1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

The most challenging aspect at my level is to stitch the right team and create the right product mix for the market.

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Well! My beginnings were humble post MBA in 2005. I was with a large media organization in India helping them with advertisement sales. Then moved to IT Staffing in 2008 and never loosened back. I had the good fortune of having an excellent team who were always willing to go that extra mile and execute the strategy that I would make and then step by step success started coming in. From Hyderabad I was sent to Pune to start the western india operations. In 2015, when my wife was carrying our child I got an offer from Raqmiyat to head their IT staffing business in Dubai and here I am. It's been a fabulous journey here in Dubai where we grew the business 3 times in 5 years.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

My mornings begin early with about 30 minutes of yoga and meditation. Post which i get ready for work and drop my daughter to school (yes school in pandemic). I usually reach the office at least 3-45 minutes ahead of the rest of the crowd and this helps me plan for the day and clean up the mailbox. The day would typically have some mundane stuff like contract reviews / signatures but the most important aspect of the day would be customer meetings / calls. I love to meet my customers - formally or informally. This helps me gauge more insights and don't just depend on the team. I also conduct business review and delivery reviews with the sales and delivery teams respectively twice a week.
Thursdays are usually more of brainstorming sessions

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

You are as good as your team and every leader must invest his own personal time to hire and groom the right talent.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

I am not much into management books but one book that I read multiple times is "Good To Great" by Jim Collins. The essence of this book is to prepare you for the journey of being good at your work and life to attain greatness. A must read.

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

The first and foremost is to know your leadership teams. It is important to know their personalities - their strengths and build on the same. Secondly, I would invest in their skill upgrade by organizing leadership training / asking them to take individual classes and then conduct workshops to test the acquired skills. It is a continuous process and there is no correct formula.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

For me a meaningful story can be two things. Firstly, we secure a deal where we never had any outside chance and secondly, retaining your best team members. Fortunately, my core team has been with me for over 5 years now. Furthermore, recently we bagged a prestigious contract where though commercially we were not the cheapest and had no chance of winning but still ended up securing the deal in our favor because of our sheer value to the customer.