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.
No comments:
Post a Comment