As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world, we invited yet another passionate Entrepreneur Jainendra Kumar for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. Jainendra is a proven leader and senior executive with over two decades of hands-on experience in Software Product Management, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, DevOps, Architecture, Technical operations, People and Business management. He has held various leadership profiles and managed larger teams. Jaindendra is currently the Head of Global Delivery Center – India & Senior Director Product Development – Software at Diebold Nixdorf. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Jainendra:
We are aware of your contributions to the ecosystem; talk us through your background and your journey, please;
My professional journey so far has helped me cross-pollinate ideas across in a wide variety of industry sectors, including fintech, hospitality, utility, edtech, CRM, and healthcare.
After my B. Tech. from Pantnagar University, I joined software engineering team at Alstom, contributing to the development of innovative solutions in energy management. Thereafter, I worked with a few MNCs and start-ups in both USA and India, owning product engineering and product management.”
Currently, I am leading the global digital and data analytics engineering of Diebold Nixdorf and am also the site leader of India global delivery center. These opportunities helped me span a wide variety of product, engineering, services and shared services functions from strategy to operations.
Please share with us a unique challenge you faced in your early career?
My first job post B. Tech. with Alstom put me on a challenging learning curve of culture, innovation and quality.
Working in India, France and USA, I had become well-versed with the French and USA culture, way of life, which is very different from we see in India and the west. This experience also built a good range of cultural sensitivity in me.”
My appreciation of quality and product performance got redefined so early in career working for a nuclear power plant software solution with French team. The meticulous detailing and the efforts in quality right through the product life cycle right from definition to delivery helped in bringing the sense of professionalism in me.
How did you discover your passion?
Through iterative planning intertwined with continuous shifts in execution. Over the last 24 years, I have taken up numerous projects in my areas of interest and have always tried to stretch myself right from a developer to program manager to product management and then into leadership roles.
It was essentially about arriving at a just to explore what really resonated with my personality and life choices.
With so much going on, how do you start the day to keep your passion alive?
My internal energy drives me to do something new, every day. To build that kind of energy early in the day, I have a practice of visualizing my work outcomes and connecting them with my long-term choices.
Also, I make sure that my professional activities and behaviour are a true expression of myself. That eliminates any dissonance between who I am and what I am doing on daily basis. With that, passion just develops on its own.”
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Self-awareness, constant pursuit, and integrity are the three keys to success.
On the time scale, it may take some individuals much longer to achieve their goals, but the satisfaction of making progress in the right direction is success in itself.
We know that you are continuously engaged in helping others achieve their goals. Why do you do that?
I am a big believer in sharing knowledge and experiences, so the next generation of individuals can make wiser choices and we continue to evolve into a better society.
Secondly, adding value to someone’s life is immensely gratifying for me. For this reason, I keep interacting with students at business schools and junior to mid-level employees in organizations, who can benefit from the product knowledge that I have absorbed over the years.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Look at product innovation not just as a job function, but a collective domain comprising several job roles. You should be able to identify the key skills and personality traits required to succeed in product management, marketing, customer experience, user experience, solution architecture, development, quality control, DevSecOps, data analytics, data science, machine learning, professional services, support, operation, business analyst, and more. Most early starters get lost among product engineering within first 5-7 years and find it hard to switch roles after that.
Career decisions require a long view of what comes after and a good understanding of personal skills and ambitions. Make informed choices and build a professional life that empowers your lifestyle.
There is so much to be shared, but this conversation limits how much I can communicate on this platform. Students and young professionals regularly reach out to me on LinkedIn with their specific queries.
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.
