A lifetime of memories

I never got a degree and like always it was my own free will, but driven by destiny. Was admitted into Dadar catering college , the best in the country. Decided not to pursue and joined a technical school, near Bangalore - an Indo-Swiss initiative (NTTF electronics center) for a four year course in mechatronics. A quick visit to the campus and I was clear that this is where I wanted to be.

4 years of absolute hands on learning described aptly by Mr Ganguly the vice principal, who said, "we teach you the first 2 years and you learn the next 2 years". Doing projects meant spending time in mechanical workshop, PCB labs and SJP road to scavenge for electronic parts. The education was well rounded. I chose to go deep into digital electronics. Mnemonic based programming was what was popular. PC with DOS, word and Dbase was precious commodities that was under lock and key. Got to build an operating system on a Motorola 68K using mnemonics. Yes, I am that old. My biggest learning however was reserved towards the end, during my last project viva with a prof from IISC who smiled at one of my "negative" reply and said, "son, nothing is impossible in this world. All you need is the right resources and by that I mean, self motivation, right people and finances".

Campus placed into WIPRO's engineering division, I spend nearly 3 years with some of the best research, product and marketing team members. I signed off from the engineering division with "best employee of the year award" and was on my way from Mysore to Bangalore to join the R&D team. Met Sameer kumar who was then the marketing head of Wipro PC products who offered me a "product manager" role that I accepted based on "you will be mad to refuse such a role" comment by Mr NLB, the then factory head.

I spoke about destiny and free will earlier and this was the biggest ever. What both Sameer and NLB did not know is that, I had presumed that product management was a technical role and was absolutely petrified when I learnt what I had accepted. Destiny had brought me and Sameer together. He would become my Mentor and guide. A person who changed the direction of my life. He advised all the product managers to spend time reading every Saturday and I would use that opportunity. What began with "Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout" is now a habit. So my MBA was about reading books and trying to copy Sameer. Soon, I was starting to build a personality of my own, but search for a solution would always begin with "what will Sameer do ?".

Three years later a confident product manager, gets send off to Delhi to get sales experience. Delhi was ruled by "king of sales", Manoj Chugh. The day I land, he was leaving Delhi and all I had was stories about Manoj told to me during our Friday "old monk" sessions. I executed to perfection, "my resources" lesson. All the client facing reps and all the business partners where my resources. I had simple rules for success. Quote for every deal and the odds percentage will ensure that we win enough. I would ensure that "My resources" would get all the help with "no questions asked". I was forecasting the entire previous years number in half the year and also making lots of friends.

Destiny again, got me to meet the IBM PC team stranded at the delhi airport on way to Bangalore and one thing led to other and I was in IBM as the product head for a new Server division and Alok Ohrie as my manager. I was back to what by now I was good at, product management. 3 years later Alok moved to a new position and my product was bifurcated and I was given charge as a BUE for that product.

This was another turning point in the way I was applying a template to grow the business. I was looking around for the best people to be in the team. Rajesh Sehgal, first colleague in the new journey. Product Manager with sharp operation eye for detail. He wrote history by stocking large amounts of servers in the channel. I found Vishy or Vishwanath Ramaswamy and offered him the Product Management job and brought him to Bangalore from Hyderabad. I would accept to conduct sessions in the IBM team blue program so as to get the first choice to pick members for my team. I got the very best of folks in that process. Siddesh, Kiran, Ravi, Saiish. Amazing folks who where at every level better than me.

So the template goes this way. Pick a team with great attitude and skills. Spend time with them discussing team agenda and goals very transparently. Divide the responsibility and allow them space to execute. There were no "classical reviews" ever in my team. Very quickly I could feel the emotional pressure that they where going through when they did not meet the goal and the feeling of having let down the team. Performance reviews where never about not meeting goals but more about planning and process.

By the time I found confidence in my template, 14 years where behind me. Every other role after that was a breeze. My only job was execute the template and take care of my team. Had a whole bunch of heroes in my team. Will not mention them here as I will miss a few and that would be unfair.. This template execution lasted 8 years and I was also well rewarded by IBM. Shanker Annaswamy and Vanitha (Country heads) provided the space and confidence to execute. By now it was already 2014.

Destiny then takes me to a larger role, this time to Asia Pacific. Cut the story short, somebody who did not receive a single bad rating in lifetime gets a "bad performance rating". Thanks to leaders who knew me, I was back in the country to lead an enterprise sales team instead of being fired. There was more to my "bad performance". There was a "moronic" senior executive, who kept changing objectives, every 2 months. He lost his job to a very "young leader" who spend no time at all to understand what I was executing and declared me a "bad performer" against his expectations that I was never communicated. I did not confront or communicate due to untimely death of a team member who I felt could have been saved. He could have been saved if I suspected something was amiss, when he did not answer his phone at the hotel room. I left for office without him, only to hear in the evening that he was dead in the room.

This was also the first time in these years that I though of quitting IBM. I went ahead and invested in a firm that was into Education and Software solutions. Eventually, I bought it over. Would allow young startups to use the space I had for a small fee, I also got to listen, brainstorm and mentor them during my weekends.

The role that I was doing was eventually removed in a re-org and I get "accommodated" in a role in Consulting. I was managing a large account and I buried myself into it. This team was a "ghetto" within the larger organisation. I was finding it difficult even to culturally fit in. I was now executing with no passion. The Job was getting done but nothing beyond it. Then came a day, when the "Ghetto" realised that I am not a fit. My options where to go back to my old team and find a role or quit. I chose the latter. Circa April 2020, Corona time and I was on the drawing board of my new career.

31 years later, two amazing companies, hundreds of partner organisations, friends from PR and media, amazing team members and huge set of friends, I am charting my new career. Two years into it, My own company FREESOUL, that I purchased and re-branded is used for all prototyping of ideas, joined with a few school mates and are charting course for 2 organisations, SKILLABLERS - An organisation, that is into closing skill gaps of the industry and EXOTYQ - A retail market place for Natural and Sustainable products.

Learnings

In all these years I worked with people who where better degrees , but neither did it matter to them or the organisation. All that mattered was what I brought on the table for the situation

Explore possibilities with Passion and the right resources. Hire for complimenting strengths.

Communicate goals and expectations - consistently and repeat at every opportunity.

Inspect and Review to help and not to report

Culture and climate is very important for incubation of passionate teams and hence finding success.

Results do not indicate the quality of your team. There is more to it.

Do not fire a team member. Try finding them an appropriate role. Its your responsibility.