A lifetime of passion for the automotive market

I still remember my very first car toy. It was a gift from my grandfather when I was about five, from his visit to England - as we used to call it then in India, back when there were maybe a dozen cars on the road. This toy was a bright red, possibly an American make, with rotating tires, operating doors and a steerable wheel. Oh, the luxury of it! 

And yes, my grandfather was one of the few that did have a car. Whenever I visited him, I would go over and sit in the car (he did not keep it locked), manipulating the steering wheel and switches, lowering and raising the window (that was a workout!), pressing on the brake and clutch with no particular outcome in mind, imagining breezy rides, living the automotive fantasy as any boy my age would. Sitting in a stationary car was never so much fun.

Later as a teenager I came across a calendar of classic cars. That was a delight. At the end of every month I carefully cut out the photos and pasted them in my bookshelf. Got scolded by mom for disfiguring a nice teak cabinet, but what did I know, I thought it looked better with car pictures all around it.

Fast forward to my first job. I was working on a database project, and the description for it was too long to write down repeatedly in team meetings on a pad of paper. Yup we did not bring laptops at the meetings, because there were none. Finally I got tired and devised a short hand for this database as Z-24, after the Chevrolet Z-24. And the name stuck and became a company wide acronym. 

So it's no wonder that my interest, curiosity and passion for automobiles would eventually take me down the road to Detroit. There, it was a case of passion meets profession. I got to work on so many projects for so many great companies and people. Learned a lot about the automotive market but more importantly,  to understand how cars and trucks are made, how they power a massive economy, and come full circle from just being a fantasy toy.

Today we work in many aspects of the commercial fleet and auto market. So as my marketing team was putting together collateral of our work in this industry, they assembled as much as they could on our experience and projects etc. and looking at it I thought, wow, all this really happened? And we simply considered ourselves lucky to have made a contribution in it.

And that's how this cover photo came to be. As I looked at this picture, the sense of excitement, dynamism that is the automotive market invoked a rush of memories in the kid in me. I feel that besides technical competence etc., one has to possess something deep inside to care about what they work in. I can't quite say what it really is, but it can't be a lack passion that produces the best work you can give, year after year and still enjoy it so much.

So that's how I came to write this introspective post. If you thought this would be a post about best practices, our expertise, leadership, proven results and fantastic marketing about ourselves, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. 

But if you are interested to read that, you can find it here.

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Valgen delivers data quality and analytics services for sales and marketing in commercial fleet, high tech, finance and insurance. We serve enterprise and mid-market B2B customers worldwide. Valgen is a Salesforce consulting partner and Salesforce ISV partner. Visit us at valgen.com.