Workplace Transformation – Radixweb COO Dharmesh Acharya Decodes The BuzzWord

Corporate business strategies and organizational frameworks have gone through a sea of change in the past couple of years. While earlier, workplace transformation strategies were simply focused on bringing about a flexible approach to the organizational structure, the rapidly changing market scenario in the recent past has imbibed some serious attributes to this booming new corp culture.

Now, by work culture, we mean something that has been built, practiced, and followed through for some time by an organization – to put it straight, work culture is a set of measures that have yielded a measurable form of profit/ benefit for an organization; so much that it becomes an intrinsic part of the organization’s existence. However, workplace transformation is more of a recent buzzword that gained popularity due to the volatile business dynamics of recent times.

Radixweb has been a pioneering name in the field of driving technological innovations through its global operations and delivering intelligent solutions to bring about far-fetched changes in the organization modules of its partnering firms. COO Dharmesh Acharya, a master technocrat and a spontaneous organizational strategist, has been steering futuristic changes within the organization with his neo-modern approach. His vivid organization management insights have translated the company’s far-fetched vision into palpable reality and benefitted employees and partners alike. Mr. Acharya shares some anecdotes:

Q: There’s a fear among business leaders when we talk about the term ‘Workplace Transformation.’ What do you have to say about it?

A: You see, fear is a good thing! It helps us measure the workability of a solution before plunging neck-deep into something which we won’t be able to control! However, your ability to overcome fear and see the rational angles is what makes you a ‘leader’. It’s very easy to become an entrepreneur, and more or less, everyone comes with a business vision. But only when you jump into the mud, your visions get questioned and challenged. The question is, will you stay stuck? Or will you let loose, put some things on the stake and move towards a revamped future?

Talking about workplace transformation, one must realize that you can’t bring it about in a day. For anything to become an organizational practice, it needs years of modification, trials, and errors. Speaking about Radixweb, the pandemic triggered a sense of urgency in us for sure, but we didn’t have to indulge and invest in an overnight change. For quite some time now, we were contemplating and strategizing about building a sustainable and organic modern workplace. Look at the brand new infrastructural marvel we built recently - we planned for it tediously, chalking out everything in detail, building capabilities that our teams would need, considering their emotional and professional needs. And now, we stand at par with several famed global workspaces!

However, I’d say, this was only a baby step. The real change comes from within; it’s the organizational framework, the culture you built for yourself that reflects throughout your organization. We must realize that the vision with which we started off at the beginning of our careers has ceased to be relevant. With time, new technology has replaced outdated ones. If we could accept accommodating new capabilities into our kitty depending upon market demands, we have to be mindful of our work culture too! You can’t just stick to scaling your capabilities; you need to scale up your attitude towards business as well.

Q: How have you steered the winds of change within your organization?

A: It all began with the C Suite. We were a bunch of technocrats who were obsessed with technology and nothing else; we still are. But with time, we realized that our focus needs to be muti-directional. See, the most important aspect of scaling is to know where you lack. Only then can you take necessary measures and bring about meaningful changes. We, too, gradually realized that we needed to focus on experimenting with new approaches in terms of organizational structure, workforce management, talent acquisition, and several others.

One of our major learnings in this phase was to transform ourselves as talent capitals. While we were restructuring our organizational strategies, the first step was to identify procedures and practices that were hindering our progress towards a neo-modern workplace. I specifically remember our first calculated step – dissolving the silos within our teams. Remember, this is an age where workplace responsibilities are evolving to be multifaceted structures. Thus, the hierarchal structures and codes of conduct needed to go. We also wanted an informed workforce that knew our major moves and had complete faith in us when we introduced strategic changes.

This is true for every evolving organization when you take your first step towards a risk or an experiment, the most pertinent of obstructions will arise within your own teams. It is human nature to resist change. We had to win the trust of our employees when we introduced organizational reforms – we did that by keeping them informed of all major restructurings. Right after breaking the silos, we realized the need for building a simpler approval network. For most legacy businesses, the eternal struggle is risk-taking. It takes months and years to get past the organizational barriers before jumping onto even profitable propositions because they initially contradict traditional work measures.

Weren’t we apprehensive of letting off control from our hands? We were, at the same time, we realized that the part of work force that daily dealt with issues was more capable of taking immediate decisions than those of us behind the closed doors. This opened up the door for massive workforce transformation. We realized that not only did we need to scale our technological and infrastructural capabilities, but we also needed to emerge as a strong force for human and talent capital.

Q: Have you managed to do that? How?

Over the years, we realized that people from non-technology backgrounds could bring in some ‘fresh air’ (read fresh perspectives) to our organizational procedures. We are here to train an eager mind to the best of their potential, but we need risk-takers like us. You might have been stuck in a job that never truly capitalized on your intelligence; if you are ready to take the plunge, we can welcome you in our teams and reskill your capabilities with our deep industry knowledge. That’s what we have been doing for a long time now, and it has paid us off. Take a look at the profiles of our associates randomly, you will find people from entertainment to teaching jobs, fresh-out-of-the-college interns, to even people who made mid-life career changes. We believe that a multifaceted workforce has only energized our systems further. They have taught us more spontaneity while we have enriched them with years of invaluable domain knowledge. We love people who love to learn! Our people leaders are very accommodating and promote collaboration. We have ‘buddy-up’ provisions where peers from the team exchange and learn our processes together.

Two decades as the leading global software partner of choice has taught us one thing – valuing internal relationships as much as client relationships. We have recrafted and automated every sprint of our development process – from remote workplaces to remote project developments, top-notch talent augmentation to correct talent acquisition for ourselves. And just like we have never differentiated between our clients who range from Fortune 500s to startups with bright ideas, located at soft spots for software development to staggering areas with dimmed potential – we have expanded our talent base globally, across time zones and capabilities.

Our lookout is for learners – be them any age, any race, any competencies. We believe in building with people, be it our clients or associates. And the zeal to reskill is what we savor, because that is the key to be future-ready. Don’t forget to checkout our latest openings.