Shubham S.

Brand Manager at Dole Singapore-Malaysia | Consumer Goods Marketing | Helping new marketers grow in their careers

A believer in the power of brands to influence sustainable lifestyle choices, I love scaling brands from 1 to 10 rapidly. 

-------- Current Role:----------

At Grab, to grow key QSR brands’ reach and revenue in SEA. I am handling end to end enterprise services on Grab for them. 

-------- Past Roles:----------


I was building Kind Kones, a plant based ice cream brand with no palm oil or negative additives. 

Whether it's door to door selling to presenting in board rooms, I donned every hat with humility. 

I helped a team of 40+ people to expand the business in SG/MY/Middle East. 

Before that,  I expanded Dole's business through in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia and Brunei. 

I also led Dole juices launch in Jollibee, Fairprice and 2600 7-Eleven stores, apart from regular retail listings and marketing.

Previously, I was leading marketing and BD for India business where I helped Dole reach $1M + revenue in Year 1, including co-branded partnership with McDonald’s in 150 stores.
 
I also love to distill interesting marketing and startup concepts to help young folks grow.  

Hence, I write on LinkedIn. 

-------- Japan experience:----------

Previously, I was the youngest Project Lead in Japan in Energy sector but soon realised my heart was in marketing. 

To confirm that my heart's voice isn't a quarter life crisis, I conducted food tours in Tokyo, dabbled in own sandwich business and consulted in food industry. 

The love for marketing was confirmed!  

The issue of sustainability is also close to my heart. 

-------- Student life:----------

So, prior to FMCG life, I published research papers in the field of Sustainable resources and technologies like Bio-fuels, Bio-Lubricants, Gas Emission control and also filed a patent related to Fuel Oil Storage. 

I have also developed a sub-$100 Solar Dryer for rural community which can work beyond sunset.

My outdoor interests range from Copy Writing, Geo-politics, Snowboarding, Mountain Trekking.  Food-trotting in groups and other times I can be found writing and creating food recipes.

Chief Operating Officer

Lecturing at NUS this week, I noticed a fascinating shift.

Back in my MBA days, the end of a guest lecture was a high-contact sport. 

We’d practically sprint to the front of the hall, hoping to grab 30 seconds of the speaker’s time.


A few for internships, others simply to get some advice. 

But not with undergrads these days. 

Their playground seems to be the DMs here. 

I see the hustle...

In fact, their DMs/ questions are more nuanced than mine during MBA. 

🍍 However, being old school, I still feel those who make an effort to meet in person pace further and faster than their peers. 

Especially when we are inundated on whatsapp with work/personal texts, 

🍍Face-to-face hustlers get remembered for longer. 

#shubhamspeaks

Shubham Sharma 🍍

Grab | ex-COO Kind Kones | Bain Advisory | P&L Management | QSR

After Prive’s exit, Providore is also gone. 

As per their social media release, they will cease operations this week. 

People in the CBD associate the brand for bringing great cafe, deli experience and it is sad to see it leave. 

My heart goes out to the staff who were affected and were not informed in advance as per reports. 

🍍Singapore remains a volatile place for F&B and we can see the tide turning towards online deliveries. 

🍍Consumers are rejecting $20 avocado toasts and mundane menus. They can pay premium but only for novelty. 

I still see queues for $100 omakase. 

Opening a cafe is no more a viable retirement plan folks. 

Watch out. 


#shubhamspeaks

20-30% of food complaints are because of packaging. 

-soggy bread 
-spilled sauce
-chewy texture 

The worse rating you have, the lower your visibility is. 

Yet most of the casual dining restaurants treat delivery menu as a copy cat of dining. 

This is what needs to be done: 

🍍Create bundles like QSRs do: 

Your job is to remove decision friction. Create family meal, lunch, single serve bundles at the top. 

🍍Put Chef’s recommendations/crowd fav at the top. 

These are delicious and delivery friendly items. Don’t forget high gross margins on these. 

🍍Add disclaimers on the items that will get affected during delivery. 

Dosa, Breads, Ramen, ice creams etc. 

Easy, no? 

#shubhamspeaks

Mascots are back in vogue. 

They faded out in the last 50-60 years but are back with a bang. 

Whether it is Duolingo's mascot marrying Luckin's 

or going to Japan for Sumo contest

or cleaning sponge brand Scrub Daddy’s growing following on TikTok, 

Thanks to AI, the mascots are flourishing. 

🍍 The production and animation costs are down

🍍 They have a personality through social media and chatbot

🍍 In a world of "cancel culture," a mascot is a permanent, scalable asset that doesn't age or go off-script.

Campaigns using a mascot are 37% more likely to gain market share. 

I have always been a big fan of unhinged mascots and tried my fair bit to create a MOMster during my Dole days with great success. 

I want the boring AI/B2B tech companies to have mascots now; 

why should FMCG have all the fun?

#shubhamspeaks

Casual dining is growing at 5.5% a year vs 10% in QSR in APAC. 

The gap comes from how Casual dining thinks about delivery channels (Grab, Ubereats etc). 


🍍 QSR was built for speed and portability. 


Everything on the menu travels. 


The packaging is engineered. 


Meal deals, combo sets, family buckets provided customized options.


When someone opens a delivery app, QSR is already optimised for that moment.

Unfortunately, Casual dining isn't. 


You don't need to change the kitchen, only the menu. 

🍍 20 mins rule: 


Go dish by dish and ask what survives 20 minutes in a bag. Delicate plating, crispy textures, and anything that relies on just-off-the-grill timing doesn't. 

The delivery menu should be a tighter, more honest edit of the full menu. 


🍍 Create occasion-based bundles. 


A solo lunch, a family Friday dinner, an office group order — these are completely different needs. 

Your goal is to reduce decision fatigue. 

🍍Make packaging part of the product. 


Separate gravies from breads. Sauces in sealed side cups. Vented containers for anything that steams. 

The bag that arrives at someone's door IS the last metre of the kitchen. 


Delivery is where casual dining is losing ground to QSR. 


It's also where the gap is easiest to close.


#shubhamspeaks

Hook Digital Marketing, is your fractional marketing department.

We help eCommerce businesses, brick and mortars, service, manufacturing, D2C, And B2B

Author of several marketing books including "Will AI Take My Job?”, “Start Saying Yes,”and "Flattening the Hamster Wheel.”

Host of the Business Builder Throwdown show and the Digital Marketing Masters Podcast.

Get actionable marketing tips and fun stories every week to your inbox: https://sendfox.com/hookseo

Matt Rouse

Won’t DM you to sell anything. Author of “Will AI Take My Job? 2” and Host of Digital Marketing Masters Podcast. Marketer based in Nova Scotia who invented SMB Autopilot AI.

No alternative text description for this image

Some thoughts from PodCamp Toronto 2026.

1. I delivered one of the two AI-specific presentations. But AI was mentioned in nearly every presentation. Podcasters and creators are thinking about AI, way more than last year.

2. The PodCamp community is supportive, friendly, and accessible. They are just lovely.🥰 

3.  There is almost no government or industry support for podcasting in Canada and this needs to change. If we want Canadian voices in the world, we need infrastructure and $$$.

4. Women & people in minority groups are constantly being harrassed online. Activists are targeted with violence and even needed security at some events in Canada. This needs to be taken more seriously by the creator community and law enforcement.

5. Large groups are made of small groups. Being a connector means getting folks together to share an experience. Our small crew of about six people have strengthed friendships, reconnected, and I would say we’ve all made some new friends. And friends are hard to come by for people in the modern world. 

My second year at PodCamp was fun, enlightening, and re-energizing for my podcast and my business. You should go next year. 

I’m interested in presenting or running workshops for more Canadian events. I’d love to be a connector for your event as well. 

#pcto26

Getting ready to drop some knowledge at PodCamp Toronto 
#PCTO26

Come to PodCamp and catch me 2pm Sunday with the State of AI in 2026!

Going to talk about farming, live AI demos, agent swarms, and business automation, and the reality of automated AI podcasts infiltrating the directories at scale!

The PodCamp Toronto schedule is LIVE! 

Our main schedule is stacked with terrific speakers! Don’t miss a single session that interests you by creating your own personalized schedule at podcamptoronto.com. Get Familiar with all event locations and times.

Saturday February 28
8am-9am Check In
8:30am PCTO Lounge* opens
9am-10am Keynote
10am-1pm Sessions
1pm-2pm Break
2pm-5pm Sessions
6pm-11pm Networking Mixer* (location Triple A Bar)

Sunday March 1
9am-10am Check In
9:30am PCTO Lounge* opens 
10am-12pm Sessions
12pm-1pm Break (Toronto Podcasts will be selecting their contest winner)
1pm-4pm Sessions
4pm-5pm Town Hall Wrap Up

*must have a Champion or GA+ Networking pass

Visit www.podcamptoronto.com to register and see full schedule.

Thanks to our sponsors:
George Brown Polytechnic
Shure & SFM
Web Hosting Canada (WHC)
CIRA
AmberMac Media Inc. & Amber Mac
Toronto Podcasts
Trebble FM 
The Canadian Podcast Awards
The Toronto Prop Expo
Leschinski Design & John Leschinski

taplio

The Battle

Shubham S.

Matt Rouse

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreShubham S.'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Rouse's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Shubham S.

Matt Rouse

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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);}Shubham S.'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Rouse's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreShubham S.'s LinkedIn Performance