Aesara Partners 

At Aesara Partners, our mission is simple: enable you to be the best version of yourself. We offer a range of focused services that unlock the potential of people, teams and cultures to maximise business performance. 

Collectively our Partners and Associates have decades of experience both in executive coaching and as board level leaders themselves working in multiple sectors across global markets.

Partner & Executive Coach

Doshisha University

Professor of Strategic Management, Global MBA Program

The CFO Coach K.K.

The CFO Coach K.K. is a boutique executive coaching firm specializing in developing High-Performance​ Financial Leaders and Teams.

Founder & Executive Coach

Kansai Gaidai University

•	Awarded President's Global Education Award (Teacher of the Year).

Professor of Leadership & Management

Benesse Holdings, Inc. (USD 4.5B; Tokyo Stock Exchange Code: 9783)

•	Member of the Board of Directors for Berlitz Corporation; Benesse Corporation; and Benesse Style Care.  Chairman of Audit Committee for Berlitz Corporation. Member of Benesse Holdings Pension Committee.
•	Global CFO covering all 40+ Benesse group companies
•	Championed and supported multiple cash generation initiatives including a CFO led "Save to Grow" initiative to improve Company Financial performance and to identify significant savings for business reinvestment
•	Enhanced Finance bench strength and hired a high potential team to start financial business consulting
•	Implemented several process and capability best practices to move group companies towards global standards

Global Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Senior Vice President

McCann Worldgroup Holdings

• Overall Responsibility for Operations (Finance, IT, Legal, and Administration - 10 legal entities) 
• Successfully turned around long term loss making lead agency by delivering double digit margin improvements within two years
• Delivered double digit margin improvements for all six MWG Group companies 
• Built a new Finance team and moved from Scorekeeping to Business Partnership and improved business performance
• Major projects within last two years include: 
  - Shared Service center creation/migration
  - New Financial System Migration
  - Acquisition & Divestiture
  - Business Turnaround
  - Retirement Plan consolidation/change
  - Office relocation/rent reductions

Group Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, and Member of The Board

Becton, Dickinson and Company

• Led Finance, Procurement, General Affairs, and Rebates teams (43 staff) to deliver multi-million dollar cash and profit performance improvement for first year and beyond. Exceeded all budget expectations.
• Engaged Japan Management Team and Global Finance Leadership Team on company objectives to deliver best outcome (Finance Transformation initiative, Sales effectiveness improvement, Key Account Management, Business Continuity plan, and strategy/selection of backup distribution center).  Led process for 2012-16 Business Plan development
• Developed and executed Finance department strategy and vision to move from scorekeeping to business partnership. Implemented job rotation program and hired several high potential employees to improve bench strength.
• Championed multiple Finance and Procurement initiatives including definition and implementation of new 401k Retirement Plan; divestiture of non-core business; change of primary banks (reduced bank fees by over 30%); vendor reduction process, and new travel expense management system 
• Taught New Manager Essentials program and selected as leadership trainer for PEPFAR program in South Africa to teach Leadership and Change Management to African Health Ministry officials

Finance and Administration Director

Avon Products Inc.

•	Implementation project leader for Avon Sales Leadership Framework (ASLF) – Highest priority project for the Company to adapt to a new Sales Model.  Completed project implementation in record timing.  Awarded regional award as part of ASLF Team. Only person in Asia recognized for both Top-line and Bottom-line contributions in the same year.
•	Defined and executed new vision and mission and led Sales Support department to complete over 40 initiatives (within a six-month period) as part of Team’s new journey towards field motivational excellence. Incorporated new processes to deliver high impact incentives, and to create Sales energy and momentum for sales turn-around.    
•	Achieved highest employee engagement scores with Sales Support Department significantly exceeding country results in over 95% of categories.  Previously had also led Finance department to highest employee engagement scores.
•	Global Project leader for a high potential, multi-functional, multi-national team to study and recommend actions to improve Global Sales Incentive management/spending process.
•	Oversaw execution of a variety of Company and Public/Media events ranging from Sales Conferences to Philanthropic events including Annual Awards to Women, and Pink Ribbon Campaign support.

Executive Director and Member of the Board

•	Responsible for Financial policy making/implementation and reporting for Avon Japan as a public company (including statutory/public, and Board Meetings). All year-end financial documents audited with no comments/exceptions.
•	Defined and executed new department Vision and Mission, and recruited, trained and developed a completely new Finance team (80% new hires within a six month period) to move from scorekeeping to business partnership. Finance team formed core of country high potential list.
•	Consistently over achieved profit performance commitment under adverse conditions of sales decline by aggressively managing strategic business needs with cost cutting; Delivered zero overhead growth during all years; Japan winner of regional awards for best cost management performance, and for boldest transformation strategy.
•	Provided leadership and support for critical decisions and strategy development as Japan Leadership Team Member.  Actively led change management process within company.
•	Consistently achieved best internal control results in Asia-Pacific/Avon over a period of eight audits.  Japan one of only two countries with highest audit rating. Outstanding performance generated support to remove Japan from list of High Coverage countries.
• Co-developed strategic/financial business case, and obtained approval for number of campaign reduction in 2006 making Avon Japan only country ever in Avon to undergo campaign reduction. 
• Independently analyzed and provided strategic direction for Plant study which challenged and reversed previous recommendation by outside consultants on plant closure.
• Provided leadership in several restructuring initiatives by providing an achievable plan to achieve 12% people related cost reduction.  Played lead role in this study representing Finance, Supply Chain and HR 
• Consistently achieved highest performance rating and nominations to several high potential programs
• Elected (and re-elected) to Board of Directors

Executive Director, CFO and Member of the Board of Directors

Delphi

• Prepared Asia-Pacific regional messages / presentations for Delphi Strategy Board, and for Delphi Board of Directors.
• Supported development and implementation of critical Asia-Pacific strategies.  Performed competitive intelligence and other special studies to identify risks / competitive threats and outlined regional / corporate response.
• Provided Miller Heiman strategic selling process training to Asia-Pacific personnel to improve value propositions and increase sales effectiveness.

Director Asia-Pacific Planning

• Management responsibilities for Finance, HR, General Affairs, and Six-Sigma.
• Active member of the Japan Strategy Board and Japan management team.  
• Six-Sigma Deployment Champion for Delphi Japan.

Delphi Japan – CFO & Administration Director

Country Responsibilities:
• Managed all finance functions including accounting, budgeting / forecasting and treasury.
• Lead development of cross-functional and cross-divisional Internal Control Review Board.
• Lead and supported strategic initiatives including venture development support, site enhancement, competitive analysis, transfer pricing, and cost reduction studies.
• Represented Japan in Asia-Pacific Financial Task Team.

Regional Responsibilities:
• Coached country CFO and staff to implement common financial reporting processes.
• Supervised and provided training for engineering / commercial / plant / site analysts.  Coordinated regional financial training programs for the sector in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Coordinated the regional budget, business plan, and capital management process.
• Supported development of common financial practices among ventures including:  Loan monitoring, F/X and cash management, compliance with accounting principles, report submission, etc. Provided regional oversight of venture risk exposure.

Asia-Pacific Senior Finance Mgr.

Executive Coach | MBA Professor | Ex-Global CFO

I help senior leaders master complexity, elevate strategic impact, and lead with authentic authority.

I bring over 25 years of C-level and boardroom experience as a former Global CFO for a $5B publicly traded company, combined with a deep commitment to human-centered leadership development.

Today, I coach global executives, CEOs, and leadership teams — specializing in executive transitions, strategic leadership, high-performance teams, and Asian leadership development.

I am also an MBA Professor of Leadership and Strategic Management, blending research-driven frameworks with boardroom-tested insights to develop transformational leaders.

Based in Kyoto, fluent in English, Urdu, and Japanese.

Connect with me: arif@thecfocoach.jp

Website: www.thecfocoach.jp (please sign up on my mailing list to receive future announcements and newsletters)

Arif Iqball

AI Marketing Leader | Architect of Growth-Focused, Results-Driven GTM Strategies | Driving High-Impact Media, Performance Marketing & Scalable Campaigns for World-Class Brands

Strategic Growth Architect | Driving £100M+ Marketing Outcomes with Precision & Performance
Turning media into profit machines for the world’s most ambitious brands.

🚀 About Me
As a Director-level Marketing Leader with 15+ years of experience, I specialise in designing high-performance media strategies and data-led campaigns that accelerate business growth. I've scaled go-to-market initiatives across EMEA and North America, leading full-funnel transformation for global brands in DTC, retail, tech, and CPG.

Impact Highlights
📊 Drove 150% ROAS increase in 12 months using advanced media mix modelling
🌍 Orchestrated multi-market GTM strategy generating £40M+ in incremental revenue
📣 Scaled media investment from £5M to £22M/year while cutting CPA by 30% YoY
💼 Oversaw £100M+ in cumulative media spend across 5+ sectors with KPI outperformance
🔁 Led a digital transformation delivering a 4X lift in conversion through creative iteration

🛠️ Core Strengths
→ Performance Marketing Excellence: Paid social, search, programmatic, AI-powered automation
→ Growth Strategy: Aligning omnichannel plans with commercial objectives and revenue targets
→ Executional Rigor: Forecasting, budget control, P&L accountability, cross-functional integration
→ Leadership & Influence: Inhouse & Agency orchestration, stakeholder buy-in, and mentoring high-performance teams

🧠 How I Think About Growth
→ Growth = velocity × repeatability
→ Media should compound like capital
→ Insight trumps volume. Better beats more.
→ AI isn’t optional, it’s a performance multiplier

🔍 Specialist Focus Areas
→ AI-enhanced campaign testing
→ GTM strategy across Europe & North America
→ Full-funnel media design with creative experimentation
→ Automation to accelerate reporting & reinvestment cycles

Let’s connect if you’re driving ambitious growth, launching at scale, or shifting from brand-first to performance-smart.

Sandeep Gulati🎯

🚨 The biggest CAREER risk in 2026?
Thinking AI doesn’t apply to you especially if you work in digital marketing.

In 2026, AI isn’t a “nice-to-have skill.”
It’s the difference between driving growth and being replaced by systems that do.

For marketers, this isn’t about learning to code for fun.
It’s about staying relevant in a world where:

• Campaigns are planned by AI
• Content is generated at scale
• Targeting, testing, and optimisation happen automatically
• Decisions are made faster than humans can react

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most professionals are stuck because they either drown in theory or skip the fundamentals.

Both paths fail.

Here’s a clearer, marketer-friendly roadmap 👇

The AI Roadmap Every Digital Marketer Needs (2026)

1️⃣ Understand AI (Strategic Literacy)

Know the difference between:
• Machine Learning → predictions & optimisation
• Deep Learning → pattern recognition (vision, language)
• Generative AI → content, creatives, code

Why it matters: You’ll stop chasing tools and start choosing the right ones for growth.

2️⃣ Master the Basics (Without Overengineering)

You don’t need a PhD.
You do need intuition for probability, data, and experimentation.

Why it matters: This is the backbone of attribution, A/B testing, forecasting, and ROAS.

3️⃣ Know the Models (Not Just the UI)

GPT, Llama, Gemini what they’re good at, what they’re bad at, and when not to use them.

Why it matters: Model choice impacts speed, cost, accuracy, and output quality.

4️⃣ Build With the Right Tools

Python (light), no-code automation, LangChain, vector databases.

Why it matters: This is how marketers move from manual execution to systems thinking.

5️⃣ Train AI on Your Data

Your brand voice.
Your customer insights.
Your historical campaigns.

Why it matters: Generic AI produces generic marketing. Custom data creates advantage.

6️⃣ Build AI Agents for Marketing Workflows

• Lead qualification
• Campaign setup
• Reporting
• Content repurposing
• CRM updates

Why it matters: Agents don’t just assist they execute.

7️⃣ Go Beyond Text (Multimodal AI)

Images, video, ads, creative testing.

Why it matters: The next growth edge is creative velocity, not copy alone.

8️⃣ Learn Where Real Marketers Practice

Kaggle, NVIDIA, DeepLearning not hype threads, but hands-on reps.

How to Start (Without Burning Out)

✅ Pick ONE area from this roadmap
✅ Block 5 hours/week (non-negotiable)
✅ Use one free resource until you see results
✅ Build something small (a workflow beats 20 tutorials)
✅ Share what you learn teaching locks it in

The best part?
Most of this is free.

The real cost is staying passive while others build systems.

💬 Which part of the roadmap are you starting with?
📌 Save this it’s your AI survival roadmap for 2026

🔁 Repost if you believe marketers should build systems, not just campaigns
➕ Follow Sandeep Gulati🎯 for AI × Digital Marketing strategies, workflows & execution frameworks

Image Credit: ByteByteGo

🚨 This isn’t an org chart problem. It’s a value-creation problem.
And in AI-driven marketing in 2026, the distance between AI and revenue decides who wins.

Here’s what shows up again and again inside organizations 👇

• CEOs sponsor AI but marketing decisions don’t change
• CTOs invest in platforms but campaign impact stays abstract
• AI roles multiply but ownership of pipeline, CAC, or ROI gets diluted
• Innovation teams experiment but growth teams can’t scale it

So AI turns into:
– A strategy deck
– A “center of excellence”
– A pilot that never escapes PowerPoint
– A dashboard with no clear owner

And marketing stays the same.

What high-performing marketing teams do differently

They stop asking:
❌ “Do we have the right AI titles?”

They start asking:
✅ “Who owns measurable outcomes end-to-end?”

Because AI only creates value when it sits next to revenue.

What actually drives AI-powered marketing results in 2026

✔ Accountability lives inside growth teams
AI ownership sits with demand gen, lifecycle, SEO, paid media not a distant AI function.

✔ Use cases map directly to business metrics
Pipeline velocity
CAC reduction
Conversion lift
Churn prevention
Time-to-campaign

If it doesn’t move one of these, it’s noise.

✔ AI is embedded, not isolated
Co-pilots inside CRM, ad platforms, content ops, and analytics not standalone “AI tools.”

✔ Operators co-own outcomes
Marketers design, test, and refine AI workflows themselves.
They’re not downstream users they’re system owners.

✔ Systems beat experiments
One agentic workflow that runs every week beats ten impressive demos.

A practical playbook for marketing leaders

1️⃣ Identify one revenue-adjacent bottleneck (leads, content velocity, reporting, personalization)
2️⃣ Assign a single owner responsible for business impact
3️⃣ Embed AI directly into the workflow already in use
4️⃣ Measure impact within 30 days
5️⃣ Scale only what proves value

The real question for 2026

It’s not:
❌ “Where does AI report?”

It’s:
✅ “Where do decisions, incentives, and accountability live?”

If your AI roadmap looks impressive but ROI is hard to point to,
the problem probably isn’t the model.

It’s the operating system behind how marketing actually runs.

💬 Which part of your marketing workflow should become agentic first?
📌 Save this it’s your Agentic AI marketing stack for 2026

🔁 Repost if you believe systems beat tools
➕ Follow Sandeep Gulati🎯 for AI × Digital Marketing systems, workflows & execution frameworks

Talent is overrated.
Consistency is the real career advantage.

Most careers don’t stall because people lack ability.
They stall because effort isn’t sustained.

I used to believe success came from rare skills.
Elite degrees.
Being “naturally gifted.”

Experience taught me something different:

The traits that separate top performers are the ones anyone can practice daily.

Across every team I’ve led, the people who rise fastest aren’t always the most talented.
They’re the most reliable.

No title required.
No special access.
Just intentional choices.

Here are 12 things that take zero talent ⬇️

1️⃣ Getting things done
2️⃣ Acting with integrity
3️⃣ Keeping your word
4️⃣ Showing up on time
5️⃣ Bringing solutions, not just problems
6️⃣ Showing positive energy
7️⃣ Being coachable
8️⃣ Celebrating others’ wins
9️⃣ Making people feel heard
🔟 Asking how you can help
1️⃣1️⃣ Finishing what you start
1️⃣2️⃣ Staying humble

The person who shows up on time?
They show respect.

The one who keeps their word?
They build trust.

The one who finishes what they start?
They become dependable.

Talent might open the door.
Habits are what keep it open.

And here’s the 2026 shift most people miss:

In modern teams, systems amplify habits.
AI doesn’t replace discipline it rewards it.

The marketers who win won’t just “use AI.”
They’ll build agentic systems that reinforce consistency:
• automated reporting
• repeatable content engines
• reliable workflows
• fewer handoffs, less friction

That’s how effort compounds instead of burning out.

What would you add to this list?

💬 Which part of your marketing workflow should become agentic first?
📌 Save this it’s your Agentic AI marketing stack for 2026

🔁 Repost if you believe systems beat tools
➕ Follow Sandeep Gulati🎯 for AI × Digital Marketing systems, workflows & execution frameworks

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Arif Iqball

Sandeep Gulati🎯

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The Battle

Arif Iqball

Sandeep Gulati🎯

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Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sandeep Gulati🎯's LinkedIn Performance

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