Bengaluru, 5th August 2025: Marketing and customer experience aren’t just functions—they are deeply personal pursuits shaped by courage, curiosity, and bold decisions. In this conversation, we explore the fearless journey of a marketing leader who transitioned from a science background to brand strategy, driven by a relentless curiosity and an unwavering belief in taking risks. From cold-calling top agencies to land a breakthrough role at Ogilvy, to learning that balance is self-created—not employer-given—every milestone reflects a commitment to exploration, resilience, and staying true to one’s values. Their story is a powerful reminder that courage isn’t just a trait—it’s a life philosophy that unlocks opportunity, self-awareness, and lasting impact.
Join Ms. Nishat Farhat, Head Brand Marketing at Cashfree Payments in an interesting conversation with Mr. Marquis Fernandes, who spearhead the India Business for Quantic India, as they explore the experience, values, key turning point and mind-set that has played a pivotal role in Nishat’s achievement.
What’s one belief or value that has guided you in every major decision?
Have Courage. This belief has made me follow my curiosity of exploring content, then agency then performance and then brand and overall made me a better marketer. For eg. When I decided to make the shift to an agency, I made a list of all the top agencies in the country and cold called their offices across the country. This landed me a job at ogilvy Bangalore and changed the course of my career.
How do you balance family life with your demanding professional role?
In the beginning I gave my career my all worked really long hours. Slowly I realised the onus work life balance is on you and not your employer. So you prioritise. Sometime the work takes priority and sometimes personal life takes priority.
Was there a turning point in your career that defined everything that followed?
It was in college. I don’t come from a commerce background. I was a science student with a honours degree in zoology. After 3 years of college, I decided to enter corporate. Again I had the courage and followed my curiosity. It lead me to my first job from where I realised what I actually enjoy and landed into marketing. So your first jobs are to figure out what are you good at and what do you enjoy and eventually what can pay you money. Because it was a start- up, I got the flexibility to try multiple things and was able to find this answers.
What advice would you give to your 25-year-old self-starting out in marketing or CX?
Follow your curiosity and be bold. When you are young you have nothing to lose. If you are too cautious you lose a lot of learnings and discovering yourself in your early phase of career and this becomes the foundation of who you are and how you want to add value.
If you could describe your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?
My entire life philosophy is based on courage. Courage unlocks everything in life. So always have courage and be true to yourself. Courage decides your risk appetite, it exposes your luck surface area, it exposes the opportunities that come to you and what you make of it. Fundamentally, courage is the single most important value. So always have courage.
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www.quanticindia.com
marquis@quanticindia.com.
