Driven by his Dreams Date:   Thursday , November 29, 2012 Someone who is being driven by his dreams and passion, and has disciplined himself to persevere and bring them to completion; someone who believes that good judgment stems from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment, Girish Panicker, CEO of Speridian Technologies, has turned around the way the CRM solutions are tailored for the myriad necessities of business users. With his solid experience exceeding over a decade in the CRM space, wherein he has worked earlier with giants like IBM and American Management Systems, Girish has dwelled deep into the needs of customers to be able to comprehend the nuances of their business situations, and thus provide them with solutions that are more and more customer-specific. In 2003, Girish transformed his vision and dream for bringing clients the world’s best custom software applications into a business named Speridian Technologies. Speridian focuses on empowering clients with high-quality services that translate to strategic value and operational efficiency for them. The company, headquartered in Albuquerque, NM, has now grown into a global IT solutions provider, designing, developing and deploying enterprise-wide, technology-enabled software solutions to clients spanning multiple geographies. Apart from facilities in the US, today Speridian has significant presence in India and the UAE, and has plans to set up offices in Europe soon. Several awards and recognitions stand testimony to Speridian’s high-quality delivery methodologies and soaring customer satisfaction rates. Inc 5000, the leading technology magazine of the US, has been ranking Speridian as one of the fastest growing technology companies of America consistently, and the company has won the New Mexico Technology Flying 40 Award four years in a row! Girish trusts that strategies do play a strong role in the coming of age of any organization and its success. He started Speridian with the concept of providing customers with a much focused plan from the CRM perspective. His years of planning, innovation and adoption have empowered Speridian to metamorphose into a boutique company, for which offering custom CRM solutions is in its DNA. If you are on a road to nowhere, find another road: Girish’s strategies to deal with the constantly changing economies of the world and the customers have always drawn plaudits worldwide. “About 10-15 years ago, when the industry was seeded with big solution providers, companies usually offered people as services. Folks of the industry are smart and are no more interested in bodies, time and material anymore. What they are looking for is solutions,” says Girish. Tracing the trends within the industry, Girish started providing value to the customers by serving niche areas and has grown constantly. Every time he gets into a new business area, he tries to build solutions and market them to similar customers. His years of experience in the industry has transformed him from an adolescent entrepreneur to one who can easily bring in change by trying to optimize the processes organizations have been working on for years, identify gaps and pitfalls in those processes, and come up with customized solutions. Each player counts in a match, so does every employee for Girish. He believes he could not have made Speridian what it is today without the help of several other key players in the company – who matter and who make decisions. The global economic turmoil of 2008 left many companies afloat in the ocean without oar or even a paddle -- especially in the finance and mortgages sector -- forcing them to shut down faster. Girish discerns that it is all about the survival of the fittest. His ability to adapt in the changing times helped Speridian survive the tumult. “Every tide in the ocean goes through ups and downs, so did Speridian. Adaptation is ingrained in our DNA and this has led our company to register year-on-year growth even in difficult times. Initially we had finance and mortgage clients, but today the entire portfolio has changed. We are serving the healthcare space in public sector,” adds Girish. Analyzing the shift in need, Girish changed his focus from what he had in the initial days of the inception of the company. Though Speridian started off as a US- based company, today India is the hub, housing most of its talent pool, and this has become a successful off-shoring model for Speridian. Girish developed his own methodologies to effect this gradual transition and today he has a mature onsite-offshore model in place that allows his company to execute fairly complex projects in any geography. Practice core values: Rarely can one see a newbie organization in the industry following the same core set of values when it starts blooming. But Girish has not flinched from his core values even when the company has grown to around 450+ in strength globally. These values have inspired him in changing times and difficult times. “I always believed in building an institution that makes each of us who work for it, proud of it,” says Girish. A firm adherent of N.R. Narayana Murthy and Steve Jobs; their entrepreneurial adrenalin and innovation-crazy behavior have always inspired Girish. Though Girish comes from a non-entrepreneurial background like Murthy and Jobs, time has taught him to seize opportunities, ensure accountability, admit mistakes and learn from them. Girish says, “When we face failures, it is because at times I have not thought through all the different implications”. One matures with age, but hardly starts thinking differently. When Girish launched Speridian, he worked 17-18 hours a day to grow the business, but with the years of experience and maturity to count on now, he believes on his people and on growing through them. If there is anything that he believes he can change in himself, it is to channelize his aggression on pursuing fresh markets. Expanding horizontally and vertically: When you are in the war field, you win and you lose and this experience makes you who you are. Girish has built a team of winners, and with their help, he is switching softly from the services model to more of a subscription cloud-based model, aiming to make more than 25-30 per cent of his revenue from this model. Moreover, he plans to foray into more lines of businesses globally to serve the horizontal and vertical expansion plans of Speridian.