The Maverick Who Aced The Art of Scaling Up In A Volatile IT Landscape
Dharmesh Acharya, a veteran tech geek, has been overseeing operations and the global sales channel at Radixweb as the COO since the early 2000s. What started as a tech startup with a small team for software development has panned out to a strength of 480+ tech resources and is now a Custom Software Development giant with more than 3000+ customers across the globe.
Having completed over two decades as the COO of a steadily soaring IT firm, Acharya calls himself ‘a manager of twists and turns in business.’ He says, “The adrenaline that coursed through our veins on the first day of business runs the same way – pushing boundaries and making the impossible a reality building next-gen solutions for our clients.”
His initial days at Radixweb started as an Operations Manager when he ideated a web-to-print solution called OnPrintShop that revolutionized the print industry by large. Acharya comes to work every day with the curiosity of a child and spreads his infectious zeal for learning about new technology among his teams. Even after being a COO for over two decades, he spends restless time for innovation, strategizing organizational policies, resolving in-house issues, and most importantly by keeping himself updated with the recent know-hows of the tech world.
In his own words: “We are in a profession that demands upscaling each day. Almost every alternate day, a new concept, a new technology pops up that diminishes the relevance of its close predecessor. So, it is essential for me to be abreast of all changes in the IT landscape.
I believe in giving my team real-life examples. When they see me working hard towards something, they get motivated to do better. I love working towards my personal growth every day and run a growth-scaled, people-first organization.”
Acharya aims to bridge the innovation gap in the tech market not just by exploring and building on new technology but also by building value through delivering futuristic tech systems at scale.
The maverick says, “Setbacks are essential; they provide you with quintessential insights.”
Most often, the C suite gets blamed for transformation integration failures. However, a true leader will always have foresight about any issue that has the potential to cause disruption. Modern leaders are expected to break from the shackles of legacy culture to test a transformation drive with a benefits management approach.
Acharya also stresses on building a positive organizational culture that guards work-life balance for employees and at the same time encourages them to reskill themselves and realign their professional goals.
Radixweb has taken baby steps towards risk management by slowly integrating operational and process changes. Apart from emerging as a people-focused firm, it has diversified itself into a shining example of human talent capital. From resolving in-house siloed structures, the firm has maintained organizational transparency with clients and employees alike.
Acharya throws us an insightful interlude into his leadership journey.
The tech leader mentions that getting skilled engineers onboard for international projects was a challenge in the 2000s. Besides bridging the cultural gap, building a strong team and a proper project delivery system for bringing up the standard of work was what the firm struggled with. They encountered resistance while trying to make the project management part transparent to the clients.
He rightly mentions that the Software industry is going through a massive change every day and everyone who is a part of it has to evolve. He strongly believes that on the operation side, one has to learn to delegate and develop leadership teams so that the bandwidth of work in the organization is multiplied.
He is a constant learner and believes that constantly updating himself about new technology has helped him craft futuristic business solutions for his clients. From Cloud to Mobile, Serverless Architectures to Front end development frameworks – he takes an interest in everything!
At Radixweb, everyone is shipped at the same scale. Even for someone who is unable to perform to the best of his abilities, the management tries to bring them around to a synergy. Acharya believes that the best way is to develop a middle ground between a people-oriented and a business-oriented approach.
Apart from being a tech freak, Acharya takes pride in being an ace golfer and a simple family man with strong ethical and humanitarian values.