CxO of the Week: Gerald Jaideep, CEO, Medvarsity Online Ltd.

CxO of the Week: Gerald Jaideep is the Chief Executive Officer of Medvarsity Online Ltd. A startup specialist, Jaideep has worked for most of his 21-year career in the startup sector. He started his career with an entrepreneurial venture and founded his own company called as Quadrant Creations and in 2012 his second venture Colorshots.

Your top priority while making decisions to improve tech infra in your organisation?

I believe organizations must strive to become more agile in order to stay competitive. While making decisions to improve tech infrastructure in our organization my focus is on tools and technology that can allow us to scale rapidly while providing a lot of flexibility to our teams. We consistently evaluate and adopt open source tools, as building on the foundation of great tech leaders helps accelerate solutions rather than building custom solutions every time. With more and more organizations leveraging the flexibility of cloud-based infrastructure, we too are seeing a direct impact, both in cost and speed, of embracing the same.

Challenges you face in driving digital transformation?

Digital transformation is a buzzword that very few people understand but everybody has their own interpretation on how it works. The most important link or component of digital transformation is the context in which it needs to be applied, and those contexts are specific to each industry, role, function and organization. Quite often the challenge at the root of digital transformation is the lack of clarity of what “Digital” means to specific functions and therefore the roll up to the organization. Digital transformation could mean entirely different things to Marketing, HR, Finance, Product Development and Sales. Therefore the challenge for any CEO is to create a common and consistent definition of digital transformation and helping each function/department draw their own connects, upwards to the common goal.

Do you feel that freshers in the industry come with only basic knowledge but don’t have the right skills to fulfil job requirements? If yes, your suggestion to students and colleges?

I believe that there is always an advantage of having youth in any organization. They have the curiosity and willingness to learn and the energy and drive to work hard for success. If leveraged well, what they can achieve is virtually unlimited. The conflict usually starts with traditional mindsets and fresh minds. Business isn’t what you’ve learnt in school, but combining that learning with the insights from the field. Therefore, fresh graduates should use the opportunity to bring fresh thinking to the organization but also focus on rapidly assimilating the organization’s thinking and working to grow and get ahead.

What’s your mantra to become successful in life?

Embracing failure! Failure is an inevitable part of life from which we learn & grow. Don’t let failure slow you down and distract you. Each failure is an opportunity to bring you closer to your success, though it might not be easy, you need to pull yourself up and get back in the game. Take the time to figure out what went wrong and make the changes that will get you ahead.

What would you like to give back to the society?

I’ve reached a point where my basic needs have been met and I would just really like to impact society in some form or some way, achieving the self-actualisation stage from Maslow’s theory of needs. As a human being, my reach is very limited and the aspiration of changing human lives is unachievable by me alone. My hope is to create an organisation or to be a part of a journey which has a multiplier effect on many people and the cascading impact is on a million lives.

Your favourite book and what are you reading now?

I have a very eclectic reading habit and it ranges between management books, sci-fi to murder mystery novels. One of the books I found very fascinating was “Strengths Finder” by Gallup & Tom Rath. The book reflects on the fact that all of us have inherent strengths and capabilities that have potentially been underdeveloped or are unknown. As a management book, it provides a unique insight for managing self and teams, as the focus shifts from aligning everyone to task to leveraging every individual’s strengths.

I am currently reading, ‘Inside the Mind of a Psychopath’ by Paul Sorensen. It is written from the point of view of a psychologist, who over the years has profiled hardened criminals across the American prison system and identified the unique traits that define psychopathic behaviour. What I liked about this is, all of us demonstrate some aspect of that psychopathic behaviour. It is a fascinating insight at a human mind and how different people evolve basis stimuli and personality traits.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I like to play around with gadgets and gizmos and I love taking them apart to see what makes them work. I’ve recently set up an automated irrigation system in my home, converted 60% of our electrical devices into a smart home and am also working on improving the power output on my bike. My current project is fixing my phone, which has a broken screen, for which I have ordered the components. To be honest I’m more successful in taking things apart than I am at putting it back together.

Achievements (Awards & Recognitions)

Jaideep has won the following award for Medvarsity:

1) 'Excellence In Training & Development' in ABP Healthcare Awards

2) 'Skill Learning Award – Medical Institute' in Indian Education Awards 2019

Experience

I have a total experience of 25 years and am still learning and discovering. Over the years, I have enjoyed the beauty of success and failures. I don’t worry about the future too much and make the best out of my present. I’m here today because of my good and bad experiences.

First Job - It was a tech business venture called Quadrant Creations that I started with some of my friends and ran successfully till the Dot Com crash of 2000. It was my first stint as an entrepreneur.

Education - Graduation in B.Com from Bangalore University in the year 1993

Take a look at the previous CxO of the Week