Leader of the Year 2021 – Sanjay Kamtam, VotaryTech

Selected as WCRCLEADERS ASIA Leader of the Year in IT, Sanjay Kamtam of VotaryTech is a passionate, innovative and people friendly leader, who believes in nurturing talent as the biggest source of growth.

In Conversation with Mr. Sanjay Kamtam

What makes a strong leader? What are your key leadership strengths are make the strongest attributes of success.

Perseverance, Commitment and Discipline are needed to achieve all your dreams. There’s no shortcut. Understand your strength and weakness. Fix your weakness and strengthen your strengths.

As a leader of a growing organization i look into the career path of every employee, as employees are the asset and foundation of any successful organization. 

Patience to guide employees at every level. I am there to support all employees. I have big expectation from everyone and hence i trust. I am very good with delegation and gives ownership. Giving ownership is positive thing about as a leader. Looking into the Career path is important for all employees.  I look into it personally and like taking the challenges head on. 

What is a role of leader in these challenging times. List 5 in order of priority.

1. I believe, during an adversity, a leaders natural instincts takes over crises. A leader becomes more detail oriented in the time of crises and makes sure that the organization comes out stronger.

2. I took my time to reassess my vision and what are the real, core, power-ally attributes associated with the organization and the team.

3. Our Senior Management took an empathetic approach towards are employees, clients and stakeholder. We made sure we kept in touch with all our employees at regular intervals and helped them to be more comfortable in adjusting to this new mode of work.

4. Maintained transparency, we made sure that the employees were aware of the uncertain times, the approach we are embracing and how do we plan to move forward.

5. Last but not the least we ensured that our people are empowered, they were made to feel that they are the part of a solution and not in a victim mindset.

What is your vision and how do you share that with your shareholders, employees and others? 

VotaryTech’s vision is to be a leader in wireless system design services in India. Our  mission is to provide technology and design services to Global product companies and Indian OEMs in order to accomplish and cater to “Design in India” and “Make in India” branded products in Indian and International markets on par with the global counterparts.

We have a very clear long term vision with respect to technologies we handle, solutions we create and related services which is our business focus. To achieve this, Innovation and hard work put by our employees creates a framework which is adaptive and agile .This clear vision and flexibility to adapt is what is our major differentiating factor.

Being in the high paced technology domain, Employee Training and Development is a very crucial requirement. Technology breadth also makes it very challenging to cover all possible domains with limited set of resources. We have a separate group within HR which works round the year to identify business needs and map it with present skill set of our resources. The identified gaps are planned as part of the Centre of Excellence (COE) team, which takes up the Training and Development of the employees in a continuous manner. Employees are also happy as each of them are equipped with multiple competencies making them more valuable in job market.

How do you drive active business renovations and how does that impact your subordinates?

We are a system which fosters and encourages customer and employee connects. Connects help us to get and make us understand constant feedbacks and trends. We encourage a culture of discussions, debates and brainstorming every month, this helps us to understand the Customers and Employees feedback and adapt accordingly. We never make and implement decisions top down, all of our decision are with high level of consultative approach, this helps us to get a high level of cooperation and commitment.

How do you integrate corporate philanthropy or corporate social responsibility as a part of your business strategies? 

We believe Education and employment plays critical role in building the society and Our CSR activities revolve around our employees and known circles. First is we Sponsor education for children of the underprivileged. Second is that we provide employment and training opportunities for underprivileged fresh graduates.

What has been your driving force or philosophy in life?

Work sincerely to create career stories, and the money and fame will follow.

Thus, VotaryTech was founded on 5 guiding principles which I believe and have experienced are the core factors of our success today:

Equality – Diversity, Mutual respect & Dignity

Integrity – Trust, Honesty and Ethics

Customer Success 

Employee Success

Compliance – By the law, Regulations, Rules, company Policies & Process

What are the other philanthropic works you are involved in?

Health care for needy.

Education for underprivileged children.

Higher Education for qualified under privileged students.

Golf Caddies Development foundation.

How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?

For me success is all about Career stories which I am able to talk and people will get inspired and would want to replicate. I am personally blessed to have created many such inspiring stories which made me a role model for many.

In your opinion what is the most significant aspect of leadership?

My perception of an empowered society is that the technology we are working on should bring people together, children must get a better future, and more youth should get employment. 

With the migration of companies from China to India in the context competitive labor and manufacturing costs, we look forward more employment and growth in the country’s GDP.

My personal contribution – I have coached, mentored and nurtured many people around me to excel in their career and personal lives. Being able to help people around you to excel and achieve their goals.   

Your perception of an empowered society. How far your industry has/can contribute for the same?

For me empowered society is the one when people have the control and means to make their own decisions by themselves. Being part of Smart Devices technology development, all the technologies (Communication, Tracking, Security, Monitoring ect) for various usecases (Security, Agriculture, Communication, Healthcare ect.) are aimed to empower individuals and the society.

Esprit de corps: How do bring fairies and equality to all?

We have a unique performance based reward system which helps our employees to create great stories and get rewarded in Short, Mid and Long term. 

The unique performance system is available for all employees irrespective of their gender or job functions (HR, Sales, Engineering, IT, Admin, Finance ect).