A Day the Life of Ashok Athawase

Work Profile: I handle one of most exciting job profiles: bringing innovations to life, that helps our business goals.

This involves driving innovation and commercialisation of all new product launches and technologies to manufacture them and make existing processes more productive. It also includes anchoring the product commercialisation process from idea scoping, to prototype selection, manufacturing process assessment, reviewing stability studies and driving the product approval process.  Provide Technical Strategic inputs in the BU manufacturing strategy planning within INSWA BU operation, with respect to suitable technology options in beverage manufacturing, and work along with our bottling partners to ensure new manufacturing capacities are setup to meet our customer demand.

About yourself: I strongly believe in building credible relationships. 

Favourite Coca-Cola memory so far: In Kolkata, we visited a school for specially-abled children, to celebrate environment day. This event transformed me as a person and helped me understand how small initiatives like these help us connect and contribute towards needs of societies around us.

One rumor about Coca-Cola that frustrates you: Any rumor related to false claim with respect to quality and safety of our products frustrates me.

One thing you could change around you: Drive change with more agility.

One thing that nobody at work knows about you: I love to make pencil sketches.

 

--#--

 

24 hours in the life of Ashok Athawase – GM Projects and Commercialisation, Coca-Cola India

06.00 – 8:00 am: A cup of tea with Hindustan Times is followed by a quick jog in the park with my favourite Bollywood tracks. Help my daughter Anaya, get ready for school, and spend some time with her. 

08.15 am: Instead of going to a bottling plant visit (where innovations come to life), I’m heading to office today – a quick 15 minutes’ drive to work. It’s always good to start early. I like to self-plan for the day ahead.

08.45 am: Checked the emails, reviewed the calendar, set-up the meetings and planned the priorities for the day. 

09.30 am: Time for team review. Loitaksh has just completed a new manufacturing line commissioning visit and Kaushik is planning for an upcoming new product commercialisation trial – our first entry into dairy segment in India! 

10.00 – 11:30 am: Calls with bottling team and suppliers is followed by a weekly meeting with different teams. These are important opportunities to jointly discuss status, plans and/or to resolve any challenges. 

12.00 pm: Catch up with a European supplier, he claims to have developed an equipment to support our special need labeling, that’s pretty awesome.  

01.00 pm: Team that eats together, wins together. I am enjoying my lunch with the technical team, along with my favorite Coke!

02.00 – 3:30 pm: New mail alerts have been beeping all day; got to check them all. Followed by a visit to our R&D lab, quite excited as we’re going to taste some new samples for an upcoming product! 

04.00 pm: Tea-break with Georgia Masala tea, casual chit-chat with my colleagues, and then prepare for a con-call with global process team. 

06.00 pm: Me-time at the desk, wrap-up and take stock of the day.

07:00 – 10:00 pm: Head home, rewind and relax. No more emails or calls. Watch ‘Shawn the Sheep’ with Anaya (her favourite show!). Enjoy dinner, put her to sleep, catch-up on news, and go to bed. Another exciting day ahead.