At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the leadership world. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate business leader – Prem Kumar for an exclusive interview with us. He is a seasoned business leader, strategist, Public Speaker, Coach and currently the Managing Director India at Ovato Technology Chennai Pvt Ltd. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey, his background and his advice for our growing community:
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Prem:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a leader, please;
I was born in a middle-class family and after schooling with good grades though I wanted to pursue Engineering due to my family financial situation I couldn’t pursue the same so I had to do my graduation in BSC Maths. I was very good at schooling and has been a leader at times in various classes.
Though I started it with a disappointment that I couldn’t do my engineering I believed life had better plans for me. After graduation, I started working in jobs where I could get a salary to pursue the Skills I wanted in software. In my initial days at work, I was paid less and during those years freshers/ less experience were treated based on the hierarchy differently.”
This was something which made me make a difference in my organisation the way we treat all staffs equally and respectfully. Pain makes people stronger and those pains in the initial days of my carrier made me stronger.
In every company I worked, I had been sincere in my work and had given 100% without thinking of what the outcome would be and it had potentially helped me in my growth. I always believed in that if we do our work honestly with full heart and dedication the results will be positive. I have worked in various roles in the starting from a call centre executive, developer, QA, test lead, Project manager etc. I had the opportunity to work with CMMI Level 5 companies at a very early age of my carrier to lead people and it was a lot of pressure but I believe those challenges at the early stages of my carrier made me good to handle pressure and manage People efficiently.
12 years back when I joined SageMetrics a product based company in Web Analytics. Web Analytics was very new in the Indian Market and it was a challenge to work in Product based companies at that time and I had challenges managing various departments so I had to spend a lot of time learning the product and had opportunities to work with clients like BBC, L’oreal, Virgin during those days.
I was promoted as Managing Director of the company within 6 months of time from Head of Operations due to the efficiency in Operations, cost-saving, client satisfaction and people management skills. Below are the lines from my CEO at that time to my Parent company.”
“With the addition of a strong director in 2009 capable for handling company administration issues as well as developers and with an understanding of service and business needs (a rare find in India) with Product Strategy, we started seeing the strong return in investment initially hoped for and the capability to fully handle autonomously complex clients such as the BBC. This return in investment has been so amazing that SageMetrics despite having less revenue has reported in the last 18 months its strongest profits ever due to a drastic reduction in operational costs”.
The journey as a Managing Director of Indian operations started from that time and I am happy to represent the Indian operations of a Global Company Ovato Technology (Australia) for the last 12 years.
It wasn’t easy to start this operation, from the start as it had various challenges in getting the right people, skills, establishing trust and communication with the onsite team but every time with the support of my colleagues we were able to overcome it all and successfully running this business. This provided more job opportunities for the resources in India in different Technology.
The result of this was various awards received in the recent years as “ Great Indian workplace 2019”, “ “Indian Achievers award 2020 “ for outstanding leadership and contribution to nation-building.
Here I am now sharing my experience with one of the leading online magazines brilliantread.com.
In simple, this is how my journey has been
“ No one will hit you harder than life itself”
It doesn’t matter how hard you hit back, it’s about how much you can take and keep fighting. How much you can suffer and keep moving forward. That’s how you win!”
How did you find your passion and purpose and started working with it?
Initially, I was not aware of my passion and purpose, but the opportunities and challenges in leadership roles gave me a passion for people management. I wanted to be unique and make a difference in the leadership style based on my experiences and it had become a passion over the period of time.
The purpose was simply to make a difference in a person’s life, to help them grow, to teach them and see them do well over the years which makes a difference in their life and once you start seeing them do well that positivity is contagious and you would love to do more.”
Hence, we provide a good working environment and growth opportunities for our staffs in Ovato Technolgy Chennai Pvt Ltd which has ensured people to stay long with us and less attrition rates. This helps staffs to be productive and deliver quality outputs to clients, in return it helps to run the business successfully.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
The passion for my work, my family and the people with whom I work. I love to expand this business in India and provide more opportunities to people in India and the urge to give more to society motivates me.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I believe in a balance between work and family and we ensure that even in our company by providing the necessary breaks for the team and I have been fortunate to have people who been working with me for years together and they have been provided with the required roles and responsibilities to manage the business at necessary stages and it does help me, whereas in the initial days it was not the case.
My wife (my best friend) has been a huge support for me to face these challenges throughout these years. Someone who has always been there for me to reach out to any discussion.
Spending time with both my daughters (4 years and 4 months) takes off the stress and we have a badminton team in office were we play badminton regularly.
Travelling helps me to take some time off from the challenges/problems and return with a fresh perspective.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
One thing that worked for me was adapting to changes quickly and being honest and sincere on the work I did.
Treating your staffs as a family and giving them the best that you could to ensure they work happily are a few things that helped the growth of this business.
Communication, decision making and standing up for what is right for the business has worked well for me so far.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Being down to earth and working every single day as your first day, learning every day something new or from someone are few keys to success.
I will say there are many factors and some key elements that helped me are
Honesty, Integrity, adaptability, extreme ownership, consistency, and belief.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
I Love challenges and when we overcome it gives you immense pleasure of achievement and at the same time when you fail, it gives you good learning. My work has provided many challenges and that has given me both achievements and learning.
My family and my team is my biggest motivation that keeps me going and the desire to provide something better for this society keeps me going.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring leader?
Always remember, leadership at times is just a position and at the end, if you could truly help someone achieve his or her needs than you are a true leader. As a leader, you have to believe in yourself and look at every single aspect that will help to grow business.
At times, you have to take the hardest decisions and you have to be strong and treating people respectfully even if it is a security guard as nicely as your CEO. There is no leader without People.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
