Bengaluru, 1st August 2025: Success in marketing and customer experience (CX) is often driven by a mind-set that believes every problem is solvable—with data, intuition, or experimentation. Leaders who thrive in this space embrace ambiguity, pursue impact with intention, and balance complexity with clarity. As they grow through diverse roles and industries, their journey becomes less about defining moments and more about consistent choices grounded in curiosity, resilience, and a drive to “get it done.” Through it all, they seek integration over perfection, and purpose over routine.
Join Mr. Deepak Maloo, VP, Food Strategy and Customer Experience & New Initiatives at Swiggy in an engaging conversation with Mr. Marquis Fernandes who spearheads the India Business for Quantic India as they explore the beliefs, values, key turning points, and mindset that have shaped Deepak’s remarkable career in marketing and customer experience.
What’s one belief or value that has guided you in every major decision?
There is a simple belief/ mantra that I follow – ‘every problem is solvable’. I am a firm believer of finding solutions every time there is a challenge or problem that comes my way. Sometimes through hard data, sometimes through anecdotal evidence and at other times through pure experimentation and associated feedback loops- a solution can be found. It is easy to be the naysayer or the one who points out “why it cannot be done”. Instead, in my view, we should strive to focus on “how to get it done”.
How do you balance family life with your demanding professional role?
Honestly, I don’t think I do a very good job of it. I think my family is quite understanding of my job responsibilities and what work means to me, and bears with me. Plus, like many others, I believe “work-life balance” is a concept on paper. In my view, a more realistic (and less stressful) approach is “work-life integration”, with adequate flexibility from your employer to manage both in a sustainable way.
Was there a turning point in your career that defined everything that followed?
I would not say there was a single turning point. Rather, it was the job changes (from consulting to a start-up, back to consulting, and finally to Swiggy) that made me realize the type of work that I like (and dislike as well). Broadly, I figured out that I enjoy roles that are heavy on problem-solving, medium-to-long-term thinking, and those that allow me to gain exposure across different industries and domains.
What advice would you give to your 25-year-old self-starting out in marketing or CX?
Customer Experience is one of my roles at Swiggy. I also lead Strategy and New Initiatives for the Food Delivery business. Further, I have mostly played generalist roles across the companies I have worked with, esp. at Kearney and McKinsey.
Hence, my advice to my 25-year-old self would be more broad-based, and not necessarily be focused on how to grow within a specific domain. My top two pieces of advice would be –
- Show up – while it sounds trivial, showing up every day is a superpower. Things are way more difficult in our heads, and get way easier once we start
- Sign up for the difficult pieces – that tough project, that tough manager, and so on. The more we do this in the early stages of our career, the better it is for us later on.
If you could describe your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?
‘Stay busy, stay organized’ is my life philosophy.
Difficult to explain in a sentence, but a similar concept is spoken about in books like “The Happiness Project” and “Be Water, My Friend”. Essentially, planning your days (including weekends) with activities (work, reading, or even stargazing) keeps the brain active and happy.
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