Initiative’s Rising Strategy Star Kajal Gajria Connects the Dots

Technically, Kajal Gajria’s description of herself as “Jersey-born and raised” is only half-accurate. She was born in Freehold, grew up in South Brunswick and currently resides in Jersey City. But in between, she spent 10 years in her family’s native India, leaving the U.S. at age 10 and returning after having graduated from college. 

The cross-ocean moves and the changes that came with them – “first it was culture shock, and then it was reverse culture shock,” Gajria says – had a profound impact on her life. While she grew up speaking several South Asian languages (Hindi, Sindhi, Marathi and Gujarati) in addition to English and had visited India multiple times during her family’s first tenure in New Jersey, Gajria nonetheless experienced a true sense of dislocation each time she relocated.

“The education system was different. Pop culture and music and movies were different. And then when I came back, it was like, ‘Everything here is just so loud,’” she recalls. “I learned at an early age to be adaptable.”

That adaptability has served Gajria well in her ascending career at Initiative, where she started as associate, communications designer (a planning role), before shifting over to her current strategy focus. “Getting that foundation of media planning helped me become a better strategist,” she says. “I understand how things come to life. I understand the nitty-gritty of tactics. It was so valuable to me.”

‘I didn’t know agencies were a thing’

As she pursued her education in India, Gajria was quick to narrow down potential areas of concentration. She dropped science relatively early – slightly ironic, given the business in which she currently operates – and pushed to learn everything she could about business and economics. She graduated with a marketing degree and then, after returning to the U.S., received a Master’s degree in marketing from the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business.

Gajria’s time at grad school proved pivotal in multiple ways. After fighting her way through a business statistics class in grad school, she realized that a career in economics probably wasn’t for her. “I love numbers, but that was a level too high for me and my brain to make it an everyday job,” she says. 

During her brief stay in Cincinnati, Gajria had the opportunity to familiarize herself with the city’s most famous corporate resident. For an insights project designed to flesh out marketing for a new product, she worked with Procter & Gamble in a role that required her to conduct qualitative interviews with consumers.

“One of the P&G people told me that you can look at all the data and you can do all the surveys, but the thing that will help you most is going to Walmart or Target and just observing – what products they’re picking up, how they’re moving around,” she explains. “You always need to turn to real human beings and what they’re doing.”

The final pillar in her grad school education came courtesy of Roseann Hassey, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Business’ marketing department who led Gajria’s brand strategy course. “The way she taught us involved case studies and simulations. It was the first time when I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is it.’ I started connecting the dots,” Gajria continues.

She had the bad fortune, however, of entering a job market mired in a pandemic rut. Finding few open strategy positions in any vertical, Gajria accepted the planning role at Initiative. She knew little about the business (“I didn’t know that media or agencies were a thing”) but dove in with curiosity and enthusiasm. This left an immediate impression on her Initiative colleagues.

“I was blown away by her work ethic, the maturity beyond her years and the speed with which she learns and operates,” says Initiative head of strategy, HCP, Vaishali Mokashi, Gajria’s current manager.

Mokashi recalls the time when Gajria presented her first strategy deck to clients, at a moment when she was new to the brand. “The clients were engaging with her in a way that they do with more senior leaders. Her poise and ability to think on her feet, all with a smile and sincerity, won her many fans,” Mokashi adds.

Indeed, Gajria relishes presenting to client-side decision-makers. “I find it easier to talk to a crowd of 20 people than going up to two people and inserting myself into a conversation,” she says with a laugh. “As long as it’s about work that I’ve done, I can talk and talk and talk. Otherwise I’m an introvert.”

Transitioning to strategy

Even as she earned high points for her planning work, Gajria kept her eye on a strategy role. She wasn’t exactly shy about it: “My bosses knew this.” But they encouraged her, allowing her work on strategy-related side projects. When an opening on the strategy team servicing the agency’s Johnson & Johnson business opened up, Gajria slid into it easily.

Since then, Gajria has contributed meaningfully to the strategy mix for A-list clients like J&J, Bayer and Amgen. In the process, she has become a stalwart defender of the strategy role and is quick to address existing misperceptions – especially the one that claims strategy is disconnected from the end product of a campaign.

“At some agencies there’s this sense that strategy only comes up during the annual presentation cycle, like it’s a one-and-done presentation,” she explains. “Every conversation needs to be strategic, so I make myself available. It doesn’t matter who’s leading that conversation, whether it’s the planning team or the search team or the social team. I joke that I’m here to make everyone else sound smart.” 

Not surprisingly, Gajria plans on spending the rest of her career in strategy roles, whether pharma-adjacent or otherwise. “What I like about strategy is that it’s a skill set that’s applicable to any industry, any country, anything,” she notes. “The opportunities are endless.”

Outside the office, Gajria indulges her creative side by selling original prints on Etsy and reads voraciously. “Reading is my way of stepping outside the world, which is crazy right now,” she says. “No murder-mysteries. I’m all about ‘happily ever after.’”’ 

Gajria also loves to travel and, with a few years to spare, finds herself one country away from achieving her goal of visiting 30 countries before she turns 30. She believes it helps her with her work.

“I was on a week-long cruise in March and I made a very deliberate choice not to buy the Wi-Fi package,” she says. “I came back with all kinds of ideas, and also feeling much more sane. So that was a win for everyone.” 

Gajria hopes and expects that future sojourns abroad will similarly inspire her. “It’s helpful to see how different people behave in different environments. Sometimes the best way to stimulate yourself is to literally step away.”

This profile is part of the solli Elevate series, celebrating the Next Generation of Pharma Media Leaders. View all profiles here.