Past Work - Nivedita Pandey

Private Sector

2015 Private Sector

Making US Luxury Skincare Succeed in Asia

Estée Lauder's products needed to establish a digital presence in Asia's two largest beauty markets - China and Japan - where consumer behaviour and purchase patterns differed dramatically from Western markets.

Challenge How do you launch a luxury beauty brand on China's Tmall and Japan's Rakuten when, unlike the US market where customers were familiar with the brand, these markets required substantial consumer education, culturally adapted product strategies, and platform-specific merchandising approaches? The US playbook could not be copy-pasted for success in Asia.

Approach Adapted to the Asian market via sampling and bundling strategies, education investment, merchandising and promotions tied to local market context, all while remaining frugal in investment in marketing collateral creation for the new markets.

Outcome Spearheaded successful launch of brand's largest eCommerce stores on Tmall (China) and Rakuten (Japan), resulting in annual sales uplift of approximately 1%, $110M.

2016 Private Sector

Entering the Male Grooming Category Across US & Asia

A New York-based beauty behemoth wanted to diversify revenue streams and tap into the fast-growing male grooming segment - expanding at 4% YoY globally - with specific ambitions across both the US and international markets. The challenge was building a credible market entry strategy for a new consumer segment that behaved fundamentally differently from the women consumers Estée Lauder had specialised in for decades.

Challenge How do you build a credible market entry strategy for a new, untried consumer segment across fundamentally different geographies, each with distinct beauty norms, retail infrastructure, and consumer behaviour?

Approach Conducted detailed primary and secondary research and Voice of Customer studies. Piloted new product (Solid Water Essence), established new pricing framework, launched new lifestyle concept pop-up (Grooming Station in London), and established new channel partnerships in the USA and internationally to target this new consumer segment.

Outcome Launched new skincare product line and decreased concept-to-production time by 25%. New partnerships strategy adopted and executed across target markets with 2% revenue uplift worth $230M.

2017 Private Sector

Creating the Digital Gold Category in India

A gold refinery and B2B gold trading firm was building the first digital gold product in India - a country with 5,000 years of cultural attachment to physical gold. This was the first product of its kind in India and Asia and the first B2C product for the company that had a B2B DNA, where digitising the asset class required both product innovation and large-scale retail consumer education.

Challenge How do you create an entirely new digital product class and drive mainstream adoption in a market where the physical form of the product carries deep emotional and cultural weight? How do you avoid regulatory trouble when product innovation is racing ahead of regulatory oversight?

Approach Guided by detailed consumer and partner primary research, devised product and GTM strategy. After launch, leveraged customer feedback and analytics heavily to keep refining both product and scale-up strategy. Given limited launch bandwidth, thin margins, seasonal nature of sales, and huge demand from partners to launch this as B2B2C on their respective fintech platforms, prioritising who to partner with and when, and who not to partner with became the biggest success driver.

Outcome Launched on Paytm, Walmart's PhonePe, Google Pay, and more investment/fintech platforms. Acquired 10M+ new customers. Built business from 0 to $124M GMV.

2020 Private Sector

Building a Brand-New Partnerships Function with the Private Capital Industry

A global enterprise technology company's Asia (JAPAC) division had no systematic approach to engaging with the private equity and venture capital industry.

Challenge No playbook existed in the company for this first-time role in Asia. Asia itself is a diverse market containing 15 countries with different investors and diverse ecosystem maturity standards. How do you build a $130M business with no precedent?

Approach As first hire, devised GTM/growth strategy and value proposition based on Voice of Customer and competitive analysis - with an outside-in mindset and an ecosystem partnerships approach.

Outcome Built and scaled $130M brand-new industry vertical with 2 strategic MoUs and 10 multi-million-dollar deals ranging from $2M–$30M. Partnered for thought leadership, deal flow, due diligence, and value creation and scaled across Asia.

Startup

2016 Startup

Accelerating Enterprise Deal Conversion: British Tech Startup Across US & Europe

A Richemont Group-backed British enterprise ML SaaS startup in the brand and IP protection space was selling to luxury brands, consumer goods companies, and sports teams/franchises. The startup had strong anchor customers in the UK but struggled to close sales despite healthy prospect interest and a robust lead pipeline (£150–200K ACV per customer).

Challenge How do you compress deal cycles and lift conversion rates in enterprise tech when customer stakeholders see clear product value, but conversion remains uncertain?

Approach Revamped GTM strategy and sales execution - changed pricing, positioning, and pitching methodology, and established sales enablement best practices.

Outcome Deal conversion rate improved by 50% within 2 months of engagement. Key lighthouse accounts won across UK, Europe, and USA. 7 cold prospects converted to new pilots within 3 months of revamp implementation. Startup achieved successful exit through acquisition by PE-backed competitor.

2018 Startup

Scaling User Acquisition and Engagement in a Competitive Mobile Apps Market

SHAREit, a Lenovo Group ad-tech spinoff operating in India's hyper-competitive mobile apps market, needed to evolve from a pure file-sharing utility into a monetisable social platform - competing against established giants like WhatsApp, Facebook, and indigenous super-apps for user attention and engagement.

Challenge How do you transform a single-purpose utility app into a sticky social commerce platform while navigating partnership complexity with telcos, payment providers, and eCommerce platforms - each with competing interests and integration requirements?

Approach Conducted detailed qualitative and quantitative research of the customer base (existing and targeted) to understand their lifestyle, user journey, needs, and preferences. Based on these insights, launched a social commerce feature (inspired by Pinduoduo in China) and established partnerships with FMCGs, fintechs, telcos, and eCommerce players to deliver optimal deal bundles for the user base while simultaneously moving the needle on partner KPIs.

Outcome Launched WeShare social commerce product and acquired 200K new users within 3 months of launch. Commercial partnerships with telcos, payment platforms, and FMCG players drove 13% MAU increase within 4 months.

2018 Startup

GTM Strategy for Cross-Border EdTech Expansion

A Samsung VC-backed Korean EdTech startup had achieved strong traction in its home market but faced fundamental barriers expanding internationally - different education systems, varied regulatory frameworks across target geographies, and limited understanding of enterprise sales cycles in educational institutions in foreign markets.

Challenge How do you make a product from a mature and developed market successful in a developing country where buying processes, stakeholder structures, and product expectations differ fundamentally from the home market?

Approach Developed market entry strategy for the target geography and conducted Voice of Customer (stakeholder) study, based on which product adaptations were made. Identified anchor customers and channel partners across multiple segments and established a sales enablement framework for swift scale-up.

Outcome Market entry strategy validated through acquisition of 3 pilot customers within 2 months of engagement. GTM framework and sales enablement materials deployed for rapid expansion and scale-up.

Public Sector

2016 Public Sector

Digital Public Infrastructure Frameworks for Global Governments

The World Bank Group was advising multiple national governments on implementing Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) systems - essentially early forms of programmable money - but lacked operational playbooks grounded in large-scale execution experience from markets that had actually deployed these systems at population scale.

Challenge How do you translate India's DPI implementation lessons - specifically around national identity systems and direct benefit transfers - into actionable frameworks for governments operating in vastly different institutional, regulatory, and infrastructure contexts?

Approach Guided by her own operating experience leading Digital Identities, JAM, and G2C payments pilots in India, translated large-scale execution lessons from India's JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) stack into contextually adaptable policy guidance. Developed advisory frameworks for DPI adoption and conditional cash transfer implementation across diverse government contexts, leveraging behaviour change principles from Heath Brothers' book Switch in the recommendations.

Outcome Advisory frameworks deployed for global governments on DPI adoption and conditional cash transfer implementation. Policy guidance informed national-level digital infrastructure planning across multiple World Bank client countries.

2024 Public Sector

Scaling AI and DPI Adoption: Domestically and Globally

Central bank innovation hubs and regulated financial institutions had growing interest to adopt AI responsibly and scale India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) initiatives globally.

Challenge What BFSI workflows can AI be applied to? How can India's DPI initiatives scale globally?

Approach Led stakeholder consultations across startups serving the BFSI space, multilaterals, and foreign governments building DPI stacks.

Outcome Delivered thought leadership work on AI in the financial sector and scaling DPI in the Global South. Structured and delivered an MoU with an international government for cross-border DPI collaboration.

2026 Public Sector

Building AI Capacity for an Entire State: Training Officers and Decision Makers

The Government Administrative Training Institute (SKIPA) in Jharkhand faced a critical question as it trained the next generation of civil servants. AI transformation is on the agenda of all corporates and governments. Here, 210 new state administrative officers responsible for finance, welfare, climate, agriculture, and citizen services had ideas and forward-looking energy - but lacked practical frameworks to evaluate, pilot, and deploy AI solutions to transform their respective workflows, despite knowing the benefits of digital transformation of service delivery.

Challenge How do you equip early-career government officers with little technical background to rigorously vet innovative ideas, evaluate AI opportunities in their workflows, scope viable pilots, and build deployment-ready solutions - all while navigating bureaucratic approval chains and ensuring initiatives align with state-level public service priorities?

Approach Designed and delivered the state's first-ever Applied AI Innovation Lab for 210 civil servants joining the state administrative services.

Outcome Portfolio of 42 AI innovation initiatives established across welfare, climate, agriculture, sports, and citizen services, with teams guided toward pilot-ready solution roadmaps and hands-on MVP development. Established formal evaluation pipeline for executive-level validation and state-level scale-up consideration.