Your Online Masterclass host for this week: A brand strategy expert

Every Tuesday at 12.30pm you can watch an online business masterclass delivered by one of our Adviser Classic members.

This week brand stategy expert Sandeep Das hosts: How to understand your customers and achieve success

Masterclasses are now available to everyone at a cost of only £10 each. To register for this week's event at 12.30pm on 26 July, go here.

Don't forget that Classic members can watch every weekly masterclass for free! To register, log into your Enterprise Nation account and go to the events page where the discount will be automatically applied.

If you're not yet a Classic member, free masterclasses are just one of many benefits. Join now!

**Company: ** Independent brand strategy consultant

Twitter: @sandeepdas9179

Company founded: 2014

What is your favourite business book and why?

I keep on going back to classics that have set the foundation of how successful brands are built. My favourite is Strategic Brand Management by Jean Noel Kapferer. Kapferer introduced the concept of brand management in this seminal book. The principles and the frameworks he introduced still hold true today. Influential business books stand the test the time and this is one of them. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the concept of brand and how to create, build and manage one (or many).

Who is your business hero and why?

I have a few but the two individuals who I aspire to are Elon Musk (who everyone knows of) and Narayana Murthy (who many of you would know of). They stand for path breaking entrepreneurship, and for developing businesses that have disrupted traditional business models over and over. Elon Musk had the courage and conviction to believe in ideas that had the potential of transforming the way we live and way we imagine. Tesla Motors and Space X are examples of futuristic businesses that have shown us the reality of ideas that were considered practically impossible. Narayana Murthy built global IT services giant Infosys from scratch and established it as a pioneer of global business services revolution.

Describe your business in a tweet.

Independent brand strategy consultant with expertise in brand positioning, brand equity and architecture and consumer understanding.

What has been your biggest challenge?

After spending more than 12 years in permanent roles, moving away and establishing myself as an independent consultant is one of my biggest and ongoing challenge. I would call myself a solopreneur, and just like any form of entrepreneurship, it is very hard. You need to let go of lots of your life's dimensions that define you, which include comfort, security, uniformity and structure. Independent consultancy comes with the challenges of insecurity, unpredictability, the need to be constantly on your toes, constantly seeking opportunities, continuously look at building relationships and the foremost need to continuously keep yourself updated and knowledgeable in a constantly evolving marketplace.

What has been your greatest success?

I contribute my success as an independent consultant to my existing set of clients who have placed their trust and confidence in my abilities. To have been able to gain their trust is my biggest success to date, which I would like to further strengthen.

What piece of advice do you wish you had known when starting out?

Have lots of confidence in your abilities, convictions and beliefs. Don't be foolhardy, be open to advice but have the ability to filter what is relevant and have a plan. Your plan does not need to be a 10 year strategic vision, but an understanding of where you want to be in 1 or 2 years time and what you should do to get there. Then keep on building it from there.

Why do you consider long-term strategic advice important to business success?

Long-term strategic advice is crucial for you to chart a roadmap for your business. We all get caught up in the humdrum of client work, tasks, administrative duties, financials, billings, business development etc. Long-term strategic advice helps you in deciding between 'what is important' vs. 'what needs doing'. If you have a long-term perspective, your efforts to build a business will be more efficient and focused.

If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

From my perspective, every business should have the principle of empowerment written into their values and purpose. If I had a superpower, it would be to maximise the equitable distribution of value. I would love to be able to break down barriers that withhold people from living a better life due to inefficiencies in our social systems.

Sandeep 's Online Masterclass, How to understand your customers and achieve success, is at 12.30pm on 26 July. To register for the Masterclass go here or log into your Classic membership account and go to the events page to join in for free.

If you're an Adviser Classic member and you'd like to host a Masterclass, apply here.