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Saswat Kumar Panda

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Saswat Kumar Panda

CEO at Learnitude Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Saswat Kumar Panda is a member of:

My Company

Learnitude Technologies Pvt. Ltd founded in June 2010 as a partnership firm and then converted to a private limited entity in 2011. This company provides all custom based consulting and services in IT domain from last 3.5 years. We mostly focus on custom driven requirements and build products based on demand for the customers. This helps us understand and develop a core team for understanding variety of sectors which is helping us emerge as one of most promising upcoming management consulting members too with variety of top guns from different industries joining on the same space. Product Development for VC’s, Core Custom Software Applications for Enterprises, Web portals, Digital Consulting, Strategic Roadmap planning, E-Gov solutions and more, as part of our portfolio to handle extremely diversified clients and create a niche consulting unit based out in a tier 2 city of India. Learnitude Technologies (P) Ltd identifies your business process and designs custom model that fits your transformation. ERP, CRM, Mobile Applications, Cloud Services, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, SAAS delivery, Dynamic Portals and more, we focus on delivering the next generation technology with our domain experts. Digital Marketing and Business Consulting is our consulting extension to IT implementation. Our research focuses on artificial intelligence, utility mobile applications and rural business chain models. Our engagement model with clients and business partners has a long term proposition which is more than just doing business

My Role

When we started in 2010, we were 4 active partners out of whom 3 could not continue, with their personal constraints which is of highest regard for me. With all due respect to their contribution, I always stood firm as Business Head in the initial days and thought of leading it from front from 2011 when every other partner thought of opting out. We face serious issues in operations, investment and returns in the first year which came to a conclusion when I started running single handedly which could bring monthly break even to the investment on employees. With time, I could find my presence as a CEO to guide the team and pick each person individually keeping in mind; the developers could be future consultants too. I could find few and the team made good progress with projects delivered on time and moreover, we built a strong foundation with the customers due to a different approach we follow to work with them. We are today one of the promising firms registered with one of the
incubation facilities- Technology Business Incubator supported by DST & NSETB , Govt. of India. With emerging space of innovative mix of technology & consulting, we are making our presence really worth for relations (clients) we carry. Single handedly, I could manage the show for 2 years when today the company could influence people from top- MNC to join us full time as Strategic Heads, Project Directors and more. I always believe in Team A standard, so the priority is always team then what we get in return as business owners. Respect and regard for all employees equally and giving a parallel growth to yourself is key today. We could today think of hosting our company in Riyadh with one of the most influencing Digital Security Summit happening in Middle East in September. We have partnered with some companies to encourage collaborative practice for a significant growth by next year. With more and more people with diversified consulting experience ready to engage with us, we feel strong enough to make a commendable presence PAN world in next 2 years span. Implementation has always been a key to the industry, but we focused on relations and client expectations to make a long term proposition helping every business need touch our expert’s hands. Today, 2013 we stand firm to claim a high profile team supported by lot of organizations to drive and believe on us, the growth is certain to happen and in a different tune. Company has believed to create a blend of consulting, service and product development as a self-sustainable model for each business area of us within. I am just 27 and achieving this on a soil of middle class
space, is difficult every time facing social approvals. But, as an entrepreneur, I had enjoyed sacrificing, emerging, being respected and carrying one of youngest driven portfolio in IT consulting zone in India. My views on different subjects could be watched out at by click here

Way to reach potential investors

We had tried reaching investors recently when we felt the need of marketing and product development funds. But, we had to isolate our strategies for Indian & International Investors due to the idea of the equity firm to invest. We are still in process of receiving a handful fund for promotional and expansion activities of the firm. Till date, we could manage the operational funding with our own friends and well wishers but to a limited conservative side to just fill shortage of expenses any time. Our approach to investors is not really good, but certainly I would say, we haven’t find the one who could understand our real plan to collaborate 3 projections of consulting, service & product development. People often asks and gets surprise to identify how is that possible, but I believe a service would handle
company’s growth for operational space, product will serve the niche market and
bring innovation to company and consulting will ice breaking formula for high
end growth of the firm. We have really good concepts drafted to get acknowledged for funding and we are in talks with several banks to assist our Pan World plan to emerge as consulting unit. We respect the investors in all areas, but there is a bit of understanding refinement to follow for getting funds for such unique thought process which can be done with a great team which we are today.

Insights about our culture

We are not a board who believe in getting 6 rupees investing 10 rupees. I personally believe,a culture should be driven by a founder member thinking process. I respect each employee equally and believe in power of ownership for the company. Company has been taught to respect clients and employees on equal priority as they both are most valuable asset to an IT firm.
Today, I feel proud to create more and more leaders within the firm who stand with the company at difficult times, and respect the true standard of entrepreneurship. There were always an HR disturbance that follows for work ethics, project delivery, benefits and remunerations which is common to every firm, but the idea is to help understand the long term players- future lies in team work of a firm not in individual progressive thought. I think, today a culture has evolved where the employees feel to be one of the owners of their firm, and they are indeed respected to that level. Each employee irrespective of every assignment he handles or the responsibility he or she carries, we had created a CEO session every Saturday where they identify weakness and strength of the company and put it before management openly to address and I like the same to help it getting resolved. I am building a team where a typical boss structure is highly unacceptable in a competitive market and employee being the most promising asset to growth. With emerging space and time, the team has realized its own issues and resolved with the management patiently thus making us proud every day. We have attended a employee friendly environment and team of board members and employees work hands in hand to support all decisions, and put
serious efforts to grow.

Faced Challenges

Sometimes, we face lack of communication by good developers, sometimes a difficult client to handle, few moments a poor coordination issues and a careless approach which has created some problems initially. Now, when we had done all those really well, we had felt the heat of a freelancing competition which has brought the price of IT service and consulting really low , and despite being a company with all overheads and service benchmarks, it becomes difficult for us to convince client on a specific budget. When it comes to building custom solutions, certain products by their costing had tuned clients towards a cost sensitive model. We have learnt from the market expectations and attrition issues of companies to emerge with some powerful solution to handle things.

Advice for fellow entrepreneurs

Do not take other’s suggestions and views for granted. Respect their advice, suggestions try to implement which fits your thought process and do not feel pained when some people critically challenge your opinion and initiative. Believe in yourself and claim always “My career is not a slave of your opinion”. Always plan your activities, listen to people learn from every level keeping a down to earth and humble attitude. Please read this blog of mine to understand the level of solution you can devise yourself with a clean approach.

My thought

I would like to share one thing, we do not always need to count experience and age as only parameter to fund, support an entrepreneur. His understanding level could be estimated with one to one interaction, allowing him to speak openly, helping him with a mentor in the area which needs perfect attention and creating a dynamic relationship to feed him/her with strategic thoughts and caring space so that an Entrepreneur enjoys every bit of his pain to up bring a company. Just product development or fixed market voices could not drive real term entrepreneurship. We need to create open understanding level for entrepreneurs to drive his thoughts to actions with a refined support and presence of VC/Angel Investor who defines right funding model and frequent interaction sessions to support pain areas of an Entrepreneur.