The Baan Way, Built to Last

It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.   – David Allan Coe

On the 10^th of June 1996, on a very pleasant day and on the first day of my first job, little did I know that I was walking into an organization that would heavily influence and shape me into who I am today. In later years I would tell my friends that I was so lucky to miss the first two campus placement jobs, for I couldn’t have gotten into Baan otherwise. Baan was the #2 ERP software company at that time, second to SAP. Although the company was #2, Baan was considered a technically superior product and won the hearts and minds of several technical people across the globe. By the time I joined the company, Baan was already hugely successful and a billion-dollar global company. It would be no exaggeration to say that to date several thousand people are still benefiting from the company either directly or indirectly.

One of the main lessons we learnt at Baan is to not be afraid to make mistakes. Jan Baan, our CEO, is a personification of all the values we learnt at the company. He would encourage us to come out of the ‘Mother, may I?’ mindset and ask for forgiveness rather than permission. His belief, which he inculcated in everyone, is that every employee should feel empowered to innovate without the fear of failing or suppression. He encouraged us to take the initiative to innovate with an uncompromising integrity. This forms the core of the values we learnt and Jan coined the term – 3Is, for Initiative, Innovation and Integrity. Jan carried a lot of energy and a strong display of his passion towards the product and the people. In our employee meetings, he never showed any interest in discussing the ‘numbers’ like a typical CEO does.  Instead he imparted his immense amount of energy and his passion through his speeches, outlining a vision which brought a common sense of purpose among all of us. Therein lied the source of motivation for every employee in the organization, whatever job they might have been entrusted with.

The leaders he chose to represent him, Ramanathan, Ramam and several others around the world, carried the same set of values and integrity in building the company. Ramanathan and Ramam were successful in building a unique culture for Baan India that was not only compatible with the culture of our Dutch parent company, but also strongly laid on the foundation of the values that were believed by the entire company, thereby marching everyone to accomplish the common vision set by Jan. Ramanathan is highly regarded across the IT industry in Hyderabad for the values he cultivated in the Baan company, especially the high level of integrity. Ramam was the people person and built an immense sense of loyalty in the company, so much so that even after 16 years of separation we still feel that we are all together. Baan company taught us that our coworkers play an important role in the overall success, resulting in us helping each other instead of ‘competing’ with each other. This not only reflected in the message from the management but also in our performance appraisals. We were also taught that family forms an important part of an individual’s success. I distinctly remember a time when all employees received Diwali gifts which their family would be able to use than themselves – for example, I got a necklace which I gifted to my Mom, making her feel proud of me and the company I worked for.

I was lucky to work in another company Cordys, also founded by Jan Baan, helping companies build and automate business processes through an easy to use interface and connect various business applications prevalent in an enterprise. I could just see the same culture everywhere and immediately felt at home. It is at this company I found my career's best manager in Mahesh Bhatija, who was also from Baan roots. Jan was admired so much that he was always able to surround himself with great people like Theodoor, Jan Hasselman, Henk de Man, Jan-Dirk and several others, who were very loyal and shared a common vision and purpose. It was at Cordys, that I had the opportunity to interact directly with Jan to negotiate. In both cases he made the first move, made me feel extremely comfortable and played to win. He always believed in win-win and was never hesitant to take the risk first putting the other person at ease. I found this to be a very valuable lesson in later years when I found myself in a similar positions.

Jan is a great source of inspiration to many people and especially to entrepreneurs. He taught many valuable lessons to budding entrepreneurs and strongly believed in Aristotle’s saying that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” He forged partnerships that would together deliver value that each couldn’t have imagined to deliver on their own. His investments reflect his foresight on the technology that change the business processes in a meaningful way and willingness to risk a huge bet on what he believed in - a couple of examples being TopTier (acquired by SAP) and WebEx (acquired by Cisco). Jan believes in building the right culture among the people, giving the freedom to people to innovate, giving equal merit to every idea and letting it shine without any preconceived judgment. He would say money will always follow once you have the right company in place. His main principle of business is to find how to make your partners and customers win. These are lessons that are very abstract and hard to teach in a classroom. He lived them and showed us the results first hand.

Another thing that Jan was very passionate about is charity. He setup a foundation in India, that is helping several underprivileged children to gain education and a better quality of life. He encouraged every one to spare what little they can to uplift the society we lived in and he strongly believed in the saying 'sharing is caring'. I have seen ups and downs in Jan's investments and businesses, but haven't seen a slightest wither in his passion towards charity nor his contributions. He felt overjoyed whenever someone inquires about his foundation causing an inspiration to follow suit.

Jan has created a lasting impression of his values and culture on the IT industry, especially in India, which is deeply ingrained in thousands of professionals turned leaders, who are in turn taking this to the next level in shaping the industry and the people. Jan’s contributions are profound, impactful and inspirational to everyone he ever touched directly or indirectly. The Baan Way, I can say for sure, is built to last.