India
Some of the most meaningful lessons I've learned came from moments that didn't go as planned. At the time, they didn't feel like lessons. They just felt like difficult conversations. Business has introduced me to some remarkable people over the years. Customers. Founders. Leaders. Colleagues. Some conversations lasted only a few minutes. Others have stayed with me for years. Looking back, I don't think the biggest lessons came from projects, presentations or quarterly business reviews. They came from people. People trying to solve difficult problems. People trying to make good decisions with imperfect information. People carrying responsibilities most of us never get to see. Those experiences gradually changed the way I think about business. Every business has customers. The strongest businesses keep earning them. Not through one great product. Or one successful quarter. But through thousands of small moments that either strengthen—or quietly weaken—trust. Today, I spend most of my time working with B2B SaaS leadership teams, exploring questions like: • How do we earn customer trust before asking for loyalty? • Why do customers quietly lose confidence, even when everything appears to be on track? • How do Customer Success, GTM and Leadership become one conversation instead of three? • How do we create value that customers genuinely remember? Those are the conversations I enjoy most. They're rarely straightforward. But they're almost always worth having. Outside client conversations, I write. Mostly because writing slows my thinking down. It helps me question assumptions I might otherwise accept too quickly. It helps me make sense of experiences that might otherwise become just another project. I'm still learning. These are simply a few observations that continue to shape the way I think—and I'm sure there are many more still to come. If something here resonates with the way you think about customers, leadership or sustainable growth, I'd genuinely enjoy continuing the conversation. — Anurag Awasthi
• Built and led an entrepreneurial venture from concept to execution, owning business strategy, customer relationships, partnerships, operations, and sustainable growth initiatives. • Developed trusted enterprise relationships by understanding customer challenges, aligning solutions with business priorities, and creating long-term value-driven partnerships. • Owned the complete customer and business lifecycle — including market development, consultative engagement, solution positioning, negotiations, delivery governance, customer experience, and relationship growth. • Established and managed strategic partnerships with customers, vendors, suppliers, and ecosystem stakeholders to create scalable business opportunities and improve service capabilities. • Led customer-first business initiatives focused on improving operational efficiency, stakeholder experience, service quality, and measurable business outcomes. • Worked closely with enterprise customers across industries to identify needs, manage expectations, resolve challenges, and ensure consistent delivery excellence. • Managed cross-functional business operations including sales strategy, customer engagement, vendor management, financial planning, execution governance, and continuous improvement. • Applied enterprise technology and customer success experience from Adobe, Zscaler, OnMobile, and Spice to bring structured engagement, customer focus, and operational discipline into an entrepreneurial environment. • Strengthened capabilities in executive decision-making, ownership mindset, adaptability, negotiation, relationship management, and building customer trust from the ground up.
• Managed customer retention and lifecycle initiatives by proactively engaging customers, understanding business priorities, identifying risks, and supporting strategies to improve adoption and long-term value realization. • Collaborated cross-functionally with Product, Consulting, Support, Sales, and Customer Success teams to align customer needs, resolve challenges, improve experiences, and deliver successful business outcomes. • Supported renewal readiness and customer health programs through adoption tracking, stakeholder engagement, issue resolution, and continuous value-driven conversations. • Captured customer insights, product feedback, and adoption trends to influence internal teams and enhance customer experience, platform usage, and service delivery effectiveness. • Strengthened trusted customer relationships by translating technology capabilities into meaningful business value and helping customers maximize returns from their investments.
• Acted as a trusted customer advocate by aligning enterprise customer priorities with internal Sales, Product, Engineering, Support, and Leadership teams to improve experiences and accelerate successful outcomes. • Led customer lifecycle engagement initiatives across onboarding, adoption, health monitoring, escalations, renewals readiness, and executive business reviews to strengthen customer relationships. • Built strong executive stakeholder relationships by understanding business challenges, translating customer needs into actionable priorities, and driving alignment across technical and business teams. • Owned high-impact customer situations by coordinating cross-functional response plans, resolving complex issues, reducing business risk, and protecting customer trust during critical moments. • Identified adoption gaps, customer health trends, and expansion opportunities by analyzing customer engagement patterns and collaborating with account teams on growth strategies. • Partnered closely with Product and Engineering teams by capturing customer feedback, prioritizing enhancement requests, and influencing product improvements based on enterprise customer requirements. • Established structured governance practices including QBR/EBR discussions, stakeholder alignment, success planning, escalation reviews, and continuous improvement initiatives. • Supported revenue retention and customer growth initiatives by improving product adoption, strengthening engagement models, and positioning Zscaler as a long-term strategic technology partner.
• Managed enterprise customer relationships and service delivery engagements by aligning technology operations, customer expectations, and business priorities to ensure consistent value delivery. • Owned end-to-end customer lifecycle activities across solution delivery, implementation coordination, operational governance, issue resolution, service performance, and continuous improvement initiatives. • Acted as a trusted interface between customers and internal Engineering, Product, Operations, Support, and Business teams to ensure seamless execution and customer satisfaction. • Led service governance practices including operational reviews, SLA management, performance tracking, escalation handling, and proactive communication with key stakeholders. • Managed complex customer situations by coordinating cross-functional teams, identifying root causes, removing execution blockers, and ensuring timely resolution of business-impacting issues. • Supported customer engagement and growth initiatives by understanding evolving business requirements, improving service adoption, and strengthening long-term customer partnerships. • Collaborated with sales and business teams on customer opportunities by providing solution insights, operational expertise, and customer success perspectives. • Improved customer experience by establishing structured processes, communication frameworks, and service excellence practices across customer engagements.
• Managed technology operations and service delivery initiatives supporting enterprise-grade platforms, ensuring reliability, performance, availability, and seamless customer experiences. • Led end-to-end operational execution across service monitoring, incident management, escalations, issue resolution, and continuous improvement of business-critical technology services. • Partnered with Product, Engineering, Network, Business, and Support teams to resolve complex technical challenges and deliver stable customer-facing solutions. • Strengthened customer experience by translating operational insights, service trends, and technical challenges into actionable improvement initiatives. • Supported enterprise customers and business stakeholders through structured communication, problem ownership, service governance, and timely resolution of critical situations. • Implemented operational best practices focused on process improvement, service quality, risk reduction, and improved delivery effectiveness. • Analyzed recurring service issues, coordinated root-cause investigations, and worked with internal teams to enhance platform performance and customer satisfaction. • Built a strong foundation in technology execution, stakeholder collaboration, and customer-centric problem solving that shaped my journey into enterprise Customer Success leadership.