virtual teams | Reinventing Nerds

Sanjiv Prabhakaran is a senior executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of software development management and technical architecture experience in mobile and web applications for a wide variety of applications and industries. In early 2002, he founded Bytes, Inc. to provide low cost and rapid software outsourcing and project management services. Sanjiv talks about so many things in this episode, ranging from transitioning from coder to leader, leading cross-cultural teams, managing internal politics, and making a difference in the world. You won’t want to miss this episode.

Highlights:

Q: What do you do as CEO of Bytes and how did you get there?

“I wear multiple hats, but my primary role is developing the business. I spent a lot of my time in the Bay Area before 2000. I worked at 3-4 companies. I wrote code and climbed up the ladder and managed small teams developing systems for clients. It was fun in those days.”

“There came a time when I was looking to go further and be independent. In 2000, I found a nice opportunity here in San Diego and that’s how we came down. This was as a VP of Engineering and R&D for a small software company dealing with real estate. That’s how I happened to lead a team of 20-30 engineers to make cool stuff.”

Q: What was the transition like from being a coder to managing teams?

“That was fun! As a coder you’re working with a team, listening to your bosses, and obviously providing input based on your experience. You always had a fixed goal and knew what you were trying to accomplish. But when you’re getting into more responsible roles, the thing that you run across is team culture. How do you integrate—especially when you have teams from different regions and different countries—and have a cohesive culture at the end? I had teams from the US and India and there were cultural differences… Understanding the cultural differences takes time.”

“It was a fun experience. It helped me grow into a role where I started realizing how to be patient with people, how to understand differences in how people communicate, and how to to build a team spirit.” To hear how Sanjiv manages cultural differences between the US and India, handles internal politics among leaders, builds trust in the leadership team, and leads his teams to improve efficiency for their customers, listen to the episode.

Q: I see that you help physically challenged individuals with job opportunities within Bytes and other companies. How do you do that?

“Yes, this was an interesting project that started few years ago. A family friend in India mentioned this young 20-year old kid that had an unfortunate train accident and hit his head and became a quadriplegic with no movement below his neck. He was bed-ridden but full of joy and motivation to live a full life! He found a way to use his voice as a powerful tool to command his computer into doing all kinds of tasks. He was able to use his voice to control the files and keyboard so he could type out documents and do various web development tasks on the computer. He had a couple clients in the UK and USA for whom he did basic tasks of updating web pages and creating shopping cart sites on eBay, etc.”

“I then visited him on one of my India trips and was able to see how he manipulated the computer via his voice. It was just mind-boggling to see how his injuries had no impact on his mind and heart. So, I hired him to do some of my web and Excel tasks. He later created a tutoring class in his home to help young kids that wanted to learn about computers and web programming.”

To hear other ways Sanjiv contributes to society and to get ideas of how you can contribute, listen to the episode.

Words of Wisdom:

Sometimes a nod is a shake and a shake is a nod.

I had to learn patience to lead a team.

Having trust between team members is crucial.

The earlier you do something about a bad fit the better.

Volunteer work is about bringing your skills to help the organization grow and spread the word.

Each person has to find the synergy between a philanthropy organization and their goals and passion.

Contact Sanjiv Prabhakaran:

Website: Bytesinc.com

Email: sanjiv@bytesinc.com

Phone: 888-988-bytes

Direct: 619-933-3366

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Joanie interviews Meetesh Karia, CTO of The Zebra, the nation’s leading insurance search engine. Meetesh’s interest in computers goes back to childhood. He taught himself several programming languages back in the 80s when he was a kid and played on his dad’s 8086 computer. He studied computer science and math and minored in psychology in college. Meetesh is first generation Indian American and he grew up understanding and valuing what diverse teams bring to the table. We talk about how to recruit, hire, and manage diverse people, the unexpected benefits and challenges of diversifying, how to manage people remotely, and how Meetesh grew from managing a handful of people to over a hundred.

Highlights:

Q: Why and how do diverse teams help?

“Let me start by illustrating it with a story. In early days at The Zebra, when we were designing our first release and we were designing the thing we thought we wanted to use. We built it and released it. What we learned through that was that 40% of drivers in Texas drive uninsured and that there are a significant number of them that pay their insurance on prepaid debit cards. They do that because they pay enough to get legal and then let it lapse and that’s because they are deciding on whether to pay this or their utility bill or their phone bill. While I didn’t come from significant means, I thankfully was lucky enough to never have to worry about are we legal or do we have lights? That different perspective never occurred to any of us because we had not lived it. That’s one example of how and why diversity, in terms of viewpoints, experiences, age, and everything, is critical to building a better company and team.”

Q: I hear a lot of excuses of why people don’t hire for diversity. What kinds of strategies have you used to attract diverse people?

“It is challenging but it is doable. I’ll challenge people to do it because it’s worth it. One of the reasons it’s challenging is that we, as humans, want to be around people who are like us. That goes to recruiting as well because we tend to subjectively prefer people who are like us. People applying tend to look at those companies and if the group of people in those companies don’t represent them, then they aren’t as interested. It is a challenge and it does require being extremely intentional about it. It doesn’t happen by accident.”

“A while back, our company was all male—thankfully from different backgrounds—and I started thinking that if I don’t find a woman and start the process of making a gender-diverse team, then it will become more and more daunting for a woman to come into a team full of men. Around that time, I was looking for help with management of the team. I sought to hire a project manager. I thought to myself, this is an opportunity for me to remove the requirement to be technical, to widen the top of the funnel, and focus on bringing in a qualified woman to the team. That, hands down, has been the best hire I’ve made in my entire career. She went on from being our project manager, to Director of Engineering, and recently, I promoted her to VP of Engineering.”

Q: How did the non-technical project manager end up in such a technical role as VP of Engineering?

“She picked up enough along the way and she’s a phenomenal people leader. She learned enough along the way to know when to call BS and when to bring in help. She’s not going to architect the system, but I don’t need that. I’m the CTO and I have people with strong software engineering skills. I need someone as VP of Engineering that can drive delivery, that can manage the team, that can grow the team.”

To find out how they widen the funnel, find people from non-traditional sources, and screen them to know they’ll be successful at the job, as well as the unexpected benefits the company experienced, listen to the episode.

Words of Wisdom:

“I don’t think we’ve ever made it mandatory to have a college degree.”

“I’m a big believer in the value of periodic face-to-face communication for remote teams.”

Tag Archives: virtual teams

Sanjiv Prabhakaran: Culture, Contribution, and Leadership

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Words of Wisdom:

Contact Sanjiv Prabhakaran:

Meetesh Karia: Advantages of Diverse Teams

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Words of Wisdom:

Contact Meetesh Karia: