Machu Picchu and my reflections on Engineering Leadership

During the Thanksgiving week, I was fortunate to spend a few days in and around Cusco, as well as the Sacred Valley of Peru. Machu Picchu was the last of the 7 wonders of the world I have been lucky enough to visit, and it is like no other. Set in the incredible Peruvian Andes mountain range, I was in awe of its magnificent grandeur and beauty. As I hiked Pisac, Ollantaytambo and the magnificent Machu Picchu, I marveled at the engineering behind this great Incan creation that has stood the test of time for over 600 years. Here I reflect on the lessons of Engineering Leadership that can be learnt from this Inca masterpiece.

• What the Incas engineered – The lost city of Macchu Picchu and the surrounding sites in the Inca Sacred valley are made of giant stone walls, with hundreds of large terraces carved into the mountains, and a complicated system for harnessing mountain spring water with aqueducts, canals, water filtration, and drainage systems. The large terraces not only provided the foundation to stabilize and support the pathways and the buildings, but also added value by serving as land for agriculture on the steep slopes of the Andes mountains. Other highlights included the legendary Inca trail to get to Machu Picchu, sun temples, rooms for education, housing, and so on. The Incas also built ramps to carry large rocks up the mountains and fit them on the slopes with perfect alignment. Over their 90-year reign, the Incas created a masterpiece that has transcended the test of time for hundreds of years.?
• ?The aesthetics – As complex as the engineering was (with more than 50% effort below ground), the Incas spent plenty of time creatively planning and designing the site. The beauty of the structures, the amazing attention to the acoustics of the waterfalls, the carefully connected large stones to create massive walls, and the beautifully planned city are spectacular.
• The challenges the Incas faced – When you first see the site, the main question that comes to mind is: why would someone want to build a city in the most challenging location of the country? In the middle of the Andes, on steep slopes, with frequent landslides, unstable earth, earthquakes, and El Ni?o. A difficult spot to visit, let alone transport the material needed to build a city in an adverse climate. There are many theories on why Incas build this great city in this difficult location, but what is most impressive is they had the vision and perseverance to build it over 90 years, knowing that those who laid the foundation wouldn’t be around to savor the views of its grandeur.
• Why was the foundation so important – Given the number of challenges Incas faced, anything they build would not have lasted for too long unless they made huge investments in the foundation. The investment in infrastructure to create the pathways, to create the terraces for stabilizing the site as well as providing a venue for agriculture, the investment in a multi-tier water management system for filtration and drainage were all the foundation for what was to come. It is because of the investment in this foundation and infrastructure that they were able to sculpt an eternal city on top of those sacred Inca lands among the Andes.

Over the last 6 years, I spent 3 years building Microsoft Teams from the ground-up, before moving to the investment industry and leading a Technology & Data revolution at MSCI.

• Microsoft Teams - I have been impressed with the success of Teams since I left, with over 250 million users. This would be the fastest growing enterprise product in history. In hindsight, that quick success was only possible because of the foundation that was laid for over 20 years to make it happen (Office 365, Skype, SharePoint/OneDrive, Exchange and so on).
• ?At MSCI, we’re laying the foundation for long-term success: breaking down silos, modular firm wide architecture, building modern APIs, a unified data distribution strategy, quantitative research data science platform, a cloud-based architecture, and a great user experience architectural template for our new applications. Investment Solutions as a Service (ISaaS) vision requires this platform to be built before our new city can spring up on top of it. A cultural transformation of our large engineering organization was the precursor to this technological transformation, that is a whole topic of its own for another day.

A humble reflection on engineering leadership in the modern world, with insights from the incredible feats of the Incas, and comparing what they built to my world of engineering, here are a few observations from the visit –

• You must spend a large amount of the time laying a foundation…that nobody may see. But without that foundation, you won’t be able to build the beautiful masterpiece visible on top.
• They say that overnight success happens over a decade. Like the Incas, you need a long-term vision and perseverance if you want to transform the culture and engineering of a company, let alone an industry.
• If it was easy, it would have been done already. The cultural changes, long-term architectural vision, and imperative to meet client needs -- all while balancing quarterly finances -- is not a trivial challenge in a fast-changing landscape. You need resilience, optimism, vision, relentless execution and a world class team over years to build something that will stand the test of time. The Incas pulled it off with Machu Picchu. Any engineer aspiring to build something that the world will witness long after she has moved on would be inspired by visiting this Peruvian Masterpiece.

As for me, I came back humbled, with a new perspective, more tenacity, and optimism for the road ahead.

Tupananchiskama, ?Hina kachun!?