In the current scenario, a silent yet visible revolution has been taking place for several months. People have started molding their lifestyle as per the needs of the current circumstances. Talking about revolution, it becomes contextual, and it can mean different things to different people at a certain point in time. In the context of the society we live in today, and the times we are going through, revolution will mean change in mindset for the humanity to be more sensitive to the environment, more tolerant to differences and build a purpose driven goal.
The recent Covid-19 has taught humanity that no wealth and power can really protect life, and the virus has come about to awaken the world to many basic things such as being more sensitive to the environment, building a tolerant society and in many ways the lack of meaning in excessive of consumption. To be helpful and reach out to one another, it has united us more than ever before.
Today, the entire world is getting ready to embrace the fourth revolution wherein connecting physical products to their digital copy leads to a world full of possibilities that is transforming everything we know about manufacturing and engineering. These days, IoT, AR and Industry 4.0 have become the vital components to run a firm successfully. Be it any domain ranging from Engineering, Design, IT or Marketing – AR and IoT transform how they act together and work impeccably to augment business processes, drive new revenue streams, improve customer offerings and drive innovation. Today we are going to talk about a global firm which has been the leader of creating platforms and solutions that drive this revolution. We are talking about none other than PTC India itself.
First player advantage
The company helps firms across the globe bring a new change in the way they design, manufacture, operate, and service things for a smart, connected world. They had the first player advantage of bringing digital 3D in 1986. Moreover, they were the first to market with internet-based product lifecycle management in 1998. By means of PTC, manufacturers and anetwork of partners and developers can reap dividends on the promise of the Internet of Things and augmented reality technology today and drive the future of innovation.
PTC expanded its wings on a national level and covers the Indian market. The company could grow with such a rapid pace because of the dynamic leadership of Kalyan Sridhar, SVP and Country Manager of PTC India. He is responsible for managing its operations in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has almost three decades of experience in senior executive roles spanning Sales, Business Development, Business Operations and Channel Sales in the IT industry. He also holds expertise in business operations and managing change in the operational processes such as price structuring, licensing models, revenue recognition, and sales order management, forecasting, and planning business. PTC sees growth opportunity in industrial IoT, AR spaces.
Organisations around the world and quite a few in and around this region have embraced industrial Internet of Things (IOT) and augmented reality, says Kalyan Sridhar. At PTC, they are assisting manufacturers make sense of the explosion of information around industrial internet, industry 4.0 and other M2M (Machine to Machine) business models. They are developing an ecosystem of partners who in turn can build solutions around IoT and AR. It will be a small but strong ecosystem, with a focus on value-based offerings rather than looking at volumes. They have launched most of their models on the cloud. More than 50 per cent of their revenues was from cloud-based subscription last year. PTC is now looking at establishing Centres of Excellence with IoT at the core.
Making a Positive impact
They are looking to tie up with engineering colleges to locally generate skills as well as build on local hires. The talent pool is available here and the market potential is huge.
There have been many accomplishments that has touched him and has had made a positive impact in the lives of people. A recent one is the skill development project that PTC has played a pivotal role in and executed through their partner Tata Technologies at Chandrapur. They are going through a difficult time with COVID and the team came up with a Robot to assist doctors in treating Covid 19 patients in the district of Chandrapur. The aim is to ensure minimum contact between medics and the patients. A very significant project that is helping the mankind during this difficult phase.
Being a leader of the organization, he brings about transformation by challenging status quo, by inspiring the team to action and by leading the team navigate the uncertainties arising from change. “In the context of business leadership, I believe revolution is more transformational – and leaders mostly in Indian context are leading this change. Even in large organizations or conglomerates, the boards are looking at CEOs who can challenge the status quo and take the large company to next level or help it stay relevant with the changing times”, says Kalyan Sridhar. For him, decisions pertaining to employees and customers hold utmost importance.
All these years, he has remained curious, grounded and constantly evolving. This is what has helped him climb the ladder of success. When he is not at work, he loves to play Golf and spends time with family. Moreover, he is an avid reader.
He encourages creative thinking within his organization. “I believe creative thinking must be integral to everyday work amongst teams. Creativity isn’t just about coming up with beautiful designs, or wonderful ideas but solving everyday problems within the constraints in new ways”, he says. Hence as a leader he often challenges his team to think differently; come up with a better solution that what conventional wisdom would suggest. He lets them think and make decisions on risky projects. He tries to be a coach rather than a manager in the process of executing strategy.
Words of wisdom
He has a piece of advice for someone going into a leadership role. He says, “First time leaders need to clear out subconscious biases that gets attached while being led, or being in a functional silo role”. To practice sound judgement without prejudices, which means looking at every point of view or from every different role’s shoes before making a decision. Leaders are tasked with making decisions and providing a vision that the followers execute as a team. More often than not this vision has never been written or there is no precedence. “Hence my advice for new leaders is to be connected with a wider world and constantly learn from outsiders; specialists in other fields because sometimes that may help to build a vision for your organization”, he adds further. The other advice he gives is to constantly challenge the status quo, as a leader that is your big task. A sense of perpetual optimism, be prudent in taking risks and proactively implement change or lead your team to try new things.
His philosophy has evolved over the years, and at the core of it he tries to be best version of himself every day and tries to inspire others. Recently a medical condition has made me more mindful of spending time with myself and loved ones. “My advice would be that it’s very important to focus on oneself and one’s family. Health and personal relationships take one a very long way in life”, he concludes.
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