To Those - Who made me who I am today!
Vaibhav Kumar Srivastava
Google Cloud's Education Sales Leader | Mentor | Early Stage Investor | Public Speaker | Edu-Aficionado
23rd July 1979. Ward No 23. 7 Air Force Hospital, Kanpur.
A child born to a Jr Warrant Officer & a Hindi teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, never thought while growing up, that he would be writing a tribute to people who nurtured him to become the person he is today. Not that I have achieved a lot, but it, in many ways, is much more than I would have fathomed for a 40yr old me, twenty years ago. This article is my heartfelt gratitude to those who contributed to shape my career of 17yrs, who held me when I was slipping, who trusted me with responsibilities to grow, who challenged me to aim for the moon, who made me the Professional who I am today.
2002. Fresh out of college, no experience, no campus placement, new to Mumbai, I decided to give any & every walk-in interview, just to sustain life in this metro. I was given my first break by Rajiv Jain, CEO of S K Office Solutions, as a Sales Executive to sell Office automation products like LCD projectors, plasma screens etc. Trained to be a software engineer by education, it was my first exposure to sales, all by chance. That D2D cold calls set me up for what was going to be a long sales career. Thanks Rajiv, if not for you, I have no idea where destiny would have taken me to. While it was a very short stint but I discovered my knack for sales at SK.
2005. After spending more than 2 yrs in multiple organizations, I got my first big break at Hewlett Packard. MNC culture was a revelation to me and I was awestruck in many ways. That's when Srinibas Patnaik, my manager helped me settle in. My first lessons of driving high profile sales & execution while staying calm under sales pressures came from him. He still continues to be a chilled out, fun loving character. Thanks Pattu sir for the 2 great years at HP.
2006. IBM was my incubator to Public sector business, again by chance. I was hired for a different role, but on my 3rd day at IBM, Arijit Bonnerjee, my hiring manager decided to experiment me with a newly formed AM position of Govt of Maharashtra. With no experience in PS, I was aghast and found myself staring at a series of missed targets & failures - 3 qtrs in a row. But Arijit ensured that my failures were turned into learning, gave me a free hand to reset the base & execute. My next 3 years were back to back successes. 2007 was the last year I ever missed my numbers in a full year sales role. Moreover, the relationships I built at bureaucracy & partners, continue to help me even today. Thanks Arijit for pushing me into that uncomfortable zone, that by all means, has become my forte today - The Public Sector business. I owe my PS career to you.
2010. Microsoft is where I have grown as a professional, in addition to having spent most of my career in this organization. Ajay Joseph wasn't my line manager but I had a dotted line reporting to him in 2011. My learning of importance of Integrity, following the processes, leveraging all available resources, creating business plans as templates, thinking as a strategist in a sales roles (Today I collectively call it - The Science of Sales) - attributed to him. My first coveted Circle Of Excellence award was under his leadership. Didn't work with him for too long but I still cherish that experience.
2013. Anil Varghese, gave me my first break to set up managed Education business for West & South at MS. That was a critical new role & I have reasons to believe that the success of this role was very critical to Anil's own success as a leader. He entrusted me with it and I hope I did justice to him by giving 2 back to back 200%+ growth years in Education. Those 2 years continue to be my best professional years in terms of achievements, accolades & recognition, did wonders to my professional equity & confidence level. Anil, the coat you gave me as an award is my lucky charm, I still wear it in my critical customer meetings :).
2015. Sunil PP, such an easy manager to work with, that its difficult to explain in words. He is a juke box of ideas - go to him with one idea & he will give you 4 more to play with. How to empower the team members yet keeping them accountable, is one of my biggest lessons working with him. While I was well settled in my then role, he challenged me to take up the national responsibility to drive the SMB Public Sector business at MS, another milestone in my career.
Even today, I reach out to Ajay, Anil or Sunil whenever I am in dilemma, need expert advice or mentorship lessons. Absolutely blessed to have worked with them.
2016. Cisco happened & I have to be careful about what I write now, as there's a thin line between flattery and expressing gratitude. :) Having said that the best thing about Cisco is the free culture of employee empowerment. However, I wont shy away from acknowledging everyday leadership lessons I get, just by watching leaders like Sameer Garde. I am a big fan of his public speaking & social skills, in addition to his subtle sense of humour. I still wonder how he ensures to reply to every text/mail, even if it is at odd hours. My manager Daisy Chittilapilly is another leader who leads by example. I am still learning from her - how to navigate within a matrix organization like Cisco and get things done (& in your favour). Anil Nair, one of the most respected leaders in the industry - extremely approachable & vastly experienced - is my go-to person at Cisco. A 5-10 mins chat with him is good enough to change one's perspective on a given subject. I treasure all conversations with him, most of them are either guidance or advice.
With so many examples to look up to, my everyday growth continues under the guidance of such great leaders & awesome colleagues. I hope I continue to learn as I step into my next decade of life. I haven't touched upon the people I call family & friends, who also had major contributions in making me who I am today. I also haven't talked about some of my awesome team members who equally contributed to my professional success. Saving it for some other day. :)
As they say, Life begins at 40..... I am just getting started & hopefully will continue to learn & grow under the flagship of such great leaders!!!!!
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