Embracing The New Year with A Happy Heart and Bidding Adieu To a Great 2019

A very happy new year! We have entered a new decade, the year 2020. Remember the time you turned 20? Suddenly how things change. There are bigger goals to achieve. New heights to climb and address challenges that never ceases to amaze. 

It has been close to a decade since we established our business. From ensuring smooth operations FarEye is now focusing on growth. We are truly a global organization now making our presence felt in the US, partnering with large postal and retail enterprises in the GCC, to expanding in the European and Australian markets, we have come a long way. 

Some Moments of Nostalgic Bliss

As the world embraced 2020 with pomp and show, I remember sipping a hot cup of Americano in a cafe stationed at one of the world’s most busy city center. It’s always a pleasure to witness the New Year’s Eve celebrations unfold in this part of the world. The dazzling lights, the enormous decorations adorned with state-of-the-art LED displays, colorful balloons and the unanimous voice of hundreds of people counting down the last few seconds of 2019 indeed make up for quite a spectacle. As the clock struck 12, more than the frenzy of my neighborhood, a sense of nostalgia gripped me. It took me back when for the first time we officially celebrated New Year’s Eve at FarEye. We were a little more than 10-people strong then but even our countdown was loud enough. Just like now, we had so much to celebrate.

Our first sweet taste of success came in the guise of FarEye’s partnership with Jabong and then came DHL a little later. Once you onboard such big names, you start believing in the technology you are creating. Your vision becomes more eminent. Our goal of disrupting the traditional supply chain and logistics industry by bringing in new levels of efficiencies gradually started taking a concrete shape. My nostalgic trip was accompanied by a sense of pride as well. It took me back to the time when I accompanied some of my colleagues on a mission to deliver a presentation, pronouncing FarEye’s capabilities, to our first customer in South East Asia. We were excited yet composed. But once we got back to our headquarters in Delhi the sheer joy of cracking that market overshadowed our composure, giving us more reasons to celebrate the New Year’s.

The FarEye family grew rapidly in the past five years. As we kept onboarding customers from different parts of the world our talent pool grew accordingly. Talking about growth, one key decision that was strategic for FarEye was acquiring Dipper Technologies in 2018. It helped us expand our offerings.

Learning from Failures

Nostalgia also makes you recall your days of struggle. I remember running from door-to-door of enterprises trying hard to sell the vision of digital logistics with little success. But in the process, I learned a lot. I have always believed that at times failures can imbibe in you so much knowledge that perhaps even success can’t. The world of logistics and supply chain has more than it meets the eye. 

One thing that will remain constant with every passing year is our tradition of being customer-centric and keeping our people engaged and happy.

There’s is no ‘one size fits all,’ challenges enterprises face is very unique and specific to an industry, nature of a business, geography and even culture. Even though our platform had great capabilities back in the day, it was not enough to sell just a solution. We had to change the way how business stakeholders perceived logistics. We focused on explaining why in the world of online deliveries, rising compliance, growing customer expectations, and increasing expenses, logistics is a key business enabler and no longer a cost center. It was not easy, but we gradually started convincing customers with real-life results. 

Hello, 2020!

At first, industry demands were limited to automating manual processes, but it grew bigger with newer advancements in technology and soon our logistics visibility and real-time tracking solution started gaining rapid momentum in the market. We even went ahead with optimization processes, like dynamic routing and determining ETAs. We are constantly improving our machine learning algorithms and sharpening our predictive intelligence capabilities. Today, we are experimenting with drone technologies and looking for ways to easily integrate Blockchain. This constant effort to evolve has helped FarEye in the long run.

I have always believed that at times failures can imbibe in you so much knowledge that perhaps even success can’t.

It gives me immense joy to say that we are venturing into 2020 with more than 150 customers and a talent pool that’s about to cross 350. The past year gave us many reasons to commence 2020 on a positive note. Some of them include our partnerships with leading enterprises across retail, manufacturing and logistics enterprises. Another proud moment that occurred in 2019 was FarEye being recognized as one of India's Best Workplaces by Great Place to Work. At FarEye we are constantly trying to create future leaders, not just good employees. We have people who joined FarEye as interns but are now leading teams and spearheading projects. We are expanding our leadership as well by onboarding industry veterans.

This year we will continue to expand while getting deeper into different geographies, just like we did last year in the US, and further increase our speed of innovation when it comes to building more productive logistics solutions. The voyage up until now has been splendid. For FarEye, optimizing supply chain and logistics is not a destination but a journey. A journey that’s driven by rapid technological innovation and evolving challenges posed by a customer-driven world and shrinking margins. But one thing that will remain constant with every passing year is our tradition of being customer-centric and keeping our people engaged and happy. Hence, being awarded as a Great Place to Work was an honor very close to my heart.