Purnima Shenoy - Founder & CEO, Hallmark Consulting
Purnima Shenoy - Founder & CEO, Hallmark Consulting
For centuries, we have seen women struggle for equality, fighting oppression. Although they have won some battles, they still have a lot to achieve. However, even against all the odds, there are women who have achieved the heights of success in their field.
One such insightful, compassionate, and resilient businesswoman is Purnima Shenoy, the Founder and CEO of Hallmark Consulting, a Global Search Firm. An epitome of courage, wisdom, and leadership, she has successfully built a business from scratch all by herself.
A senior HR professional, Purnima Shenoy, has worked for Larsen & Toubro Limited for over 25 years. While working for Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Purnima led a team of six people responsible for Leadership Hiring for L&T Infotech (LTI), the Information Technology arm of the parent Company L&T.
Blessed with a photographic memory, Purnima has an eye for recruiting the best talent for a position. Backed by her experience and passion for leadership hiring, she laid the cornerstone of her firm and formed her independent identity.
After spending 28 years with the corporates, Purnima wanted to achieve a work-life balance. For Purnima, the idea of entrepreneurship was always there.
Post completion of her working tenure with Corporate, she aspired to become a part of the entrepreneur group. However, it was the thought of being there for her kids in their growing years that led her to quit her job and start something of her own.
Purnima emphasises, “Family for me always comes First. With growing children, I was not going to miss out on major events in their lives. With Hallmark Consulting, I can balance my professional and personal life without causing any adverse effect on either.”
Possessing excellent time management skills, Purnima effectively fulfils professional commitments to her clients while being present for her children every wake of their lives.
Hallmark Consulting, the brainchild of Purnima Shenoy, founded in May 2017, is a Global Search firm based out of Mumbai. Purnima Shenoy, along with the team members of Hallmark Consulting, provides HR services to recruit the best possible candidate for executive leadership requirements for clients in IT and other industries.
With a mission to be a well-known headhunter possessing high-level ethics providing the right talent pool and servicing across the globe, the firm, over the course of its five-plus years, has managed to build a steady client base of more than 12 tier I and tier II companies from Information Technology, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, Engineering and Digital transformation industries.
Purnima’s expertise in hiring comes in handy for Hallmark Consulting. Being a team player, she is actively involved, along with other team members, in identifying and recruiting leaders in Domestic and International markets to develop, renew, and sustain business activities for clients they partner with.
With a high-quality and reliable database, Hallmark Consulting has established itself among its clients. Purnima Shenoy emphasises, “We strive to ensure that our clients find leaders that are an optimum fit for their mission, culture and values to handle their specific challenges.”
Trying to achieve a better work-life balance, Purnima quit her job in May 2017 and, within a span of 15 days, laid the foundation of her consulting firm, Hallmark Consulting.
Hallmark Consulting has marked its presence globally within five years of its inception. The team at Hallmark Consulting manages hiring across geographies such as India, USA, Japan, China, Middle East, and Singapore. Their expertise lies in hiring for leadership positions, including AVP, VP, President, CFO, CIO, etc.
Hallmark Consulting, Global Search Firm was set up by Purnima Shenoy after her long stint in Talent Acquisition in the Corporate World.
Purnima is a value driven person and has worked in organisations that have highest standards in sourcing and recruiting the best talent.
The organisation has been built based on the belief that talent acquisition is not just about sourcing people by offering attractive compensation packages but is a lot to do with creating a sense of purpose, convincing, negotiation and making an authentic impact.
Advisor to CEO & MD, Group HR
Larsen & Toubro Limited
Aeris Communications India
Its been a long association with Hallmark and Purnima. They have done quite a bit of work for us and mostly senior leadership. I must say that Purnima has an eye for picking out the most relevant and precise candidates.
Their ability to understand mandate and working with the right fit in our context has worked very well for us. Joiners have also expressed smooth handling and rave reviews about their interactions with Purnima. Highly recommended for senior leadership and complex fit roles.
-Dr. Rishi Mohan Bhatnagar
President - Aeris Communications India Pvt. Ltd.
Zensar Technologies
I would like to appreciate the support provided by Purnima Shenoy, Hallmark Consulting.
We have closed multiple positions through Hallmark at different levels. Purnima has always been very proactive in the search process. She works on any assignment with utmost sincerity with a focus on providing the right candidate experience. She has a strong network of talent pool that helps us in closing the position within the defined SLAs.
She is very passionate and effectively engages with the candidates and my talent acquisition team.
Wishing Purnima the very best.
-Vivek Ranjan
Chief Human Resources Officer
Zensar Technologies
Quitting a stable corporate job and building a business from scratch was not an easy task. Purnima shares, “In the initial days of founding Hallmark Consulting, taking the risk to enter the startup segment and managing work with two growing children was tough.” As a self-funded firm, there was too much at stake.
The days of inception were filled with challenges dealing with seniors and acquiring clients from the IT industry and organisations from the tier I industries. However, although there was not a big company name backing her, she was still the same person with the same level of experience.
A master of excellent communication and negotiation skills, Purnima soon managed to get clients and retain them. Her perseverance led Hallmark Consulting from zero requirements in the initial days to requirements pouring at present, and now there is no looking back for the team.
The journey of Hallmark Consulting has been anything but a smooth sail. Purnima has to deal with her fair share of hurdles and failures. However, she kept on working with perseverance, as giving up was never a solution for her.
Her family and specially her husband have been the core pillars of strength throughout her journey as an entrepreneur. Purnima, as a leader, recognises the effort of each team member in the success of the organisation.
It is under the guidance of a highly compassionate leader, Hallmark Consulting thrived even with the covid pandemic. They have successfully placed senior leaders at the President, VP and AVP levels across multiple geographies, including India, USA, Japan, China, Middle East, and Singapore.
Providing quality, maintaining a high level of ethics and having equal respect for the client and the candidates acting as a guide are the core values of Purnima Shenoy based her entire firm on.
She firmly believes in providing quality over quantity in the services offered to clients. The reliability, high-level ethics, and following recruitment-process rules separate Hallmark Consulting from its competitors.
Purnima says, “Managing the global requirement 24x7 from Mumbai is not easy. But when we onboard a candidate for the client, location does not matter for us.” The firm operates out of Mumbai, India, but they are responsible for Executive hiring for various geographies viz.
USA, Japan, China, Middle East, and Singapore. Hallmark Consulting is responsible for end-to-end recruitment, including a Reference Check, Assistance in compensation discussion and ownership of placement.
The opportunities in the recruitment industry are endless. Instead of binding their work to a limited space, Purnima believes in seizing the unfolding opportunities. In the coming future, she has plans to expand their work in multiple geographies, including the UK and European markets.
Hallmark Consulting plans to focus on leadership hiring for the N and N-1 positions. Even at present, they are involved in hiring for leadership positions, but in future, they will focus more on CEOs, Presidents and other similar positions.
With a Vision to be the best in the Industry, Purnima Shenoy at Hallmark Consulting is focusing on having a steady business with its existing clients and delivering the best talent pool across the globe while managing the work from India.
Sharing a word of advice for young entrepreneurs, Purnima Shenoy says, “There is no substitute for hard work. It is common for startups to face the Rise-Fall phenomenon. The key to success is to keep working and to have patience and perseverance. However, it is important to find a work-life balance. I believe that Family always comes First.”
Purnima wishes to thank her husband, Suresh, a Senior Cost Management Consultant, for his great support in the startup of this business. She feels her husband is a strong pillar for her to become a Successful Entrepreneur.
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