Uttiya Das on his Allsec Journey

My journey with Allsec started In 2019 when Coachieve’s business was transferred to Allsec. From Day 1, I was amazed at the great culture and ethos that Allsec was built on. I remember one of our senior leaders putting it into perspective—Allsec is a shy organization built on the principle of humbleness in expertise, we were told. I soon came to realize the weight this statement carried. While I was proud of completing 5 years at Quess, Allsec employees had an average tenure of 10+ years. Everyone was really close, and many people had been colleagues from Allsec’s initial days 20 years ago. It was such a wonderful culture that had been created by the Allsec leadership?

The first thing that pleasantly surprised me was the emphasis Allsec put on empowering its people. Every individual was given the space to explore and hone their expertise. It was a place where one can enjoy the stability of an established organization while getting the opportunity to work with agility like in a start-up. And in six years of my professional career, I have seen very few companies that provide this luxury.

The other thing is that I have always been interested in working in a fast-paced environment. Even when the opportunity to join Quess, back in 2016, came my way, I was sceptical till the first round of interviews. Before, I was working with a close friend in his startup (one that has gone on to do very well) and working on exciting projects.?

The only reason I applied was that the job description at Quess was very appealing and seemed like a chance I had to take. The fact that my family always wanted me to work in a well-established corporation served as additional motivation. But the hustle and bustle of a start-up was something I still enjoyed.

My indecision continued through my first interview. That is when I met Mr. Madhu Damodaran, presently the Legal Head of Quess in the second round of assessment. It was a session that changed my perspective of how the corporate world functions. He showed me that at Quess, I could still work with agility and explore new avenues without fear. So as I shook hands with Mr. Madhu, a man who is today my mentor, all apprehensions vanished.?

Shortly, after my joining, Vrushabh, who is presently the Business head of the ARMS vertical, joined and we formed a formidable tag team, based on mutual respect and a single-minded desire to grow this business.

The compliance business was given a lot of room to breathe and grow. I also soon found a role model in Mr. Mahadevan, who apparently started out as a salesperson and became a Business Head through sheer hard work and talent. Unfettered access and guidance from Allsec’s CEO, Ashish Johri and CFO Raghunath P. has also widened my horizon and perspective.?

Personally, sales remains my forte and responsibility. And nothing gives me a bigger kick than to see my business grow 50X in revenue on a month on month basis. Along the way, we onboarded about 300 clients and did something that not too many startups do—turn profitable.

So onto the next milestone that the Group COO of Quess, Guruprasad Srinivasan set for us. USD 1 Million in terms of EBIDTA.