Why South Asian Success and why now? I think about this question nearly every day, in conversations with friends, family and my community. The initial inspiration for doing this came from other diversity initiatives I was seeing in the space, such as Success in Black and Customer Success Middle East. Not only did they provide a home for their members to come and chat with like-minded people, but they were elevating and growing their members presence in our broader communities.
The inspiration came from my professional life, but the impetus to do this actually came from my children’s school. In 2022, myself and some mothers in the community launched a South Asian parents group, to bring culture, celebrate our identities and bring influence of South Asian needs to the broader school community. This work was so impactful and we have grown this community, with events, in class activities, and more – and have since seen the formation of similar affinity groups around the school.
As a minority in the country I live in (the USA), this is something I never had before. And yes, programs as this are more prevalent today in larger institutions – but our cultural identity is still unique and can be misunderstood. The community needs our voices to bring insight and drive change.
I recognize there may be members of the community who are not minorities in their countries, and yet, every conversation I have with members of this group, brings joy and excitement for what we can achieve. Even as non-minorities, you may feel like a minority just being in Customer Success – a newer and yet-evolving organization in many companies. As employees, you may feel like minorities at some point – this could be due to other diversity issues, organizational reach, style, growth planning, and many more reasons.
This is where we can all come together and grow each other. I also believe, one of the most important things we can do is raise our collective voices. We hope to help individuals and the broader community do more and bring more to the Customer Success and Customer Experience spaces.
A few ways you can start getting involved or elevating your own voice:
1. Register for our community and engage in discussions: linktree/southasiansuccess
2. Propose or join a webinar, or other live event
3. Write for our blog
4. Reach out with something new you can offer
To get started or for any questions – do not hesitate to email and reach out.
Hope this provides some insight to why this community and why now. And I hope you will join us as a member or ally in diversity.
-Parul
