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Dhananjaya Rayudu
Dhananjaya Rayudu

Dhananjaya Rayudu

CEO

Stixis Technologies

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Dhananjaya Rayudu is a member of:

- Expert
Brief about company, offerings and foundation of the company

Stixis
Technologies Pvt Ltd founded in 2009 specializes in providing customized
Technology and Business Solutions. Our IT services, innovative business solutions
bring in a high level of certainty with unmatched excellence. Stixis we combine
domain knowledge with offshore cost advantages and resource flexibility to
develop industry applications, which help clients, optimize time-to-market and
minimize software development risks. As the world of offshoring has evolved,
our delivery & engagement model includes advanced capabilities in running
Agile and Lean engagements with a mix of client specific Offshore models. Our
style is always pragmatic and transparent, forming the backbone for our
delivery approach. We deliver complex solutions to clients around the world;
and always with pride, passion and an eye towards perfection. Our end-to-end
service offering includes Consulting, industry-specific solutions, application
development & maintenance, outsourced software product development, infrastructure
managed services, creative services, Mobility solutions etc.

Risks involved in business and way of addressing

In today's economic climate short-term engagements are playing a
bigger role than the long term ones. Employee’s expectations are the biggest
risk for any services company as the general mindset is changing and growing if
left un-managed. Even with the sluggish economy we’re experiencing today,
people often switch jobs and companies.We recognize that employees are key
stakeholders and a vital source of sustainability engagement and ideas to
enhance the company’s sustainability journey. Employee involvement needs to
embed sustainability into the corporate culture. Actively pursue a reporting
system that exemplifies a similar transparency and rigor as the system used for
financial reporting.

Most critical decision

Against a backdrop of Volatile market in US, client behaviors are
fundamentally changing towards offshoring. Stixis business had to evolve,
shifting its strategic focus on emerging economies (Africa) was the most
critical decision and set priorities to meet an altered market landscape. 

Some of the difficulties faced while building product/ solution

Lack of Collective Commitment: Team has experienced and brilliant
individuals but individuals were not working efficiently as a team. Mitigation
- We adopted Work breakdown functionality (feature) based and value creation
based that is delivered by cross-functional, self-organizing teams. Lack of Team
Ownership Problem - Team had a lack of ownership and pride in the work
delivered.  Mitigation - Delivery based
on end-to-end ownership of the value creation flow and increased focus on
continuous deployment practices.
Bottom-line, we build a unique operating model,
which drives radical improvements to end-to-end cycle time, throughput
velocity, software/product quality and reductions to Work in Process.

Three big lessons/ mistakes encountered while building company

1) Having an autocratic
or top down management style,
2) Challenge of setting a “Unique Client Centric” engagement
model and practice it
3) Communication of Goals

Different actions if I rebuild my company from scratch all over again


Be a perfect mixture of Micromanager & Empowering
Leader. I follow as quoted by Mother Teresa – “She said the role of the CEO is
a contact sport, you need to go around shaking people's hands and holding
shoulders. That's the role of a CEO. This cannot be outsourced! The CEO's role
cannot be communicated through direct reports. There's nothing called enough
communication, you've got to say it again and again. Putting it on the Intranet
is a silly thing to do, nobody goes there. You have to communicate what matters
to you and the company, whether if s values or compliance.”


Motivation and Drives factor

Passion
is a motivation for myself. I drive with Passion, and inspire others to become
great. The key driver for me is to working together in a true and consistent
manner aligned with my dreams to meet the set goals. Passion is very important
element in my life that helps my motivation. It is in my passion where I
identify the purpose and run towards achieving my vision. 

Unique about my way of motivating troops
Collaboration is my Mantra. I make it a point of
having informal lunch with each employee at regular intervals. By this I
address there pain points and discuss on the main areas which every employee
should know their key “Needle Movers” for the Week, Month, Quarter, Year and
deliver results consistently. I treat my team equally but differently. On
discretionary parts, I treat everybody equal, but on emotional parts, I treat
them differently.
Way of choosing my people

Employees are a key “RIGHT people for the RIGHT positions makes all the
difference”. I motivate my employees by creating work environments that breed
motivation.We have specific talent assessment programs,
followed by a structured performance management model, which helps us identify
skills and capabilities in a candidate who are crucial to our current and
future success. We focus on both critical roles (from a top-down view) and
critical people (from a bottom-up perspective)". Our attrition rate has
historically been one of the lowest in the industry (9-11%). Introducing SEAP
(Stixis Employee Development Program) is aimed on company-wide talent
development. This program brings in innovative ideas from all employees,
evaluates them and rewards qualified ideas, as well as awarding the individuals
with bonuses and SEAP scores convertible into various gifts and incentives.

The challenges and lessons learnt to get first customer

Hard
work and transparency in my past career proved fruitful to get my first
customer. I had to build a team of engineers who can be trusted to make
business critical decisions, and can manage full software lifecycles
independently, despite being thousands of miles and several time zones apart.

Experience of reaching out to potential investors
I haven’t experienced that as it is Self-Funded.
Presently I am not looking at funding as we are had a growth of 40% last
financial year 2011-12 and expecting the same growth this financial year
2012-13. 
My role at different dimensions as the company evolved
I’ve been in every position, wearing various hats
starting from operations, marketing, strategy, financing, creation of company
culture, human resources, hiring, firing, compliance with safety regulations,
sales, etc.—it all falls on my shoulders. 
As a leader how I make sure that I am connecting the right dots
I learn from mistakes, and put every effort to improve
the future of the organization. Keeping calm and avoiding over-excitement or
overstress is the ideal mindset to maintain during a disappointing phase. 
My thoughts related to entrepreneurship/ leadership and management
As a leader your team should see you as a
uni-dimensional person. You all need to have a Star team not a team of stars.
It's very easy to get the later. When you get all employees to think business
and brand, then you have star teams.
Best company I admire globally
Apple Inc., - For their Innovation, Design, and
User Experience. 
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