CEO Insights Magazine

The professionals who think beyond materialistic benefits and take pride in bringing value to the customers don’t belong to run-of-the-mill cubicles of an organization. The reason is no rocket science, but the typical service / product centric approach of their respective organizations. In other words, they can only offer the best available service / product of their organization, not the world’s best service that suits the patron. The aforementioned rationale has played a significant role in many professionals like CharuPahuja (Director & Business Head, Wise Finserv) embarking on their entrepreneurial voyage. After 16 years of her service in the banking sector, Charu eventually broke the shackles & decided to serve the customers better through a customer centric paradigm, which led to the inception of Wise Finserv in 2014, where she makes policies purely based on serving the clients better.

Cut to the present, manifesting highly personalized services and heavily leveraging the world-class technologies, Wise Finserv has become one of the leading & well diversified financial services firm offering end-to-end financial products & services including Financial Planning for long term & short term goals, Wealth Management, Portfolio Management Services, Loans and Taxation. Moreover, Charu is determined in spreading her happiness to maximum women who struggle to make it into the limelight, employing more than 85 percent women employees in her organization.

Turning Back the Pages
A daughter who was inspired by her father’s efficacy to multitask as a perfect businessman

husband & parent simultaneously, Charu’s success was never an immediate turnaround.“I didn’t want to merely follow up my father’s business, and in fact, I had proper plans in my mind – to have an exposure & experience in the corporate world first, and then step into my entrepreneurial journey,” asserts Charu. Post her MBA graduation, she worked with financial institutions such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Development Bank of Singapore and many others.


There is a genuine contradiction between an employee working for merely his/her livelihood and the one who works for cementing an experience plinth. As Charu’s ultimate aim was to comprehend things, she delved deeper into the customer’s issues, brainstormed about the solutions, and took feedback from them, which became crucial in her way forward. However, so as she craved, the exposure & experience she gained from the banking sector was immense. Charu not only savored an opportunity to cross function in those institutions, especially in the operations & wealth management departments where she managed the wealth of high network individuals who usually invested from Rs.10 crore to as high as Rs.100 crore. She says, “I have worked with each and every desk in a bank. And that’s how I learned to manage the services, and easily comprehend a customer’s requirements”. On the other hand, she first - handedly experienced the evolution of technology in the BFSI segment as well.

A Strong Leader
All these experiences polishing the

pavement, Charu along with three other investment bankers established Wise Finserv. Today, banking on her technology know how, Wise Finserv has curated a digital platform for its clients built in cutting edge technologies and secured by unique user IDs & passwords, relieving them from the entailment to visit the office for latest updates & developments.“Besides the transaction facility, the customers can check out their portfolio 24x7. In addition, the platform also enables them to talk to our financial advisors,”she adds. Further more, the company has also launched its mobile app. “This is an industry where I meet up with challenges on a daily basis. Over the years, the number of our techy customers has increased tremendously, and they entail secured online services. We are in turn implementing the futuristic technologies like Robo advisors, investing a significant chunk of money,”she continues.

Family Comes First
Going forward, Charu is busy with strengthening the in-house team by mentoring & guiding them. However, in terms of growth plans, no funding comes into the picture for at least the next 3-5 years. She also shares her genuine interest to expand the ecosystem of entrepreneurs in our country by engaging with public forums in the coming years. Advising the budding entrepreneurs, Charu says,“You should be passionate about what you do. If you are happy, you can convey it to your employees,and when your employees are happy, your productivity will always be on the rise”.

Though climbed up the mountain of triumph in the professional front, Charu is quite an emotional person when it comes to her family and she is never willing to abandon any of her responsibility.Her happy family is comprised of her loving husband, beautiful daughter, and in-laws who care her like their daughter. “My family supports me in my ups & downs, and I believe there is no success without their happiness. Whenever I become emotional, my family becomes my strength,” elucidates Charu. A complete family person who would leave everything to spend time with her daughter, Charu likes every holiday destination, if she is accompanied by her family.