sayee Bhuvaneswari, is the founder of Dheemer consulting, which is a Consulting and coaching firm based in Chennai. Sayee is a computer engineer with a master's in Business Administration and Psychology. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology and she also teaches yoga and boxing during her free time.