MAM
Soma Pandey joins Tredence as chief human resources officer
Mumbai: Tredence has announced that Soma Pandey has joined the company as the chief human resources officer.
Pandey, a seasoned human resources leader with over twenty-five years of global experience, excels in transforming talent capabilities to align with the business strategies of advanced technology-driven companies. In her previous roles as chief human resources officer and in other executive positions at Firstsource, Mastek, ITC Ltd, Randstad, Accenture, and Cognizant, Pandey shaped comprehensive global people programs that empowered employees to contribute meaningfully to achieving company business objectives.
“I am excited to join Tredence as it continues to strengthen its position, working with global clients across multiple industries as high-impact advisors to address the last-mile challenges with data, analytics, and AI,” said Pandey. “Tredence has an open, warm, and high-achievement culture, where we encourage each Tredencian to excel in ACE as Advisors to our clients, Coach-Captains to our teams, and Entrepreneurs for our business. As the CHRO, I look forward to collaborating closely with key stakeholders to ensure we nurture this essence as we enter our ambitious growth phase. My belief is that all talent practices – from onboarding to performance management to career paths and learning should align to deliver the ACE experience not just to our people, but also to our clients, as well as to the communities we live in.”
“Tredence has quadrupled its workforce in the last 2-3 years and has experienced rapid expansion. Soma’s experience will be instrumental in building an agile and inclusive culture. Her expertise in building the workforce of the future and optimizing operating models will be vital as we collaborate with clients to integrate AI into their businesses.” said Tredence CEO Shub Bhowmick.
Currently, Tredence employs 2,300 people. By the end of 2024, the company plans to expand its workforce to 3,500. Additionally, the expansion will create jobs in India, North America, Canada, and the UK. The company also plans to open a near-shore delivery center in the Middle East and Latin America.
MAM
Early Summers, Early Campaigns: How Beverage Brands Are Rethinking Marketing Strategies for Weather-Led Demand
SLMG Beverages Private Limited joint managing director Paritosh Ladhani.
MUMBAI: As Sun climbs up the hemisphere, summer has clearly arrived in India. On 7th March 2026 Delhi registered a maximum temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius which is the highest reading logged for the first week of March in the last 50 years. Climate Change has been prolonging summers by causing earlier spring warming, delayed autumn cooling, and more frequent, intense heatwaves that persist for much longer periods.
In an endeavor to stay ahead of the curve, Beverage Brands are shifting from fixed seasonal marketing tactics to weather responsive strategies backed by data-driven insights, flexible campaigns, and diversified portfolios to capitalize on unruly temperature spike. In 2025, India’s beverage market experienced a massive, heat-triggered surge with carbonated drinks and ice cream volumes spiking 20–25 per cent in the March quarter itself on the back of hottest February in 125 years.
Clearly campaign timelines are being advanced to reap the seasonal shift in line with the jumping mercury. In the Indian context where Cricket is nothing short of religion, big ticket tournaments like T20 World Cup, Indian Premier League, ICC Champions Trophy provide plethora of opportunities to calibrate marketing campaign designs and associated business strategies to associate refreshment with community viewing both outdoor and indoors. A new trend that has taken the world by storm is that of booking the theatres for bonhomie viewing. It has also opened avenues for joint marketing initiatives by the Multiplex and Beverage Brands.
Price disrupting small potions and value packs tend to drive significantly higher volumes owing to volumetric flexibility and affordability to the consumers. Ramping up of cold supply chains for transit and at point of sales (POS) are strategic business imperatives that again define success of beverage brands.
In the era of AI and Big Data it is easy to track and calibrate messaging based on daily or weekly weather changes. Geo-targeted digital advertisement campaigns are also being run during heatwaves to make the business and marketing imperative very contextual. These pre-emptive strategies fueled by real time data and technology immensely help beverage brands to adjust supplies to the areas that are likely to generate more demand.
Novelty brings premium to the FMCG Sector and Beverage Brands are no exception. Newer SKUs build up excitement in consumers besides imparting the scope of frequent revitalization of brand marketing campaigns. Ensuring continuum of supply chain across material suppliers, logistics providers, distributors/wholesalers, and retailers become a strategic business strategy imperative for beverage brands during peak season.
Carbonated drinks among other beverages including packaged mineral water sell like hotcakes in summers, a period where holiday season gives big impetus to sales volumes. Tying up with air carriers railways, amusement parks, malls, convention centers for inclusion in the onboard beverage deck also holds a big window of opportunity for brands.
Limited period diversification into special summer categories entailing juices and functional beverages to capture the broader hydration market is also a business cum marketing imperative that beverage brands eye on. This also brings to fore the responsible side of the brand placing the compass on wellness of consumers.
Seasons are cyclic, hence summers are inevitable. Further, due to anthropogenic climate change, summers surely have been staging prolonged appearance that keep bringing beverage brands on to their drawing boards frequently for strategizing business and marketing campaigns that are agile, refreshment-focused, visually dominant in retail, affordable, and optimally promoted through seasonal campaigns in above and below the line media.
