Crucial Success Skills Forged Through My Journey
In my career I have started up different accounts and scaled them up. Four years back I started my own company, Proeffico Solutions Pvt Ltd. We are now 35+ members, have successfully delivered multiple solutions to clients, and built our own product portfolio solving specific problems for our end customers.
Some of the key skills that always helped me:
Understanding the Business Context
One should always ask "WHY" am I doing this project or building this requirement for the client. This provides insight into how your actions will impact end users and the overall business.
Effective Communication
This is one of the keys to ensure your leadership is accepted by everyone and you are able to deliver results. Communicate with the team as explicitly as possible — what to achieve, how to achieve it, and when to complete the work.
Lead by Example
As a leader one should walk the talk, be there with the team always, set an example of how things can be done. I still remember when we started up and hired people for specific roles — I would ensure I work with them, hand-hold them, do things together technically on the ground whenever required. That helped my team understand it better and motivated them to do wonders themselves.
Personal Connect with Each Individual
I always ensured that I am able to connect with each and every team member to guide them personally and professionally. This helped in understanding their situation at work and being empathetic enough when needed to help them manage their challenges.
Out-of-the-Box Thinking
Looking at the problem from a user perspective is crucial to ensure the solution is acceptable. We've built a team mindset of designing customer-friendly solutions. This has helped us tread new paths technologically and build something unique like ProAI — an advanced video analytics framework that leverages your existing IP-camera network and delivers real-time insights.
Crafting Creative Opportunities from Every Challenge
Challenges are part and parcel of the entrepreneurship journey. There is a saying — if you lose the battle in your mind, even though you are successful outside, eventually you will lose. If you haven't lost it in your mind, you will succeed one day; just keep going.
Mindset can make or break the situation you are in. Staying positive throughout is something I always practised. Take one problem at a time, work on identifying the root cause, work on it. Don't be all over the place — learn to prioritise and pick your battles. Every challenge brings a new opportunity. Whenever we are solving business problems, we build a product or a service out of that particular challenge, or get new learning about why not to use a particular path.
Setting up the team: Identifying a team to work with is always the first challenge every entrepreneur has to go through. Finding people with the right attitude matters the most. Work with your network — it's always useful. If you don't have one, build one by joining local groups and forums.
Client satisfaction: Building the right mindset in the team to ensure the customer accepts the solution is a continuous learning process. We as a team of developers are now inclined towards doing "value add" in the client's ecosystem.
My Impact
I have been able to change the way software-development companies used to work in supporting MSMEs in India. We are building a positive mindset in young team members — pushing themselves to learn, challenge themselves, think out of the box. With our digitisation solutions, we have touched the lives of the people doing the heavy lifting in the MSME sector by giving them mobiles and tablets for day-to-day activities. The systems built are now giving a sense of trust amongst each other because they help drive transparency.
Solutions we have implemented have also helped build accountability among staff — IP cameras were made intelligent and provided real-time insights into employee movement on premises. I have also raised awareness around not using single-use plastic, especially in housing-society guards using kettles instead of plastic bags to fetch tea from nearby stalls. Educating children around segregation of dry waste — making it a movement at school and local-authority level — was also envisaged under our startup "Swachh Bharat Captains" to sensitise kids around reduced plastic usage in our lives.
Scaling New Heights in Personal and Professional Triumphs
Since the time I started my professional career, learning is a target I have set for myself daily — along with asking the question: "Did I add any value?" in every project I was allocated. This mindset has pushed my limits ever since I started in 2007. In 2010, starting the Service Assurance practice alone at Aricent and growing the account to multi-million-dollar size in three years was one benchmark I set for myself — every day learning something new and building our team to reach new goals while delivering value.
That's what made me take up the role in the US, work as a lead with clients and co-create. I wore various hats during my US stint — Technical Lead, Delivery Manager, Product Owner, Scrum Master. Along the way I learnt HCI, UI/UX, ITSM, Service Assurance, OSS/BSS, Wireline & Wireless Networks, GIS and Process Automation. Starting up on my own after relocating from the US was a difficult decision — but the passion to add value made me take it, and I now do that by helping the MSME community in India democratise technology adoption. So keep on learning, keep on striving to add value in what you do.
The Synergy Between My Path and Recognition Values
With the intent of adding value, I saw growth in the accounts I was allocated — purely result-driven. When the goal is clear in your mind, you take outcome-driven decisions and achieve results. In my journey as an individual working for a company, realising the customer vision into reality helped me earn an annual award at company level long ago. Making things happen with a "just do it" attitude was one of the crucial aspects. Appreciating each and every member in your team is also key to project success — we delivered value to clients because every team member felt valued and motivated toward the same end goal.
My interpersonal skills and people-friendly leadership style helped me forge a bond with every individual in my team and enabled me to bring out their true potential. With my own entrepreneurial journey, in the last 2 years building products that solve customer problems on the ground by leveraging the best available technology has helped us add value. We recently won an award at the HR Bharat Conference 2023 for innovating with AI and building a Zero-Touch Payroll system. To date we have transformed 30+ clients across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Distribution, Healthcare, FMCG and Fintech — where our solutions are running successfully and customers are realising the true potential of their businesses with increased "productive efficiency".
