24 hours with… Sowmya Iyer

Name: Sowmya Iyer

Role: Founder and CEO

7:30am—9:00am: My day starts in my garden with a strong South Indian filter coffee, which my husband brews for me. Being brought up in a traditional Tamil Brahmin family, this ritual is a part of my identity.  Mornings are precious.  My garden is lush green with plants and all big trees along the picket fence…allowing for comforting shade, bird nests and lots of bird activity. This time is unhurried…. thinking, journaling, music, meditation and me time. Time that’s turned inwards with heightened intuition. I credit most part of what I have been able to create to this time. This time is everything beautiful about slow living. And in complete contrast to the rest hustle and hyperactivity of the upcoming day.

9:00am—10:30am: I create my to-list and priorities for the day—emails, strategic or consulting time with clients and our teams. This is also when I send on reviewing our AI powered enterprise product, DViO One, with our product teams.

10:30am—11:30am: I do 15-30 minute catch ups with business, market and functional leaders in rotation every day of the week. The three questions I ask are ‘What’s up?”, “Where are you stuck?” and “What are your metrics for this week?”. This helps me get a holistic view of activities and enables me resolve possible blocks through quick decisions Tracking the metrics every week for leadership helps us keep on track.

11:30am—12.30pm: I then take a break for brunch and get ready to leave for office.

12:30pm—4:30pm: This time band is for internal and client meetings, reviews, mentoring sessions with emerging leaders. I also use this time to meet partners, new vendors and media teams. I find this very useful to keep up with market updates.

My 16-year-old daughter returns from school at 4:30 and I spend about half an hour with her on a video call—while eats, updates me on the day's activities and readies herself for classes and studies for the rest of the day. She occasionally drops into the office to spend time with me.

We love putting each other on video and just going about our work even when I am traveling. Gives us the comfort of being in each other's presence.

5:00pm—7:00pm: There is a different theme for this band everyday with operating teams. Mondays for review with different businesses and business development, Tuesdays for client health check, Wednesdays for HR and talent management, Thursdays for presentation by partners, Fridays for celebrating best work from different teams and Saturdays for working with the product teams.

When I am traveling — I try to maintain my schedule with teams at least in the evenings. When in Pune this schedule is sacrosanct.

7:00pm—8:30pm: I spend time with my daughter, husband and my four-year-old niece dancing, singing, playing and generally making merry.

8:30pm—10:00pm: I workout with my trainer before hitting the bed at 11 pm.  Most say night workout isn’t the best. But it works well for me. I’m able to clear my head and go to bed peacefully.

When I am in Dubai for half the month, I have a lot a more free time. I try to fit in my workout in the mornings and learn different types of meditation.