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Srini R. Srinivasan

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Srini R. Srinivasan

Design Leader / User Experience Design Thinker

LUMIUM, Inc

Initiative to develop a country

I believe India is already a "developed country" in several ways. In other ways, due to prevailing poverty and lower literacy levels in some parts of the nation, there is this perception that India is still a "developing country" both within India and outside world.

In the current era, I see a lot of young professionals are coming up with great product and service ideas for the consumption within Indian markets, which is a great thing to happen to move India towards the label of "developed nation". The Venture Capital availability is also increasing and supporting the young/new entrepreuners in thier dreams of bringing to life to their ideas for new products. Take for example, Flipkart has become a huge factor for consumers in India; the experience of on-line buying was non existent and flipkart changed the consumer behaviour so dramatically that everyone wants to grab a piece of the market now.

My achievements

I have been very fortunate to be engaged and involved in several diverse technology/domains throughout my career, which has given me tremendous confidence in my ability to handle new business challenges and in the process also forced me to learn a whole new set of knowledge. I am proud of the fact that I am not become "rusty" in one technology or other and being able to learn with the newer trends. In addition, I am happy with the progress that I have made from being an individual contributor to a business leader and lead diverse teams across global locations.

Qualities needed to become a successful leader

Leadership is a good mixture of natural personality blended with some focused training. Leaders are born out of two significant silos: 1) Ability to influence people and exract the best among them for a common objective and 2) Technology and Knowledge driven leadership, where more than the people management, the immense knowledge one has learned makes others rally around and work together. From my own experience of being in a leadership role for several years, I would list the following as essential qualities.
1. Ability to look at the big picture; 2. Articulation skills to enhance the business vision to team members; 3. Ability to formulate a plan of smaller steps and execute to near perfection; 4. Crisis management in a non-panicky mode; 5. High energy and positive attitude.

There can be several other traits one learns along the way and settle into a personal rhythm.

My family background

I live in San Jose with my wife and two sons. We enjoy going outdoors on hikes, movies. I like to play golf as many days as possible, but unable to do it more than once a week :-)

Brief description about me

I am a well rounded entrepreunerial manager, having dabbled in various technology based product development, software services businesses and now finally onto Creative Design business. I love start-ups and the energy it brings out of me and the challenges it offers for me to be excited and engaged. I love travel and literally cannot be in one location for a long time. Very people oriented and like to engage with different people from countries, different domains and professions, as I learnt a lot from each of those interactions. Silicon Valley has given me a lot of life experince and I am still learning!

Influenced by

Throughout my life, I have been influenced by many people and the influencers also change depending on the time and what I have been aspiring to do. Some of them happen to be famous and well know, while others have been "no names" as far as world renown is concernred. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have been admired by me early on, then came the Yahoo leadership, and Google's Eric Schmit for his ability to run and build the company into a huge fotrune.

The admiration comes largely due to the success factors of the person I admire, either in terms of technical excellence or business ability. In personal life, I have several people who have influenced me for their individual qualities in sports, ability to manage family situations, mentorships, etc.

Ensuring success

I watch and learn from several sources in my day to day life. Also, I talk to people from different walks of life and learn as well.

My strongest skill

Team building and people management are my strongest skills as a leader. I have learnt to work effectively with people from different parts of the world, both technical people as well as non-technical people. I have also fine tuned my approach to working with people over the years.

Getting into the center of a given problem very quickly is another strong skill that I have acquired through years of work experience. I use my strong observation skills and draw from my strong memory to help me analyze situations and try to get to the core quickly.

Important lesson learned

I guess I am still learningin life. having said that, if I have to look back in my life and see what I could have done better, I could have narrowed my focus areas to one or two and gotten into a domino position in that area.