Mistakes are stepping stones to successes: Amit Sinha, COO, Paytm mall

My biggest innovation
At PwC, I was fortunate to have been trusted with some of the most important assignments. I led Kerala State Electricity Board’s first computation project i.e. all of Kerala’s electricity bills used to be generated using the code I had written. Another interesting project was Kumbh Mela, which later went on to be awarded as one of the top unique projects in the PwC fraternity globally.

Details of the first job
My first job was as a consultant at PwC India. I was initially posted in Kolkata and my role involved consulting for project execution, business development and related activities.


The brief I was given and what I did in the first 100 days at work
After a week or two in training, I started my first assignment – setting up the customer signup process for an American office supplies retailer. It was a joint project handled by PwC USA and PwC India, and I was part of the Indian team handling the case for our Florida-based client.

The best leadership lesson I learnt
My first job was the steepest learning curve in my career and taught me that an assignment is never done until it is done. I truly appreciated the discipline of seeing things till the end for the first time as a consultant.

The worst mistake I made
In my first job, I had little idea about ways in which business and tech collaborate to create new avenues of growth, and I made some errors of judgements. Every tech integration has a business overhead and a potential implication attached to it. Having said that, mistakes are stepping stones to successes, and those experiences taught me how to look at the bigger picture every time. This understanding has proved invaluable in my current role as COO of Paytm Mall.