“It is the Passionate, Strong-hearted Ones with a Will to Make Things Happen Who Run Lenskart”: A Peek Inside the Lenskart Culture
By: Anupriya Jain
Tags: Technology, Culture, Startup, Values, Retail

“It is the Passionate, Strong-hearted Ones with a Will to Make Things Happen Who Run Lenskart”: A Peek Inside the Lenskart Culture Anupriya Jain Follow Jun 2 · 4 min read

It is my first month at Lenskart and one of the first things I notice about this place is that it’s abuzz with activity. There are a million things happening at the company at a speed I’ve not seen before. People are working on big, ambitious projects (there are no stopgap solutions; people here build systems for scale), multiple experts form each team, and there are highly data-driven, action-focused conversations happening on each Zoom call I attend. It’s as busy as a beehive on a spring afternoon.

“I moved here from 10 years at Adidas because I wanted to work in a fast-paced, startup environment. And I got exactly what I was looking for,” Emma, who heads Product & Marketing for Singapore, tells me.

If you are willing to go the extra mile, working at Lenskart can feel like running your own startup.

“We are in fact encouraged to visit the stores as many times as we like, observe, interact and really get to know the customer. There are no rules/restrictions if you really want to get into the thick of things and understand how you can best contribute to the company,” says Deepnarayan Tripathi, Head of Organization Development.

People don’t have ‘jobs’ at Lenskart, they have responsibilities, ownership and accountability — that sums up to something much bigger than assigned roles and tasks.

“I see our call center agents as ‘fashion consultants’. They are not selling a product (in fact, we discourage pushing products that are not relevant to the customer). They are curating a personalized lifestyle by connecting their understanding of the product to the customer’s needs,” says Anil Pandey, Head of Assisted Sales.

Across the organization, there is a preference to hire people for whom working with Lenskart is not just a typical 9-to-5. “We look for people who are driven to see and build this company as co-owners”, I hear in every conversation. And with the aim to build itself into a world-class consumer brand, they just cannot settle for anything less.

“Peyush (the CEO) is also an incredible visionary in this regard. He can envision things bigger than most leaders I have met, and still has an exceptional eye for detail for the entire value chain — and this has helped shape the growth and the very DNA of the organization,” says AP Nayak, heading the South East Asia business.

When it comes to execution, getting things done really fast is core to the company. There is an entrepreneurial fervor in getting things off the ground here.

“And these bootstrappers inevitably become fast-trackers at Lenskart,” adds Mohana Ukil, who is currently shaping the company’s hiring strategy.

One such example is Kavita who started off as a customer support agent in 2013 and has moved through multiple roles and increasingly senior positions across the organization.

As an integral part of the CEO’s office and the Lenskart Foundation today, she believes, “People are extremely helpful here and every time I have asked for support to learn more and grow, I’ve received it wholeheartedly. A few months into my joining, Peyush saw potential in me and promoted me to lead the customer support teams, even before I knew I had it in me to do it!”

People have different reactions when they encounter challenges — some can be naturally overwhelmed by it while there are always some who feel energized to push the boundaries. They try very hard to go beyond what is possible and Lenskart is full of the latter.

Another such example is that of Sumeet Kumar, who joined Lenskart’s manufacturing operations team and now heads business finance.

“If you want to take up something new or challenging, people show trust and give you that opportunity,” he shares. The key at Lenskart, according to him, is building that trust in the leadership by working hard and delivering results. “So when you decide to aim higher, like when I wanted to take up a senior role in Finance, there will be a resounding yes,” he says. “If you are willing to spot opportunities and work on them to add value to the organization, you belong here,” adds Aditya Kakkar, the man behind Lenskart’s brick-and-mortar stores.

Of course, with great power, comes great responsibility too. There are side effects to building a high performing culture, and the teams at Lenskart are constantly tracking and figuring out how to minimize those to support the sustainability of the culture.

“There is, of course, a lot of work needed from us in terms of recognizing and rewarding great performance, surrounding our people with equally capable talent (if not more), and making Lenskart a great place to work, to say the least. We completely recognize that,” says Peyush Bansal, the CEO.

Currently, the organization is in the process of refreshing behaviors and processes rooted in its culture — and bringing best practices from other rapid-growth, high-performing organizations that have succeeded in building effective organizational cultures over the years.