Light overcomes darkness: My thoughts on a recent trip to India

After yet another eventful week in India—my second trip in less than six months—I continue to be amazed by our people there and the way they live the Conga Way every day.?

I was fortunate to be joined by Conga’s chief people officer, Dayna Perry, and chief technology officer, Koti Reddy (who happened to already be in-country). Together, we joined hundreds of our colleagues to celebrate Conga’s 10-year anniversary of India operations.?

I’m proud to say that, before many other companies began building there, we were among the first to develop product in Ahmedabad. And, incredibly, we have seven people in Engineering, Professional Services, and Sales Engineering who’ve been with the organization for the entirety of those 10 years.?

?“I have been fortunate enough to participate in Conga’s 10 years in India,” Anjan Mehta said during a recent All Hands meeting. I asked him why he’s stayed for so many years. His response: our culture. “Culture is the most important thing. My team, the extended teams, working on demos—overall, it’s been a great 10 years. If you haven’t watched Congapalooza, watch it —you'll see the performance, cultural diversity, dress, and songs [of the India teams]. I’m so thrilled for what’s coming next.”??

In addition to the wonderful cultural performance put on by colleagues, we were honored to participate in a ceremonial lighting of the lamp, symbolizing light overcoming darkness. In a world where things can be negative, the idea of light conquering darkness is a wonderful thing.?

While there, we also hosted a five-hour (yes, really) All Hands meeting and Q&A and two Leadership Challenge? workshops to enable leaders to be more effective and prepare them to scale.??

As we continue to grow in India, it’s important to me that we continue to raise the visibility of local leaders and teams, and to empower and enable them so their contributions are well known across Conga.?

A growing presence?

Today, we have over 740 colleagues in India, between Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune and, as of November 7, Chennai.?

?On that day, we inaugurated a new R&D facility and hosted a press event to share growth plans for Conga. We didn’t anticipate the interest our event would generate.?

“We had more than 15 journalists attend the press meet,” said Vijay Shah, head of corporate marketing, India. “It’s been a great way to highlight Conga in India.”?

And it’s important that we do highlight India as a key part of Conga’s business, because it’s not a secondary part of the organization. It became very evident to me during my first visit that we have a tremendous asset in our talent there. Tremendous loyalty, humility, tenure, and experience that are (and will continue to be) critical as we embark on the next step of our journey.?

This visit also gave me an opportunity for in-depth dialogue with our newly formed India Leadership Team, 10 people (closely supported by Dayna) who are key to both contributing to and executing our strategy.?

Because they provide local and global leadership for Conga, it’s important they build high-trust relationships. So, this group spent some time during the week exploring the five behaviors of a cohesive team (building on work done by The Table Group ) with our leadership development facilitator, Carrie Coltman.?

“Having this India Leadership Team will provide leaders in India a great platform and a unified voice as we work and drive solutions,” said Norica Gohil, RVP, Professional Services. “It will also help elevate India as a region, empower the region to have faster solutions, and have the required visibility. I’m really excited to be part of the ILT, and I look forward to working with all my peers.”?

It’s a beautiful illustration of how, at Conga, we prioritize achieving together.?

As the week closed, Dayna and I joined the team to inaugurate our newest space in true Chennai style. Music, dancing, banana leaf dishes, and fun—it's an incredibly vibrant and positive place.??

?I was struck, in particular, by the level of inclusivity at that office. Prayer from four of the dominant religions was part of the opening ceremony, and it was lovely to see the respect, awareness, and friendships of the people there.??

?One of my goals when I joined as CEO was to foster a more globally-minded (and generally more inclusive) culture across Conga. I think we’re definitely on the right track.?

If you’re interested in seeing more of the pictures from our recent visit, check out Life at Conga India on Twitter.?

My sincerest thanks to every colleague who was a part of this memorable week, including Ashish Shah, Vijay Shah, Chittu Nagarajan, and our office teams for their superb organization and attention to every detail.?

#TheCongaWay #CongaIndia ?