Vinay Shukla
Short Description
Brief about company, offerings and foundation of the company
Endeavour
– The Mobility Company was founded in 2002, and is one of the exclusively
focused Mobility services companies worldwide. Endeavour provides niche
services towards building Enterprise and Consumer Mobility Solutions
through the right blend of consulting, design, software development, testing,
and deployment. Our Enterprise Mobility Services portfolio includes
professional services to establish an enterprise mobile strategy and is
comprised of business consulting, tools, scenario assessment, and cost benefit
analysis. Endeavour also offers implementation services for mobilization of
workflows, analytics, business processes, mobile application development,
end-to-end security, and networking. Over the past decade, Endeavour has
served more than 350 customers worldwide and has assisted in leveraging
mobility across various industry verticals including fortune 500/100
companies, government organizations, and large enterprises. Endeavour is
backed by leading private equity firm Basil Partners and is led by a global multicultural team.
Risks involved in business and way of addressing
The
core value proposition of Endeavour is our specialization in Mobility. This is
our greatest strength and hence it is also the core of our greatest risk – in
that we are unable to continuously sharpen our specialization. We have
addressed this risk by: 1) Enabling our People - By enabling our people to keep
pace with the latest in mobility technology and become thought leaders in their
areas of specialization.2) Helping Customers - By proactively going to our
customers and helping them drive business value from Mobile enablement.
Most critical decision
There have been many decisions over the past decade. However, if one had to pick a critical decision that has helped shape our company, it would be our decision to NOT do work in areas not specifically focused on Mobility. There was a situation in 2005 where we had an option to bolster our revenue based on services work outside of our specialization of Mobility. At the same time, the Mobility revolution had not yet taken off in the way it did after 2007, so there was natural pressure to take on these projects. We looked at our options and decided that it was better for us to be a small but specialized company, rather than try to chase a sector that was already a “Red Ocean”.
Some of the difficulties faced while building product/ solution
Not
many people fundamentally realize that Mobility is not about the device. It’s not
even about features. Mobility is about user behavior and user experience.
Whether it’s the enterprise or the consumer segment, these fundamentals hold
true. The key challenge in building a services organization focused entirely on
Mobility has been: 1) Making our target segment and customers understand the
above. 2) Putting people, processes, research, tools and technology into place
at Endeavour to bring this to bear for our customers. This is easier said than
done. I am proud to have a team that has
been able to respond to this challenge.
Different actions if I rebuild my company from scratch all over again
I
would not do things differently at the macro level, but at a micro level there
are many things I would do differently. Having said that, it is only in hindsight
that it’s possible to make that statement, in foresight it’s not.
There are many who dream of doing something
different in their lives but a very few who actually do it. Entrepreneurs are
path-breakers. I believe the 3 D’s that define an entrepreneur are - Desire,
Discipline, and Determination. A strong desire or will power gives an initial
push to take risk followed by self-discipline to follow that desire and a
strong determination to continue that discipline.
The
fact that I am answerable to my team and my customers has created a level of
trust that keeps everyone open and on the same page.
At
Endeavour, we choose above all else, people who are passionate and believe in
themselves. We want people who will go out on a limb to defend their
conviction. After that we believe that nurturing talent is a matter of the
right process and policies. While it would take a long time to discuss all of
those policies, we have had great success with a formal learning and
development cell in the organization headed by our experts.
Your
first customer buys entirely because of YOU and YOUR TEAM. You must have the passion,
the energy, and the demonstrated willingness to go the extra mile. Our first
customer was an asset management company and we were charged with bringing
Mobility to be bear to remove the commercial paper chain at play.
we are delighted to have Basil Partners funding
our growth.
I
think it’s taken on a more strategic focus over the last decade. While I was
more involved in anything and everything in our early days – from project and
account management to sales and marketing - today my role is more strategic in strengthening
Endeavour’s growth.
No
decision is right or wrong when it is made. It is the outcome that tells if you
made a mistake. I believe it is ok to make mistakes but it is important to
learn from them and convert them into opportunities. To me, a self-belief, discipline
and gut feel drives me to connect those dots.
I am always
inspired by visionaries who changed the world with their innovations; those who
lived for purpose. I admire Apple for the way they fought back to make up their
lost ground against some of the most-established players in the mobile
industry. They have not only redefined themselves and gained a strong foothold,
but also challenged their competitors with some of the best mobile products the
industry is now witnessing. We are seeing the start of the mobile evolution; I
believe the best is yet to come. It will be interesting to see who will be the winner in this race.
Good
Entrepreneurs know things instinctively and trust their gut. They back up their
instinct with discipline, creativity, and some amount of paranoia.