Ugam@21 and EDI.....

I love Football or Soccer as a sport, and I am an ardent follower of the might reds my beloved Liverpool FC….?I do not want to bore folks that don’t like football or the ones that do however follow other Football clubs.

The reason I started this nonverbal wordologue with Liverpool is because a couple of weeks ago, I got a ticker on my phone which said Liverpool FC hires an EDI specialist.

You know as a guy when you hear the alphabets ED you sort of run scared, but then this time this ticker indicated three alphabets EDI and Specialist.

So, for a moment I thought what is wrong with my Football club. At once I read the whole article and then I understood EDI meant (Equality/ Diversity /and Inclusion).

That was a relief woosh. So anyways as I continued reading further, I understood that Liverpool FC hired an EDI specialist, and his role was to advise the club on matters of EDI.

This article got me thinking for starters I had never heard of a role of an EDI specialist before. Do not get me wrong I am not that well-read, however I have heard about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and I understand it.

In the last 5 years I have seen and read serious push from NGO’s and various groups to promote this as a need across the globe.

Growing up I never realized or noticed EDI related issues. I was always a chubby kid with a tanned face which complimented my personality. ?I got teased, etc and I was told its part of life get on with it.

As a grown up I became more chubbier after college I started looking for work and I did find a customer service Job. The company I worked for gave me back-office work and some of the lean folks got direct customer facing roles. At the time I did not think of that as a discrimination or anything in any case that was my first job. ?I worked there for 2 years and did not go anywhere.

Hence, I decided to make a change and I ended up interviewing for an entry level market research job at Ugam. To my surprise they hired me, at the time I was more chubbier very aware of my stellar physical appearance. Despite all that Ugam found me to be a good fit and gave me an entry level research job, that was the year 2006.

Cut back to now we are in the year 2021 and I am still with Ugam, and we are celebrating Ugam’s 21-year anniversary.

My journey with Ugam started 16 years ago and I have now broken all barriers of chubbiness if you know what I mean.

From an entry level position, I have now risen to a role of an AVP at Ugam. Through the years I was encouraged and given multiple platforms to succeed. I was tolerated, despite my tardiness. My weight or appearance was never the focus of discussion it was always how well I did my job.

Year on year I was rated, treated, and given multiple opportunities to succeed, and this was the same for many more Ugamites.

The environment was and is always of openness, I had and have colleagues from all parts of India, with all sorts of different physical appearance. All sorts of cast, Religion appointed at various junior, medium, and senior roles.

Each year I have seen at least 10%-15 of guys and gals working at Ugam getting promoted to next level for their ability at excelling at their job.

In my stint at Ugam for the last 16 years, I for once never thought the founders of Ugam or the senior management was following any EDI directive. I thought the Culture at Ugam has always being one of equality, diversity, and inclusiveness.

In our times now there is so much focus on EDI, and I know that organizations and society at large do discriminate and have all sorts of preference.

However, at the same time, I am proud to be associated with a company like Ugam which has existed for 21 years with a DNA of EDI (Equality/ Diversity and Inclusion). This was far before EDI became a norm a compulsion and now organizations are hiring professionals in advisory capacity to fix EDI related issues in their organization.

Companies like Ugam show that you do not need EDI specialists to be Equal/ diverse and inclusive all you need is to create a culture that recognizes and drives EDI naturally from within and focus on collective success.

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With that I say Long Live Ugam, 21 is a special year and may you reach more unimaginable heights in the years to come…

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