V S Balaji Koushikan
Chief Product Officer
In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, V S Balaji talks more about his professional growth and his journey towards becoming a pioneering business leader.
Could you give a brief account of your professional background and experiences?
come with over 15 years of experience in Information Technology focused on Web, Mobility, Cloud & Data Verticals, and have spent my initial years developing applications and solutions for a variety of domains including Fintech, Manufacturing, Education, Automotive, Retail, Lifestyle, Healthcare and RealEstate. My core expertise has been Product Architecture, Product Strategy,
Program Management, Business Analysis, Analytics, Mobile Application, Blockchain and Technology Consulting.
Could you tell us about the unique experiences IIM Tiruchirappalli offers and what did you learn from the campus beyond academics?
In addition to the massive exposure, I would say that IIM Tiruchirappalli gave me the opportunity to collaborate with a set of diverse peers with whom I could engage and share realworld experiences. I primarily enjoyed every case study group session, where we encountered multiple debates and shared our perspectives about the case outcomes. These strategy discussions prepared us for real world scenarios and helped us handle ourselves better at work.
Tell us about your flagship offerings and what are the value additions that customers can expect from your offerings?
Roundesk is the first video conferencing solution built with security at its core. Our main goal was to tackle existing security risks and enable safe video conferencing experiences without data compromise. Our flagship offering is our Roundesk Cloud with a lot of unique market first security features. Customers can sign up for Roundesk and use it for their day-to-day video conferencing needs. For Enterprise customers, we have an SDK based approach which can be easily integrated to their existing products to provide safe & secure, cloud native video conferencing solution.
Tell us about your leadership approach, and the guidelines or methodologies you follow to lead your team?
I believe in empowering my team to make theirown decisions and take responsibility for their actions. This is something that I learnt from my mentor. I also ensure that there is a safe space for my team to learn from their own failures and
Could you tell us about the unique experiences IIM Tiruchirappalli offers and what did you learn from the campus beyond academics?
In addition to the massive exposure, I would say that IIM Tiruchirappalli gave me the opportunity to collaborate with a set of diverse peers with whom I could engage and share realworld experiences. I primarily enjoyed every case study group session, where we encountered multiple debates and shared our perspectives about the case outcomes. These strategy discussions prepared us for real world scenarios and helped us handle ourselves better at work.
Every product team must be agile enough to quickly understand the market and develop for new use cases so that product variants & offerings can multiply
Tell us about your flagship offerings and what are the value additions that customers can expect from your offerings?
Roundesk is the first video conferencing solution built with security at its core. Our main goal was to tackle existing security risks and enable safe video conferencing experiences without data compromise. Our flagship offering is our Roundesk Cloud with a lot of unique market first security features. Customers can sign up for Roundesk and use it for their day-to-day video conferencing needs. For Enterprise customers, we have an SDK based approach which can be easily integrated to their existing products to provide safe & secure, cloud native video conferencing solution.
Tell us about your leadership approach, and the guidelines or methodologies you follow to lead your team?
I believe in empowering my team to make theirown decisions and take responsibility for their actions. This is something that I learnt from my mentor. I also ensure that there is a safe space for my team to learn from their own failures and
successes. This lets them learn constantly and grow to become better leaders them selves. This approach has helped me to groom multiple product teams and do a lot of asynchronous executions. My team members are always encouraged to approach me only to report incidents and to resolve issues if they need my guidance. Business as usual is never reported as it is part of their day-to-day activity.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
Future Tech & IT landscape will see a lot of consolidation in the all the sectors. There will be a loT of new investments& initiatives going into the fields of Automation, Analytics, Sustainability, Cybersecurity, Web3 Technologies, Quantum Computing & AI. Any player in today’s market should look at how they are able to leverage their service offerings on top of bigger product players, extend in house products to support more integrations and ease adaptation. Every product team must be agile enough to quickly understand the market & develop for newly identified use cases so that product variants & offerings can multiply.
Considering your strong experience within the industry, what advice would you give to the budding industry leaders?
In the current market scenario, there is a scope for every product company out there to partner with you irrespective of their stage of competition or scale. One must make sure that you are able to jointly work with everyone, find synergies, identify the gaps & opportunities to do business & execute one’s part effectively. This is the only way for SMEs & Startups to prevail & grow in the current market conditions.
V S Balaji Koushikan, Chief Product Officer, Roundesk
Aside from being a cool headed and data-driven business leader, V S Balaji also prioritizes on fighting hard for a more sustainable future. He is a certified Blockchain Expert from XLRI, Jamshedpur and holds certifications for Ali cloud in Bigdata, Cloud Computing & Cloud Native Fields.V S Balaji has also been Interviewed & Listed for Entrepreneur with a Social Venture in Puthiya Thalaimurai News Channel as well.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
Future Tech & IT landscape will see a lot of consolidation in the all the sectors. There will be a loT of new investments& initiatives going into the fields of Automation, Analytics, Sustainability, Cybersecurity, Web3 Technologies, Quantum Computing & AI. Any player in today’s market should look at how they are able to leverage their service offerings on top of bigger product players, extend in house products to support more integrations and ease adaptation. Every product team must be agile enough to quickly understand the market & develop for newly identified use cases so that product variants & offerings can multiply.
Considering your strong experience within the industry, what advice would you give to the budding industry leaders?
In the current market scenario, there is a scope for every product company out there to partner with you irrespective of their stage of competition or scale. One must make sure that you are able to jointly work with everyone, find synergies, identify the gaps & opportunities to do business & execute one’s part effectively. This is the only way for SMEs & Startups to prevail & grow in the current market conditions.
V S Balaji Koushikan, Chief Product Officer, Roundesk
Aside from being a cool headed and data-driven business leader, V S Balaji also prioritizes on fighting hard for a more sustainable future. He is a certified Blockchain Expert from XLRI, Jamshedpur and holds certifications for Ali cloud in Bigdata, Cloud Computing & Cloud Native Fields.V S Balaji has also been Interviewed & Listed for Entrepreneur with a Social Venture in Puthiya Thalaimurai News Channel as well.