Category: The 10 Most Iconic Business Leaders to Follow in 2022_Profile

Meet Naveen Puttagunta, CEO of Divami Design Labs, started his career working with QA and product development teams. Later he served as a product manager in multiple large enterprise software firms, where he has been a vital part of the entire product lifecycle of software development. Thanks to his years of experience, Naveen has observed the evolution of UI and UX and quickly realized its incredible potential to transform digital products and experiences, which eventually led to the foundation of Divami.

As a UX and UI design and development agency Divami aims to create user experiences that add outstanding value to various digital products and platforms, one design at a time. The organization solves complex problems across verticals like; Data integration, FinTech, HealthTech, EduTech, HRMS, Transportation, Supply Chain, Logistics, DevOps, IoT, AR/VR, AI/ML, etc. The design firm impresses its clients by pushing itself beyond the finishing line with its strategic solutions, unique UX and UI designs, and efficient design-led development.

Divami’s tech stack is filled with recent technologies like Javascript, React, HTML 5, CSS3, SASS, LESS, Android Studio, Bootstrap, MySQL, iOS, Swift, etc. As India’s one of the first UX agencies in 13 years, Divami has specialized in domains like Data Integration & Analytics, Real-Time Monitoring, Voice User Interface, Content led Commerce, Crypto, MEL education, and more. The firm’s primary strength lies in Enterprise software, SaaS and Cloud Platforms, Digital Transformation, and Consumer and E-Commerce applications.

Innovative Solutions

Since Divami’s inception, Naveen’s eyes were set on the global stage. The leadership team wanted to deliver exceptional digital product experiences and become an aspirational global brand. With 80 team members, Divami is currently providing a cutting-edge digital experience to its international clientele.

The firm’s core service offerings include UX Strategy, UX & UI design, Design-led-Development Services for B2B SaaS platforms, User Research, Technology Software products, Enterprise Digital Transformation Projects, eCommerce marketplaces, and Consumer Applications. Till date, the company has worked with some of the biggest names in the tech and SaaS industry, including HCL, Collins Aerospace, Google, RightData, Zenoti, DarwinBox, etc.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Divami is the number 1 ranked UX and UI Design Agency in India on ‘Clutch.co.’ The firm has worked with more than 200 clients around the planet and touched over 50 million people. Recently, the firm was honored with the CII Design Excellence Award and Web Excellence Award for its platform designs.

Keeping it Going

The Divami team is continually motivated to achieve efficient excellence and perfection in every aspect of a project. Naveen says, “At the end of the day, we are only as successful as our work is. This is why most of our clients come back to us because our designs have made them and their products successful.”

With the leadership team providing a sense of ownership and belonging, the average employment period in Divami is somewhere between 3-5 years. Many of the team members have started their careers with the firm and have stayed with it for a long time.

With very high attrition rates, the entire leadership team is proud to treat employees as stakeholders rather than contributors. So, Naveen Puttagunta believes that as long as the employees are motivated to improve both professionally and personally, that allows them to face challenges, they will perform.

The Era of Uncertainty and Instability

The pandemic has brought many uncertainties and instabilities over the past two years. In order to combat those, Divami has adopted Adaptability and Risk-Taking as one of its core values. Although the firm’s core business model hasn’t changed during the pandemic, these core values helped it a lot. Since the team was already accustomed to remote work, there were very few changes in the execution model. However, it revamped the project management, design, and delivery process to run everything smoothly.

Tackling Challenges

Naveen Puttagunta feels that design firms primarily compete for promising talents instead of customers. However, that isn’t to suggest that there’s no competition; there is always competition.

There are instances of prospects comparing established design firms like Divami with freelancers and other small design companies; this is when the leadership team explains the upper hand clients will get after partnering with the company.

Picture of the Future

Divami is transforming with each passing day. Thanks to an influx of long-term clients and multiplying projects, the firm is looking to expand its team in the upcoming years. It has set aggressive targets to equip itself with the right resources, training, and team expansion, ensuring the delivery of efficient excellence to all of its clients.

In an attempt to stay future-proof, Divami has also started working on solutions in the emerging trends like; Metaverse, Web 3.0, AR/VR, IoT, and more to deliver on upcoming requirements.

Growing up in a small town in India, Ajay Gupta, CEO of Stirista, lacked the luxury of a telephone at home as he lived too far out. As a result, since his childhood, Ajay has always been fascinated by how modern technology can help find information and connect people efficiently. This fascination eventually fuelled his dream of developing products that could make communication easier. His first foray into the digital world happened when he was 14. At that time, he started up a pro-wrestling website that updated its users through a newsletter. Quickly it garnered more than 5000 readers, which helped Ajay understand how attentive his audience base was to his emails.

The Beginning

Fast forward … Ajay and his wife founded Stirista in 2010 with a simple mission; to help marketers and brands remove the roadblocks to reaching their audience efficiently, ethically and effectively with the industry’s best data, technology and solutions.

Stirista understands that one size does not fit all, and decayed or outdated data doesn’t work every time. So, it has built a modular and real-time OMNA identity graph from its infancy to arm its clients with marketing data that works.

The organization’s primary goal is to solve complex data and media challenges for mid-tier brands who are looking to use solutions and platforms only available to Fortune 500 companies. Ajay believes these companies can handle things like their Facebook buys independently, but while using their client’s data to place a tailored ad, they need help.

The firm’s three main product areas include; data as a service, email marketing, Adstir, its media buying and activation platform.

Stirista’s client services team, combined with their software-as-a-service platform, can help a brand manage, activate, and execute campaigns from email to display to CCTV. Stirista can seamlessly run omnichannel campaigns across CTV, OTT, Email, etc., with the identity graph.          

The Steadfast Leader

Knowing Stirista’s data makes a difference for its clients keeps Ajay moving forward. He feels that the marketers buy and rely on inadequate and insufficient data, so Stirista must help them utilize better data for targeting decisions.

Ajay began his education at St. Lawrence University, where he received his dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Financial Economics and English. However, he wanted to further his education, so he started a Master’s Program in Creative Writing the same year he graduated. After graduating, he decided to work on political campaigns, which eventually showed Ajay how data interacts with messaging.

It was later that year, in 2010, two years after receiving his Master’s Degree from Texas University, Ajay and his wife founded Stirista.

Realigning the Business

When Covid19 hit our beloved planet, one pivot that Ajay put in motion was to redirect Stirista’s marketing focus from brick and mortar retailers to telecommunication and e-commerce companies. This change in direction has helped the organization achieve its revenue goals even after the economic disruption.

It took some time for the team to organize themselves out of the office, as it was hard dealing with the pandemic, however, Ajay feels proud that Stirista has not only successfully retained all of its employees during the pandemic but has actually grown its workforce. The organization also grew by more than 2x in revenue and helped everyone adopt the new working culture.

During this time, Ajay and his team at Stirista also launched a Marketing Stir Podcast to replace physical conferences and summits.

Challenges of a Leader

Ajay understands that he has to make tough decisions that everyone might not like or enjoy. Stirista witnessed a considerable increase in employee numbers with its expansion, limiting Ajay from interacting with everyone as he used to when Stirista was a start-up. Although he still focuses on instilling Stirista’s core values into the executive team, allowing them to lead and interact with people the same way Ajay would. He says,

“We all have reasons not to do something challenging. We can rationalize things we don’t succeed at, but to build a high growth mindset, whether as a company or an individual, you have to love what you do and not count the hours that you are working. If you love what you do and excel at what you do, nothing can stop you.” 

As the founder and CEO of the firm, Ajay Gupta understands his employees’ role in making Stirista the growing company that it is. From employee team building to training and planning, Stirista offers much more than a job. Whether it is a virtual event, Spurs games or a Chemical Romance concert, Stirista tries to do something that caters to a wide variety of people. As Ajay Gupta believes, happy employees are more productive than unhappy employees. The firm has recently added a full time Event Coordinator, entirely dedicated to improving the employees’ experience.

Future Roadmap

Ajay Gupta always wanted one-word associations with Stirista to get to a point where the words “Identity” and “CTV” are synonymous with Stirista. The firm seeks to become the spine of every significant ad tech platform and the audience behind every influential brand’s CTV buying decision.

He adds, “We have grown from 2 to over 100 people over the last ten plus years. When you truly believe in your product, your purpose, and your approach and hire people who feel the same way, success comes naturally.”

Meet Bibhakar Pandey, the Co-founder and CEO of CX Studios, a full-service Customer Experience organization. It focuses entirely on simplifying customer experience implementations and driving clear business outcomes by directly influencing buying behavior across their entire Engagement Lifecycle.

Bibhakar is an industry pioneer with more than 25 years of experience leading global and multi-cultural experience teams across North America, Europe, and APAC. His professional career started almost three decades ago with an entrepreneurial stint right out of college. Although the venture was initially successful, it tanked miserably when he decided to scale. Looking back at his initial leadership experience, Bibhakar often says, “Perhaps we didn’t have the maturity and rigor back then. But it was a good life lesson very early on  in my career about learning to Fail Fast.”

Later he joined the IT boom through a multi-national company. Bibhakar was fortunate to work with some demanding and challenging clients across the globe. The experience taught him things that he still cherishes.

Generating High Yield

CX Studios realizes its clients’ vision by generating high yield from every customer touchpoint. The firm’s approach toward CX is entirely data-driven and led by insights and intelligence. When it comes to building a seamless customer experience engagement model, the firm uses industry-leading tools, platforms, holistic strategies, and services to deliver complete solutions in industries like, Healthcare, Pharma, Insurance, and Financial Services.

With a significant focus on continued learning within the organization, CX Studio has also founded CX Studios University. The university trains every associate for more than 1000 hours before they get deployed in small PODs for client engagements.

Punching Above its Weight

The entire team of CX Studios motivates Bibhakar every day. He feels working with the new generation is quite refreshing and full of learning experiences. Additionally, the firm’s focus on solving its client’s problems and identifying new opportunities to drive growth in their business is a big motivating factor for him.

After working for MNCs for most of his career, Bibhakar feels surprised to witness, that clients are more transparent about sharing their opportunity areas with a comparatively small start-up like CX Studios. For him, it is an attestation of the company’s goals and the capability of its team.

As famously said in a movie, “With great power comes great responsibility”– Bibhakar feels it’s his responsibility toward the team of CX Studios and its clients which keeps him, and the entire leadership team motivated to be consistently proficient.

Delivering Business Outcome

Bibhakar believes currently, the most significant challenge hampering the industry is talent gap and the Great Resignation, which together are now having a compounding effect on delivering customer experience solutions. Adding to the complexities, customer experience and customers’ expectations around their experience are evolving faster than anyone could have imagined before.

He feels the pandemic pushed the digital customer experience evolution by 5-6 years. It has made it challenging for clients to keep pace with best-in-class technologies. Since Covid, few of the CX Studios’ clients are looking to change their business models and go directly to consumers. However, at the same time they are struggling to identify their buyers, as the pandemic has changed buying patterns and engagement expectations. With all these going on, CX Studios launched its CX solutions for its clients to help with their direct business outcomes is becoming paramount.

With the core leadership bringing more than 150 years of combined experience in this space, Bibhakar and his team realize that the company is at an influx point in the industry where old will not be able to hold.

A Constant Evolution

Due to the constant changes in clients’ and the team’s expectations, Bibhakar feels that leaders need to be more agile, patient, and adaptive post-pandemic. He says, “There’s no right or wrong approach – what’s right today may not work tomorrow. We need to be patient with the ongoing changes, with our teams, and with our approach, knowing that our solution is only as good as yesterday. We are in a constant state of evolution and live in a very uncertain world where continuous change is the only certainty.”

Bibhakar also added, “Companies and leaders who would succeed in this decade are the ones who are nimble in their approach, can adapt and take accountability for the outcomes to ever-changing market demand.”

Tackling Challenges

Leading an organization like CX Studios in uncertain times is not easy. Bibhakar Pandey believes that while everything has been laid out as organizational goals and vision, the firm will still have to execute and meet its revenue goals. However, he feels if the firm only focusses on the goal of revenue growth, then it might not be able to achieve its core purpose. So, it’s more important to focus on the journey and the process rather than the destination. As an organization, CX Studios focuses on making its process and approach stronger without thinking about the final result. As per Bibhakar Pandey, the final result is the simple derivative of a strong process that continues to evolve based on the learning and is executed through a disciplined approach. According to him, the CX Studios Team is also fortunate to have an Investor team who have wealth of leadership experience in this space and beyond, who also share similar values and goals for the growth of the organization.

Picture of the Future

CX Studios was established to drive its client’s business outcomes in the CX space by leveraging its multi solutionist talent and capability. In the future, the firm will continue to pursue its core purpose to scale and create a niche for itself in the Digital Customer Experience industry space.

The firm continues to grow its client base by creating next-generation capabilities and talent in the CX space and consistently strengthening the execution for driving Client’s Business outcomes.

Company Name: CX Studios

Management: Bibhakar Pandey, the Co-founder, and CEO

Leadership is the key element in today’s cutthroat competitive market that makes everything perfect. When it comes to taking any strategic decision or motivating employees, the leader’s role is unparalleled. So, each organization needs a dynamic leader, who can lead from the front. Clarity in vision, honesty towards ambition, and compassion in behaviour are the qualities that help to become a transformational leader.

One such visionary leader is Mr. Umar AK Balwa, Managing Director of Sealmatic. The company is the industry leader in, designing and manufacturing mechanical seals and associated products mainly for Oil & Gas, Chemical, Petrochemical, Fertilizer, Pharmaceutical, Mining, and many other process industries.

In an interview with Tycoon Success Magazine, Mr. Umar AK Balwa shared the insider story of, his entrepreneurial journey and success. So, let’s dive into the interview!

Tell us about Sealmatic’s focus and innovations in the area of research & development and technologically advanced products?

I am pleased to state that Sealmatic has the honour and distinction of being recognized as an approved R & D manufacturing unit by the DSIR – Department Of Science & Industrial Research (Under the Ministry of Science & Technology). Our prime focus always has been to think ahead of the competition with innovative cutting-edge technology for our customers. Our products are employed in mission-critical applications in the oil & gas, refinery, petrochemical, nuclear & thermal power plant, pharmaceutical, fertilizer, chemical, and many other important industries. Innovation is a promise that we have made to our customers. We create benchmarks in terms of innovation, efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. Our products assist our customers to seal, efficiently various media in the form of liquid or gases. Irrespective of any challenging application, Sealmatic keeps the lifecycle costs low for its customers. Today, we are a global player present in 45 countries and still growing.

Tell us about the importance of the Indian market for Sealmatic? What are the opportunities in the country?

India is the most important market for Sealmatic. While 1/6th of the world’s population lives in India. The Indian industry is robust in its characteristics, matured, and advanced. We are a 3 trillion economy and the vision of our honourable prime minister is to make it a 5 trillion economy in the coming years. This creates an opportunity for the pumps /mechanical seals industry to develop products and solutions for the process industry. In addition to this, the growth of the infrastructure sector has a direct impact on the pumps / mechanical seals industry.

What is your vision for India in terms of market share, manufacturing facilities, workforce, etc?

India is one of the most important markets for any international company. As mentioned earlier that we supply our products to over 45 countries, but at heart, we are deeply committed to India, operations have been profitable, and we have been witnessing double-digit growth since our inception.

We consider ourselves to be an important player in the mechanical seal industry, we have a significant presence in the country, and we are increasing our market share in the various business segments where we compete with the international manufacturers by focusing extensively on our heritage of 35 years in this industry. Sealmatic has more than 200 employees and we work with qualified distributors and dealers with offices in all major cities across India. Our manufacturing facilities in Mumbai have enough capacity to accommodate future requirements at least for the next five years.

We will continue to strengthen our offerings through efficient sealing solutions for various applications.

Sealmatic is a global player in advanced sealing solutions in the process industry, kindly tell us about your journey into this industry so far?

We are a global player in the business of sealing technology, committed to cutting edge solutions for the critical process industry, thus improving the quality of mean time between failures. Mechanical seal is our business. We have deliveries to more than 45 countries across the globe. Since 2011, when we started our business in India, we have grown and are now represented in more than 45 countries.

Over the years, there has been a very big vacuum in the market, it was dominated by the three big boys of the mechanical seals market, we wanted to change that and prove to the industry that there can be an indigenous manufacturer who is equally competent and can supply high end sealing solutions at a competitive price.

Today we are approved by major companies such as IOCL, RIL, BPCL, HPCL, EIL, BHEL KSB, Sulzer, Ebara, and many more.

Today besides the three big boys, Sealmatic is the only company that has the distinction of supplying mechanical seals as an OEM for 660 MW supercritical thermal power plants. Today, we are well known as one of the top sealing technology companies globally.

What are the industrial applications that are likely to drive the mechanical seal industry in the Indian core sector towards sustainability and why?

The sectors most important to the growth of the Indian industry are oil & gas, power, infrastructure, iron & steel, and so on. The growth of the mechanical seal industry will come from high-end solutions for demanding applications in the API segment. We have been approved by API Q1 and are pleased to announce that we are the only Indian mechanical seal company that has this approval in place, besides ATEX, etc. The growth will come from the enormous infrastructure spent the Government of India has announced in the core sector of power, oil & gas, refinery, and so on. We see a CAGR growth of 20% for our company for the next decade.

The global industrial pumps market is estimated to be at approximately $70 billion today and is projected to reach $90 billion by 2025, what are your views on this?

Yes, this estimated growth of USD 90 Billion will come from infrastructure spending in the core sectors. It thus creates a great opportunity for any mechanical seal company, growth in the pump industry directly corresponds to a growth in the mechanical seal industry.

Barring a few companies, most of the mechanical seal companies fall in the MSME category, what in your opinion, are the major challenges that the MSMEs continue to face, despite the numerous initiatives?

The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector is a significant stakeholder in the Prime minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and building a $5 Trillion economy.

Recently we have seen growth in the MSME sector because of various initiatives taken by the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Liquidity has been injected and interest rates are cut which has reduced the burden on MSMEs. MSMEs are the foundation of India’s economic growth and account for at least 30 percent of the country’s GDP. At the same time, they are extremely diverse, ranging from highly advanced operations to a simple entity managed by a microentrepreneur. Furthermore, the sector employs nearly 100 million people, making it the second-largest source of employment in the country after agriculture. Thus, the development of this sector is critical to India’s future. Typical of any small to mid-size business, certain challenges are faced by this sector. The major challenges that the MSMEs face and which make them vulnerable are; Lack of financial literacy, Size of the business, Absence of suitable technology, Lack of transparency, and Inadequate Collateral & Unskilled Labour.

What, in your view, can engineering companies learn from the pandemic crisis in terms of planning and preparedness?

The crisis that the world has witnessed is once in a lifetime event. Most of us had never expected to experience a crisis like this ever. It has offered us various opportunities to learn and be respectful towards the environment. The industry has learned immensely from this event. It is surprising to note that the learning was quick and people have responded to the crisis with great resilience, innovation, and bravery. While it is important to have a strong plan, it is equally essential to adapt to the changing dynamics of the environment. Employing several technology tools like webinars, online meetings, video sessions, etc., the employees stayed connected with their customers and other important stakeholders to maintain continuity thus causing the least business disruption. Overall, I would say that we all learn from every adversity and this pandemic has been no different, we all have learned a lot.

Well, one last question, where do you see Sealmatic in the next decade?

As we turn the page on Sealmatic’s next year, we enter our next decade with a clear sense of purpose – to help our customers with state-of-the-art and reliable sealing technology. Which will be more effective and efficient, while minimizing environmental impact. We have immense pride in our heritage and our history of innovative engineering. As a team we work together, supporting and challenging each other, with a passion to build a stronger legacy for the next decade. A safe, and engaged workplace, that supports innovation, high performance, and continuing personal development. We are extremely grateful to our customers for their business and trust. To our employees for their hard work and dedication. And our shareholders for their support, as we start the next decade for Sealmatic.