Last year, we opened our new office in one of world’s fastest growing technology hubs – Bengaluru, India. Pankaj Giroti, Managing Director - Middle East & India, WiseTech Global shares insights and learnings from our journey so far.
I joined WiseTech Global nearly three years ago when the business was on a trajectory of rapid growth. The vision, and strategy to get there, were clear, to create the operating system for global logistics.
The ongoing commitment to delivering on this vision continues to permeate across our 50+ global offices and is one of the reasons I’m most proud to be a part of this growth journey. The persistence and resilience to keep going when environments around you are changing is critical if you want to succeed as a business and as an individual. Even now, with ambitious growth plans, we’re expanding into one of world’s fastest growing technology hubs – Bengaluru, India.
In 2020, we opened our new office, and are continuing to build a local team that will be the foundations of one of our key tech hubs. But recruiting India's top technology talent isn’t just about finding people with exceptional technical skills. For us, it’s also about selecting innovative, passionate, resilient people who really believe in our vision of transforming global trade.
Here are some insights from our journey so far.
Building awareness is part of the journey
Building a new tech hub with limited brand awareness in India doesn’t come without some interesting challenges. We were competing against the biggest tech companies out there for the best talent. So, it was no surprise that candidates were initially a bit apprehensive during the early stages of the recruitment process.
Who is WiseTech Global? How can I grow my career in this company? How will they support me? Were all valid questions we received.
When meeting with people, it’s not just about telling them about the role they’ll be doing, but the journey they’ll be a part of. For WiseTech, it’s one that spans globally, and impacts one of the most important industries of the world, logistics. The world’s supply chains are going through one of the most challenging and rapidly evolving digital transformations, and we are playing a serious role.
People want to be a part of change that’s making impact, and they want to feel they have a valuable role in that change.
More than just bug fixing
For many tech businesses, menial tech-related tasks are outsourced to their teams in India. We had to overcome the misconception that a lot of the menial work like bug fixing would be delegated to our India team, and that the majority of complex, challenging development work would be done in Sydney HQ.
WiseTech is a global company. We know that tech talent is global and that getting different perspectives – through diverse and inclusive teams – helps us build a better product for our customers. Our people in India are a critical part of that and they are working on solving complex technical problems, like scalability, availability and building our own cloud infrastructure.
We want our people to be continually learning, growing and challenging themselves, and to ultimately choose their own career path. We support this through our rotation program, which provides people with opportunities to utilize and expand their skills across different teams, while being exposed to a range of technologies, products and mentors.
This excites people because not only do they get to build their skills and experience and challenge themselves daily, but they also have an opportunity to be a part of the growth story. We might be starting from scratch in India, but our dreams and our vision are big. And we know that our new starters are just as confident in our vision.
We all want to add value and make a difference
As we’ve built a presence in India, our candidates have a stronger understanding of who we are. They do a lot of research before they interview with us. They know what we do, they know our history, our vision, our clients. They’re coming in with a solid foundation and understanding of who we are, and that we’re a robust, solid company with huge growth plans.
We know that our new starters are eager to be an integral part of this journey that we have started. They want to add value and contribute because that journey is going to fulfil their aspirations and propel their career forward.
And we want to support them. We’re focused on providing our people with career-defining opportunities. The ability to work on problems that are making an impact each day in an industry that is truly global. This type of contribution is what people want to be involved in, and something that really excites candidates.
Bringing our vision to life
Within the first year of being in the market, we have hired some incredible people and we truly have some of the best talent out there.
As our employees have started to settle in, they’ve come to realize the significant impact they’re making. Their work isn’t just focused locally; it’s having a direct impact on our global customer base.
There’s also a collective realization that they’ve joined an exceptional company and are surrounded by highly intelligent, skilled people who share the same values.
As we continue to grow, we understand the importance of maintaining our values and fostering our strong culture of innovation and collaboration across our global offices.
With this in mind, one of our priorities for our Bengaluru office was to ensure our people have ample opportunities for collaboration and connection when in the office, and this has become even more crucial with the move to remote working during the pandemic.
We’ve invested significantly in designing and building a state-of-the-art office and have created an environment where people genuinely want to come to work each day. Whether they’re connecting with other colleagues virtually or face-to-face in the office – being a part of a global team gives our people access to a depth of knowledge and experience that supports their development and career aspirations.
What’s next for WiseTech Global India?
There have certainly been challenges in our growth plans –from disruptions as a result of COVID-19 to delays in the recruitment process.
But I’m really proud to say that we’ve stayed strong on our vision and strategy for Bengaluru. We realize this is a thriving technology hub with incredible talent, and this is really just the beginning for us as we continue to look for further opportunities to build our team of talented professionals here.
If you’re interested in joining us on our growth journey in India, please reach out to me or our talent team in India.