And Vijay Says…

I have had a writing block for a couple of months now. Then I saw the news of Marilyn and Mark moving on from SAP and that reminded me of the two year hesitation I over came in 2008 to write my very first blog.

That blog was written almost exactly 7 years ago on SDN http://scn.sap.com/people/vijay.vijayasankar/blog/2008/03/10/bi-and-esa-driven-approach-to-sap-project-implementations–part-1 . The first time I felt like I should blog was probably two years prior to that – but I was scared, and rather clueless on how it is done. Finally I mustered the courage (mostly with endless encouragement from friends at IBM and SAP who said something like “its going to be great – but you go first” 🙂 ) and wrote it – and it got read by a couple of thousand people or so. Some kind folks even took time to post some encouraging comments. I liked that first experience enough to write two more to finish my thought process on that topic . Next thing I know, it got featured on SDN home page and I was moved to “expert blogger” status – which meant my content needed no further reviews before publishing. That was not really me being a great blogger right off the block – it was all Marilyn working her magic behind the scenes to encourage a newbie 🙂

While blogging was new to me – SAP community itself was not. I had been in the field since the mid 90s and was commenting on forums and blogs for a while. I was also a regular at Techeds, mostly as a participant but also occasionally as a presenter. And that is how I first ran into Marilyn Pratt. Looking back, it was a turning point in my life and career. Marilyn, as she had done for several others, took me under her wings and nurtured my interest in blogging. She has the most facilitative style of anyone I know – never once did she tell me that there was a better way of doing things (I was pretty bad – I know it, but she never made me worry about it), but would just keep encouraging me to blog more, talk more at events, develop my network within the community and so on. My confidence grew sufficiently to be a regular blogger on SCN and then a couple of years later – I started this blog to rant about non-SAP stuff.

What I learned the most – and continue to learn – from Marilyn is the concept of paying it forward. There is a second lesson too – she is a wizard when it comes to connecting people with common interests. There was not a lot that I could do for her for everything she has done for me. She in fact constantly tells me she did not do much for me ( that is dead wrong – but she is way too modest). I learned from her , and later from others too, that all I should make sure is that I pay it forward by helping the people who come after me. It is not just about blogging – I have certainly helped others get started on blogging , but it is just as important in every aspect of life. I can’t say I have mastered it at all – but I have indeed been trying. It has made a big impact on how I look at life and I mostly have Marilyn to thank for that. I am sure I am not the only one who thinks that way.

Soon after I started blogging and presenting at SAP events, I started meeting some interesting people across the world . No two were alike – what exactly is common between Thorsten Franz, Dennis Howlett, Jon Reed, Sue Koehan, Tammy Powlas, John Appleby and Vitaliy Rudnitsky ? And I met more than a 100 such unique souls and many became close personal friends. That is the beauty of community – random individuals come together due to some common interest, and they stick together for a long time and develop new set of interests together. Its very rare that I talk about SAP topics with any of these folks I met through SCN – but each have enriched my life in meaningful ways. And that would not have happened without Marilyn.

I had already seen Mark Finnern from a distance at that time. And a little while after I became a regular blogger on SCN, I got a phone call from him to say I have been selected as an SAP mentor. I literally got a feeling similar to winning the Nobel prize or something of that magnitude. He would not tell me who nominated me. I tried asking Mark Yolton and Chip Rodgers – and they would not tell me either. It was only after I joined SAP that I figured it was Marilyn Pratt who nominated and nudged Finnern into taking me into the mentor wolf pack . For a second time, my life (and career) took a meaningful turn. I now had access to some of the most interesting leaders like Vishal Sikka, Jim Snabe, Bjoern Goerke, Sanjay Poonen et al at SAP and knew a lot more about how decisions were made on many products and programs. I knew many of these SAP execs from my time at IBM – but being in the mentor program made it a much stronger relationship and many of them became friends and mentors for me.

Mark and I became good friends and I was very active in mentor program. I always knew that he was working hard to make it easy for mentors to add value to SAP. But I did not realize the extent of his challenges till I actually joined SAP myself couple of years ago. It is a large and complex organization – and at any point there would be someone in the executive team who thought mentors added a lot of value. Unfortunately, many of those executives moved on from SAP too from time to time. So Mark had to rebuild his relationships constantly to make sure the program continued to have sponsorship at the highest level all the time . Mentor program is under SAP marketing from an HR reporting line – although its intent is not to be a classic marketing initiative.  I have always admired how Mark managed to keep the program thriving because a good part of the ROI of mentor program is intangible , or at a minimum cannot be measured in classic marketing KPIs. A lesser man or woman would have thrown in the towel and walked away from leading this program. But then Mark is not ordinary – he is as extraordinary as someone can get and he made it work. And a lot of us who are mentors (or are alums like me) are grateful to him and SAP for the opportunities it gave us.

I have no doubts in my mind that Mentor program has served SAP really well over the years – more than anything else, it is a much needed and invaluable reality check on how the ecosystem perceives SAP.  Each and every mentor does something unique that adds value to the SAP community and to SAP the company. Mark’s shoes are really big to fill – but SAP is not short on talent . Whoever has taken over Mentor initiative – I wish you well and I hope you will keep the flag flying high and take it to its next level. The brand of mentors is intertwined with the brand of Mark – and rightfully so for everything he has done. But as he leaves for his next adventure, I am excited to see how the program evolves.

Marilyn and Mark – I wish you the very best in the next phase of your personal and professional lives. You have made a dent in the universe and I will be cheering for you all the way. Godspeed my friends ! I look forward to grabbing a drink with you real soon.

I left the world of system integrators and consultants a few years ago – but even today, the question I get asked the most is “how do I grow my career in consulting at my big name employer?”.  I thought I will post some of my thoughts – from my own experience in big consulting houses, as well as watching several others go through their careers from close quarters.

There are many ways to do this – so don’t think of it as “check these boxes and you are done” 🙂

1. Be the go-to guy in the company for something

This is the starting point – you need to be much better than everyone else, and willing to help everyone, for some unique topic that is in demand. This is how bosses know that you even exist in the company. The topic can be some technology, power point skills, knowing the best restaurants for boss to take customers – it just needs to be something that you are WAY better than anyone else. For me – that was Netweaver technologies and SAP CRM. I also know a guy who fast tracked because he was exceptional at making PPTs. You cannot stop learning – if you do, someone will over take you and it will be hard to win your turf back. Many a promising career has been lost this way.

Don’t get too narrow in what you are good at. Technology changes way too fast . You don’t want to be labelled as the expert on an obsolete technology or management technique. Move with the times and keep your eyes and ears open. Also – don’t be afraid to take a stance on topics where you have an expertise. Just be humble enough to concede a point when someone makes a logical argument.

2. Be known to the world

You might be awesome in your company and everyone adores you – but if google does not know you, it does not count anymore. Please don’t say “I don’t have time for it”. You always have time to do what you likeand prioritize. Lack of time is a poor excuse.

You need to express yourself in public – blogs, presentations etc outside your company firewalls. This is how customers and analysts and other employers know about you. And they will be willing to pay a premium for your services. Employers love employees that customers and analysts love. Simple as that. And if your career stagnates at one company, this gives you options to try your luck elsewhere.

3. Choose your career path consciously, and OWN it

Every consulting company promises at least three of four career paths – sales, management, delivery, technology. In theory, they are all equal. In practice they are not. Sales and Management typically will have more leadership openings compared to delivery and technology.

Technology is the most difficult one to go all the way up in a consulting company. You can be great at sales and management and make managing partner in IBM – but you have to be a real Einstein to be an IBM fellow. So choose wisely . The safe choice is always sales and management.

You own your career – not your boss, not HR, not any one else. If you wait for others to do right by you – you will wait for a very long time. Actively change courses till you get to cruising speed and altitude.

4. Start selling early in life

I hated sales as a young consultant and my mentor took me kicking and screaming into a quota carrying role. Turned out I was quite good at selling to customers. Even if you are not the actual seller, you can still learn a lot by being part of the proposal team . People who can convince customers typically fast track their consulting careers. And sales teaches you a hard lesson – even the coolest technology is not going to be bought unless you can explain it in simple language to customers.

When I was made an associate partner in IBM, the only thing my boss told me was “treat me as a customer and we will get along fine”. It was excellent advice. You need to sell your ideas effectively inside your company just as much as you need to do it outside.

5. Learn sales execution 

Being able to get a customer to understand your value proposition is not the same as making her buy on your terms and time line. That is a whole different ball game – and you need to learn how to do that and what levers you can and cannot/should not pull.

If you are not good at that – get someone on your side who can do it for you and learn. When your boss thinks of making you a leader – often sales execution is the deal breaker. This is also how you develop a thick skin which you need as your career progresses 🙂

6. Learn Operations

Consulting is about four things – bookings, revenue, gross profit and utilization. Every quarter, your boss will be held to a different pressure . Some times it is more bookings that you need, sometimes you need more utilization. Knowing what your boss is held accountable for is key to how you win approvals for deals internally. The larger your company – the more important this becomes. Without learning how to balance these four things, you cannot own a P&L and succeed. Become friends with your ops team and watch them work. You will learn a lot.

7. Verticals win more than horizontals

The power base in most consulting companies sit with their verticals, and not technology horizontals . Align yourself to a vertical as soon as you can . Learn everything you can about that vertical – read , attend seminars, do whatever it takes. Then try to relate your knowledge at customer projects and offer value addition. A couple of wins is all you need to be noticed at your employer. And then go do it for another customer in same vertical. Technology is great in itself – but it is outrageously good when put in context for very specific industries. As time progresses – expand your knowledge to micro verticals.

For example, I started with semiconductors – and eventually learned enough to have good conversations around consumer electronics, equipment manufacturers, etc and graduated to “electronics” expert as opposed to “semiconductors” expert.

8. Build relationships at all levels

Everyone likes to be friends with CIOs. That is a good idea in general – but you need to be friends with the DBAs, the IT directors, and so on too in IT. And then you need a few friends on business side. If you were to ever talk about transformation meaningfully at a client, you need to be able to convince IT and business. More over – the other people you make friends outside the C Suite – they will go into C suite later in your career, or might move to another company and give you new business .

Nothing is more important than building relationships in having a consulting career. You can even compensate for a lack of sales execution skills if you have exceptional relationships.

9. Make your boss and your team a hero

There are many times you can close a deal yourself. There are also many times when you need your boss to bail you out. Make your boss a hero whenever you can . This is not for sucking up as you might think. Your boss has goals which are an aggregation of goals that you and your peers have. So your boss has no reason to not help you. And by keeping her in the loop on good and bad things – you will gain her trust. You will also learn a lot watching her work. There is some nuance here – you will not do yourself any favors if you bring in your manager only for good deals and only for bad deals. If you can’t do both in moderation – don’t go down this path. Also – please don’t over do this. If they feel you need constant supervision, then you are not going up the chain any time soon.

Same goes for your team. Share credit abundantly and fairly. A key to getting ahead in your career is to find and groom someone to take your current job. And when you take bigger jobs, you need to build a layer under you that you can fully trust. You can’t do it overnight – so start early. Also – be mature enough to know that someone in your team might become your boss in future. Help her career along . If you feel terrible about it , it usually means you have some improvement to do on some dimension. The solution is to find ways to make yourself better and not to torpedo your junior’s career.

10. Make friends and mentors up and down the chain in your own company

Even if you make it to the top rungs of the ladder, to stay there is pretty difficult unless you have a support system. You will need friends above, below and on same level as you. And this means you typically have to pay it forward. Don’t help people with the idea of reciprocity. Those are transactional things that won’t take you far. Help as many people as you can – and encourage them to do the same with your example. It ALWAYS pays off.  And it is never too late to start.

Don’t just follow your boss or your mentors blindly. The thing you need the most to progress in your career is independent judgement. Learn to collect feedback from multiple sources, weigh the pros and cons but make and own your decision. I can’t emphasize it enough – It is your life and career .

11.  Stay humble

Please don’t get success get into your head too much. It is really hard to keep your mouth shut and stay humble when you are successful. But you have to learn to do it. I have seen way too many people gloat about success and then lose support inside the organization and with clients and fail. No one succeeds alone in this business. You need to thank the people who helped you succeed. And, send down the elevator if you went up first !

12. Develop a hobby and spend time with family

This is perhaps the most important part of being successful in consulting. This life needs a lot of travel and time away from families. You need to set boundaries or your work will set boundaries that you won’t like. You need to find time for family. It is all for nought if you make money and fame, but become a stranger to your family and friends. And I cannot tell you enough how much of a stress relief it is for me to play with my daughter and three dogs after a grueling week at work.