Gumption Is The Best Insurance

An unusual career choice and strong management skills have helped Sonia Notani emerge as a senior leader at IndiaFirst Life Insurance.

- Aveek Datta

FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS in their tweens entering the workforce today, joining a buzzing startup straight out of B-school, or after a small corporate stint, is considered cool and rewarding. But 10 years ago, when Flipkart was just a bookseller and Amazon a rainforest in South America for most Indians, a job offer from a blue-chip multinational was the ultimate dream come true for many people.

Yet, circa 2009, a 27-year-old consultant with KPMG decided to pass an offer from Accenture and instead join a life insurer that hadn’t even issued its first policy at the time. IndiaFirst Life Insurance was a three-way joint venture between Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank, and the U.K.-based Legal and General Group (Legal and General’s stake in IndiaFirst was acquired by Warburg Pincus in February 2019).

With two public sector banks as its majority shareholders, IndiaFirst might not have been an employer of choice for many of her generation and pedigree, but Sonia Notani chose to join it as a project manager in 2009. “Everyone around me, including my family, was shocked that I didn’t pursue the opportunity with Accenture,” says Notani, who has previously worked with organisations including the Aditya Birla Group, Citibank, Reliance Life Insurance, and KPMG. “The role at IndiaFirst just felt right to me. I thought this was an excellent opportunity to do something of my own, set up processes, bring a lot of business intelligence into the system and be appreciated for it.”