Sowrirajan Narayanan
Chief Technology Officer
A strategic technology executive with 19+ years in technology and business strategy across industries and geographies, Sowrirajan Narayanan (CTO, Notesgen) has led large transformation programs across large and small enterprises. Having worked in the UK, US, Saudi, and India, he has unique experience in managing technology strategy, execution and integration during mergers &acquisitions. In this one on one interaction with CEO Insights, Sowrirajan highlights on how he is bringing his 19 years of experience to anticipate, identify and respond to changing business priorities and help Notesgen evolve not just technologically, but also make a mark in the industry.
Tell us about your educational and professional background prior to Notesgen. How has this helped you shape your journey so far?
I have completed myUG as a B.Com graduate, post which I did my M.Sc. in Information Technology from Kuvempu University and then MBA in Strategic Management pursued. Adding to the above, I have also done one year Diploma course in DPCS which is Data Preparations and Computer Software and then another diploma in IRPM Industrial, Relational and Personal Management. From being a Maths student, I took a leap to Commerce and then to HR and Computer stream so I have good knowledge about a range of things I have pursued over the years.
I had discovered my passion for coding at the early age of 18, when I developed my first software for The Spastics Society of Tamilnadu as a part of my one year computer course. After this, I started teaching various software languages such as MS - Dos, Lotus, COBOL, Wordstar, FoxPro, C++ and more. It was only in 2000 when I started steering towards the enterprise level of application design and development. Since then, I have engineered more than 60 applications, out of which 80 percentage are absolutely defect or maintenance-free, catering to various industries such as medical, retail education, and more. Post this, I moved to UK for good and continued my consulting career for a year. After this, I returned in 2019 and found my own firm BEBF (Bridging Education and Building Future), a neighborhood curriculum developer company that intended to help the education sector to deliver the right educational methods and techniques, right materials, proper learning path, learning experience platform, career guidance, and many more. Soon enough, I joined hands with the Founders of Notesgen, which is an integrated learning network that combines interoperable and personalized learning platform for learners, and an AI powered cloud platform for educators.
Throw some light on the different roles that you have been under
taking at Notesgen. How do you keep your team motivated to successfully complete a project?
In the startup culture, I tend to wear multiple hats at all times, especially since we need to ensure that our skins are there everywhere. It's not like an endless established enterprise sector where people are not limited to do only to their jobs; but are required to play an architect or designer or a mentor, a trainer, a developer or sometimes a business decision maker and so on. So, I never restrict myself or work within any limitations. I also, try to ensure the same for my team. I believe the following five keep up my team motivated towards successful completion Feel free to come to my office anytime, You can ask me any question, I'll look into that and give you an update, There's good news and also bad news, and Here's your area of weakness that you need to work on.
How do you ensure that Notesgen is uniquely positioned as one of the most valuable players in the EdTech space?
To get more out of your business or to have more customers, it is important to stand-out, rather than just fit in it. We are not just a content sharing platform unlike other competitors, instead we are a platform as a service provider in this sector, where the content sharing the tutor online videos. We always keep our offerings a notch ahead of the rest to stay ahead in business. You need to make it clear to potential participants that you are the only choice for them. So, how do you go from being one of the many fishes in the sea to being the only fish that has shown what exactly matters? This can be a difficult but not an impossible task.
We started with identifying and finding out our USP. We are the past provider in IT sector platform as a service which ranges from content sharing communities to video sessions to ERP to Tutor Platform to course management and much more. We have a platform with us for anyone to just plug in with us. This is what makes us stand-out visually.
With more than 19+ years of experience in Technology and Business Strategy space, how does your experience help you to chalk-out business operation for the company? How do you connect with new ideas and advancements?
The technology keeps advancing and it brings additional challenges for learning and adaptation of organizations. As I had to keep-up with various roles in managing deliveries and leading transformations, each role gives a new challenge. The technologies that I had started my career with are no longer there in the ecosystem.
Having experience means knowing our sector intimately. Experience should understand the changing trends and demands in the respective domain and plan accordingly. So, that's what I perceive or I can see the experiences. I believe it is essential to focus on what you want to be rather what you are now. Here are my top tips learn from competitors who've successfully grown, build a great team of employees, have rules for your staff to follow, access outside expertise when required, identify your barriers to growth, and try to predict the future. I think these are all the points what I have learned out of my experience which are helping me to sketch the needed business plan.
Adding to this, being an internet tech front, I always stay abreast with the latest technology. I depend on a
In the startup culture, I tend to wear multiple hats at all times, especially since we need to ensure that our skins are there everywhere. It's not like an endless established enterprise sector where people are not limited to do only to their jobs; but are required to play an architect or designer or a mentor, a trainer, a developer or sometimes a business decision maker and so on. So, I never restrict myself or work within any limitations. I also, try to ensure the same for my team. I believe the following five keep up my team motivated towards successful completion Feel free to come to my office anytime, You can ask me any question, I'll look into that and give you an update, There's good news and also bad news, and Here's your area of weakness that you need to work on.
Throughout all the challenging times, i believe most answers lie within the ability to separate yourself from the situations and look at it objectively, which will allow you to find an answer
How do you ensure that Notesgen is uniquely positioned as one of the most valuable players in the EdTech space?
To get more out of your business or to have more customers, it is important to stand-out, rather than just fit in it. We are not just a content sharing platform unlike other competitors, instead we are a platform as a service provider in this sector, where the content sharing the tutor online videos. We always keep our offerings a notch ahead of the rest to stay ahead in business. You need to make it clear to potential participants that you are the only choice for them. So, how do you go from being one of the many fishes in the sea to being the only fish that has shown what exactly matters? This can be a difficult but not an impossible task.
We started with identifying and finding out our USP. We are the past provider in IT sector platform as a service which ranges from content sharing communities to video sessions to ERP to Tutor Platform to course management and much more. We have a platform with us for anyone to just plug in with us. This is what makes us stand-out visually.
With more than 19+ years of experience in Technology and Business Strategy space, how does your experience help you to chalk-out business operation for the company? How do you connect with new ideas and advancements?
The technology keeps advancing and it brings additional challenges for learning and adaptation of organizations. As I had to keep-up with various roles in managing deliveries and leading transformations, each role gives a new challenge. The technologies that I had started my career with are no longer there in the ecosystem.
Having experience means knowing our sector intimately. Experience should understand the changing trends and demands in the respective domain and plan accordingly. So, that's what I perceive or I can see the experiences. I believe it is essential to focus on what you want to be rather what you are now. Here are my top tips learn from competitors who've successfully grown, build a great team of employees, have rules for your staff to follow, access outside expertise when required, identify your barriers to growth, and try to predict the future. I think these are all the points what I have learned out of my experience which are helping me to sketch the needed business plan.
Adding to this, being an internet tech front, I always stay abreast with the latest technology. I depend on a
lot of online materials like webinars, videos, and most courses. So, I believe that if you want to communicate with your stake holders, basically the learners, educators, teammates who are so deep rooted in technology or in their own domain, you must be able to speak in their language.
This is why, whatever the phase, in the startup ecosystem, a leader will always have to roll-up his sleeves and get his hands dirty as the situation demands. That's how it is.
What is the most challenging project that you have executed so far? How did you overcome those and what did you learn from it?
Over the years, I have worked on a range of projects and there have been turbulent times when the project didn't seem to be going in the right directions. However, throughout all the challenging times, I believe most answers lie within the ability to separate yourself from the situations and look at it objectively, which will allow you to find an answer. That is how I have learned the things, and I think every adversity brings an opportunity. Even if you read the word `Impossible', there is a word possible in it. So, that's how I see.
One of my most challenging project was during my stint at Traverse Infotech. I happened to design, engineer, develop, deliver, and support the client-server based solution, and it left me clueless as that was my initial part of career. However, taking the hard road, I decided to take-up the challenges getting the solutions integrated with h/w devices and made the product, which turned-out to be very impressive and was picked to another RAD based product development. I learnt both how to and how not to design the solutions. We shouldn't be applying all our learnings and practices because we learnt. Always apply what is needed by length n breadth and customize. I never go with any out of box solutions which never may be the solution for any problem. So, customization is the key everywhere, which makes everyone happy and yield better remuneration and money other words.
Is there any mentor or inspiration for your professional life? How do you continue to grow and develop as a professional?
I am inspired by many individuals Arulraj NavaMani, Daniel Victor (Founder of Agape Rehabilitation), Anitha Daniel Victor, Shankar from TVS, Navaneetharangan from Traverse, Mutthuswamy from Quest System Limited, Bharathi Govindasamy (my ex-manager at TESCO), Santosh Kaveti (Founder of ProArch). I'm thrilled that I'm in constant touch with most of them. Most of my managers have inspired me as to how I should be, and they are the ones who taught me how to handle tough situations.
Adding to this, my success mantra is to break the status quo and strategize how you need to play the game to win it. The real deal comes only when you get your skin in the game because God is in the detail. So, I follow LTAPC Listen, Think, Analyze, Plan and Communicate. Before jumping into any solutions, you have to understand the problem to the fullest. We shouldn't be looking at the smaller portion of a bigger picture, we should see the bigger picture as a bigger picture. For that, listen first, so the rest are assured no shortcuts.
What are the implementations that you wish to develop in Notesgen and how did you gear-up your organization?
At Notesgen, we have our sights set on being India's top EdsecPaaS provider. We also intend to add more in 2022. So, adding to these, the next thing we have on the cards will be the kids content coupled with a tech through which we aim to demonstrate education for over ten million students in the 6-17 year age bracket. We are constantly on the lookout our solutions based on the below IoT, ML, VR, One-Touch Edu App, and Better LXP with customized plan.
This is why, whatever the phase, in the startup ecosystem, a leader will always have to roll-up his sleeves and get his hands dirty as the situation demands. That's how it is.
What is the most challenging project that you have executed so far? How did you overcome those and what did you learn from it?
Over the years, I have worked on a range of projects and there have been turbulent times when the project didn't seem to be going in the right directions. However, throughout all the challenging times, I believe most answers lie within the ability to separate yourself from the situations and look at it objectively, which will allow you to find an answer. That is how I have learned the things, and I think every adversity brings an opportunity. Even if you read the word `Impossible', there is a word possible in it. So, that's how I see.
One of my most challenging project was during my stint at Traverse Infotech. I happened to design, engineer, develop, deliver, and support the client-server based solution, and it left me clueless as that was my initial part of career. However, taking the hard road, I decided to take-up the challenges getting the solutions integrated with h/w devices and made the product, which turned-out to be very impressive and was picked to another RAD based product development. I learnt both how to and how not to design the solutions. We shouldn't be applying all our learnings and practices because we learnt. Always apply what is needed by length n breadth and customize. I never go with any out of box solutions which never may be the solution for any problem. So, customization is the key everywhere, which makes everyone happy and yield better remuneration and money other words.
Is there any mentor or inspiration for your professional life? How do you continue to grow and develop as a professional?
I am inspired by many individuals Arulraj NavaMani, Daniel Victor (Founder of Agape Rehabilitation), Anitha Daniel Victor, Shankar from TVS, Navaneetharangan from Traverse, Mutthuswamy from Quest System Limited, Bharathi Govindasamy (my ex-manager at TESCO), Santosh Kaveti (Founder of ProArch). I'm thrilled that I'm in constant touch with most of them. Most of my managers have inspired me as to how I should be, and they are the ones who taught me how to handle tough situations.
Adding to this, my success mantra is to break the status quo and strategize how you need to play the game to win it. The real deal comes only when you get your skin in the game because God is in the detail. So, I follow LTAPC Listen, Think, Analyze, Plan and Communicate. Before jumping into any solutions, you have to understand the problem to the fullest. We shouldn't be looking at the smaller portion of a bigger picture, we should see the bigger picture as a bigger picture. For that, listen first, so the rest are assured no shortcuts.
What are the implementations that you wish to develop in Notesgen and how did you gear-up your organization?
At Notesgen, we have our sights set on being India's top EdsecPaaS provider. We also intend to add more in 2022. So, adding to these, the next thing we have on the cards will be the kids content coupled with a tech through which we aim to demonstrate education for over ten million students in the 6-17 year age bracket. We are constantly on the lookout our solutions based on the below IoT, ML, VR, One-Touch Edu App, and Better LXP with customized plan.