My Days with Mr.Baan

I’ve been a software enthusiast for over 3+ years during my college days, and that was the year of the bubble burst (2000). When people were moving in the other directions I went towards software for my own passion. I am a civil engineering graduate so getting through interviews was difficult too. But the one thing I had (apart from passion) was the courage to get what I “like”. Apr 19 was my last college day and I didn't get the job I liked so I’ve got myself a computer teaching job at one of the coaching centres. And then Vanenburg Business IT solutions came for the interviews on Apr 20, and I got selected. 10+ years later in Cordys (previously Vanenburg), I was offered a Support Head position and I took it with the same passion and courage that I had 10 years ago - because I know I do well wherever I am into, and also because now I have had a wealth of experience the company gave me.

I had a career that started as a documentation engineer, writing comments. The interests and the enthusiasm I showed didn't go unnoticed, and I was brought into Development organisation writing Visual Basic based installer. I released the 1st web version of the product I am supporting now (15 years later), not to mention the first query builder I wrote is from this company. I was a developer, a technical lead, an engineering lead - and then head of an organisation - the opportunities were all most enticing but over the period, I became humble, I was conscious and most importantly, I owned what I did - and all of these were due to the opportunities I got in here.

There are many memorable events - the best things were always there before you know it :-) One of the very few events that I can still remember is the CEO sitting next to us, patting my shoulder and encouraging me to talk about technology - how many companies promote or even provide such a face-to-face opportunity? When Mr. Baan’s appreciations always come unannounced, and in 2013 was an event which he was presiding when he suddenly made me stand up and told how great I am handling the Support organisation - this kind of appreciation, individual attention is not something you can expect from a CEO, and yet he knows me!

Mr. Baan is always straight-forward, from appreciation to correcting the mistakes - it always came straight from him; it was never filtered or altered. He did not manage things, not at least at the floor level - he lead people. He not only listens to your suggestions, but also ensures he tries and lets me know the outcome. He showed empathy to his employees, and always provided freedom, opportunities and ownership to everyone. Mr. Baan greatly respects an individual’s privacy - especially their family. Cordys had a culture of working only for 6 days, and taking break for 1 day which he considers a great need to connect to family and catch-up with themselves. This was even at a peak of having 200+ customers supported on a 24x7 basis.

People associate my personality to “leader”, not a “manager”. They respect my working style of connecting to each employee and asking the simple question “let me know if I can help you in any way”. I appreciate the individual when it comes to success, and in failure, I let the team own it (including the job of ensuring the individual knows his/her mistake). I realize the most important thing is to nurture talent. All of these qualities, some might say it as mine - were actually shaped up by the environment and the opportunities provided by it. And I am proud to say I learnt, experimented and later practiced all of this in Cordys. Everything I learnt in my professional career - most importantly everything I practiced in my professional life, came from here. It made me a leader that I am now, not just a manager.

The Untold Secret of Success

“For every complex problem in this world, there exists a simple solution. The secret to success is to have a passion to find that solution” – in a nutshell, this is what I learnt by working in Cordys.

Baan was my first Job. Being a mechanical engineering student, my software knowledge was negligible when I joined. My transformation into a BPM engine architect for Cordys within the next 10 years was only possible because the leadership team believed in me, allowed me to capitalize on my strengths while I continuously worked on the weakness to eradicate it. The culture encourages everyone to try new things. Failures were considered as learning steps. Trust and complete ownership was given. In Cordys, I learnt to be a leader instead of following in someone else footsteps. I was involved in the complete life-cycle of Luminous product development and BPM product suite development and this gives me immense satisfaction that I have produced something highly innovative and worthy in the global market.

I have learnt many things from Jan Baan who is the founder of Cordys. He is a real leader with whom I have interacted many times. I learnt the following lessons from him: Follow your passion, Wealth will follow you. There is really nothing called success and failure, it’s a perception. Only in failures we learn more. He says, ‘never measure your success with money’ and I like this very much and it has made a big impact in me. We talk about Mr.Jan Baan many times in our family and my family has a very high opinion of him. I am also proud to mention the role played by the then CTO of Cordys, Mr. Theodoor van Donge in shaping my professional carrier. He identified the talent in me and converted me into a fine machine from a raw casting.

The culture, the leadership team and the motivation given by them made me what I am today. What I am today is because of Cordys Company and I am proud of what I am today.

BaaN - Gave me 3 more eyes- Innovation, Integrity & Initiative

I arrived in Hyderabad on August 15, 1999 – incidentally the independence day of India.  I joined Baan Institute the next day. I was curious on what software development actually was.  My visualization had taken me so far to only imagine that software development was writing bunch of complex algorithms, but to do exactly what? I was nervous about the work.

The next 6 months was a dream run.  These 6 months of work in Baan, had changed me – No, but not exactly changed, it actually showed me the real world of computing. The view of an ERP that was given to me for 6 months still mesmerizes me with enough knowledge, kindles my curiosity and enthusiasm in addressing mission critical applications every day.  Baan Institute could be one of the best premier educational institutes of that time. While it helped to churn skilled professionals, it was a hot bed of research and intellectual debate. At one end we saw professors, leaders from defense sector, academicians, great programmers and the other end there were young minds from college working under some of the best industry leaders of our time.

Many times I was left puzzling because I struggled to see a bigger picture of an ERP with its depth and breadth for the first time. Like Mr. Baan says, every cloud has a silver lining, the very notion of a ‘Solve All’ ERP concept put one in an extreme state of thinking to connect the dots between every known touch point.

It is incredible that Mr. Jan Baan had seen the evolution in various business domains, predicted enterprise problems, started writing solutions for the problems of the millennium by connecting dots of these sitting in his desk in year 1975 and I am amazed by this vision and leadership.  The world of enterprise computing is indebted to his contribution as a key thinker and mover of 20th century enterprise computing.

One may think that Mr. Baan had a vision of about 30 years ahead while he started to build the world's Top #2 ERP. How wrong can we be!  I realized this in early 2000 when I had the opportunity to join the core team led by Master Architect Theodoor. I remember vividly the discussions on developing something using browser, running everything in a browser, doing everything in a web browser, what we call as the ‘cloud’, today.

It is just an overwhelming feeling that the vision of Mr. Jan Baan has been far ahead, and what he sees in the horizon of future could very well be several waves of evolution ahead which would happen over a century.

Joined just then, grappling with this huge ERP stuff, having No knowledge of internet domain, why the heck I was selected to work with the legendary team of creators to develop Cordys ? Call it luck, blessed or whatever.

Cordys was an incredible journey. In a hi-tech sector, predicting the evolution and staying ahead - is a dream. Mr. Baan did that for next 10 years  and gave opportunity to every one of us to be part of it.

One could see what Ray Kurzweil means when he says ‘As any technology becomes an information technology, it starts advancing exponentially’. The customer cases such as Embraer, Ertan Smart Metering, Interpay, Valeo, Google, Cisco, ING are evident proofs and it is a delight how  IT can enable a technology to grow multifold.

In Mr. Baan, I realize that technology   by itself is not a foundation.  Mr. Baan lived trust, respecting people, encouraging and motivating, supporting to overcome many mistakes and lived as human sponge absorbing so many things. This humaneness is the base I see behind Mr. Baan’s vision and he is one who understands the problems at micro and macro level.

I am deeply humbled by his gestures in meeting my family members, in giving an opportunity to stand together with him to talk to a great audience.  As a leader he went beyond professional boundary, and I saw my father was inspired by Mr. Baan and he was so happy to exchange ideas- A true leader beyond textbook definitions.

Every colleague of Baan or Cordys talks about its great culture, passion, innovation and many many things. True, it is a collective reflection of the persona of Mr. Baan.

It is a co-incidence that I arrived in Hyderabad on India Independence day to start my journey with Baan company, and when I look back, that day could very well be defined in my life for freedom of thoughts, innovation, experience and  to live curiously.

Thank you Mr. Baan.

The Model of Trust and Freedom - A Baan Legacy

One of the best things that happened to me in my life was knowing Mr. Jan Baan and working for him. I completed my engineering course and directly joined Baan Info Systems as a fresher. I had no understanding of the real world then. I was full of spirit and passion but was equally rigid, with a black and white view of things. There was so much for me to learn and Baan turned out to be my second school and the finest school at that.

The Baan School ran on Mr. Jan Baan’s principles and he taught us some of the best lessons.  The team in India loved and adored him.  He would visit us frequently, and talk with us, motivate us and give us guidance. “Don’t ask for permission, you can ask for forgiveness instead” - he would say. Simple words, but they were powerful and they set the crucial working culture, a culture that facilitated innovations in Baan and later in Cordys too. It liberated us, particularly in the Indian context, where we don’t often challenge our elder’s opinions openly and where, after college, we start treating managers like professors. Those words, “…you can ask for forgiveness instead”, gave us the necessary courage to take risks and to try new things at work.

Jan Baan interacting with students

In Baan and in Cordys, we followed some of the best leadership principles. The management team in India which was lead by Mr. Ramanathan, believed in recruiting and training fresh and young people and in giving them challenging tasks to prove themselves. Employees were encouraged to take initiatives. There were always opportunities for everyone in some area or other.  By means of grooming, challenging and mentoring, a top-notch engineering force, that excelled in product and solution development, was built from the ground up in both these companies. This approach benefited hundreds of engineers in India. To be trained by experts on the latest technologies and business solutions, in an accountable and friendly environment and later to be entrusted with big responsibilities, will certainly fire and motivate any individual and push them to strive for their best. It was the best way to inculcate passion, ownership and loyalty  in every employee.

During my years in Cordys, I had the good fortune to have Mr. Jan Baan as my mentor. The trust and respect he showed motivated me to execute several initiatives in a fruitful manner. I learnt many valuable lessons from him. During my moments of success, he would call me to congratulate; during the moments of despair he would call to encourage, help to get the right perspective and bring me back on board. When there were disagreements in the management team, he would always advice us to 'give more than to receive'. It was from him that I learnt to focus on the positives of people and work with it rather than obsessing with their negatives. While teaching me how to be flexible he also taught that it is OK to be 'black & white' when it comes to one's core principles.

Jan Baan inaugurating the Cordys Process Factory R&D center in Coimbatore

If the success of an entrepreneur is measured by the happiness and eagerness with which his employees work for him, then Jan Baan can be called a very successful person. He not only touched the hearts of the Indian team but there is an equal number of excellent dutch colleagues and people from around the globe who cherish their association with him and are ever willing to work with him again when there is a right opportunity.  

Many of my colleagues who started as freshers are now good leaders in other companies, or managing their own companies, trusting and mentoring teams and creating beautiful things. The same "Baan Culture" is carried forward in Vanenburg Software too. I believe that the legacy which Mr. Jan Baan would be leaving for us in India, is a model of trust and freedom, where young minds are nurtured and are provided with a fearless environment for innovation, so they can continuously grow and contribute.