Leaders

The 21st-century economy is driven by technology, and the information technology sector is a crucial part of it. The key components of the IT industry are software, hardware, e-Commerce, IT services, and IT-enabled services. Digital Transformation for information processing, storage, and interchange is made possible in part by this sector to support essential business operations. Focusing on building a strong niche for the organization, Indu Aromal drives Digital Transformation, Cloud enabled technologies and product creation through Carmatec IT Solutions. Indu is an MMS graduate from BITS Pilani and later completed her management program from IIM Bangalore. Apart from spearheading technology adoption, Indu also manages business development, financial and HR aspects within the organization.

Indu Aromal engages in an interactive session with the Women Entrepreneur Magazine, and here are the highlights of the discussion.

Tell us about your educational background and professional history. What are the important features of your expertise as a business leader?

I completed Master of Management Studies degree from BITS Pilani in 2002, and in 2017, I enrolled in the Management Program at IIM Bangalore (MPEFB). My journey with Carmatec started in 2004, when it had turned one year old, founded by my husband Aromal Rajagopal. Over the past twenty years, I've worked with clients from more than twenty-five countries and gained substantial knowledge in product design, design thinking practices, product architecture, digital transformation, UI/UX, SaaS product design, Cloud Technologies, and DevOps. The most fascinating aspect of my job and a critical competency that I have is embracing new technology stacks in various industrial verticals and driving design thinking practices in business solutions. Apart from that, I also look into the HR and financial governance of the organization. My leadership approach comes from inspiration and creativity, and I try to incorporate that in our engagements with customers.

What motivated you to find Carmatec IT Solutions? What are its unique features?

Carmatec is a digital transformation business that collaborates often with startups, SMEs, and large corporations globally to support their digital transformation and roadmap. Backend systems, business automation, and API development for data enlightenment, intelligence, and analytics, is our USP. Our areas of expertise include UI/UX design, web and mobile application development, hosting & cloud services, GoTo Market plans, digital marketing services, and more. The best part of our business is that we empower businesses worldwide, help them grow & flourish, and we get to be a part of their success story, as we believe in long term customer relationships spanning decades than just for a project.

What are the responsibilities you shoulder as the CEO of Carmatec IT Solutions? What are the challenges you have encountered in your professional journey?

I still head the development and digital transformation team of Carmatec with Project managers and Product owners reporting to me on projects, more from a consulting standpoint, overall design review and vetting architecture of complex solutions. I play a significant role in sales & business development, HRM, financial governance, facilitating customer conversations, and choosing the appropriate solution stack.

We’ve had a few setbacks during our 20 year journey, and we have always come out of it by being innovative within the organization to reposition the brand and its offerings. The biggest challenges we continue to face still are finding the right talent and hiring the right people, capital management, and right partners. We also have to expand our international reach and have local partners which is not something we have managed to expand much so far.

"The journey is never easy, but it can be very exciting with a huge learning opportunity. Stay in there, be strong to persist and you’ll surely taste success"

What are the key milestones that you have achieved? What is the role of IIM Bangalore in shaping you as a leader?

My journey is an extremely personal one. For one, we were running the company as a husband and wife team which had its own dynamics, and for the second my professional journey was pretty much only with Carmatec, where we built a culture, where we could adopt anything we wanted to, change & explore technology much more easily than in a corporate, and many a times be creative with the way we could run the organization. We navigated through various technology stacks, constantly evolving the brand and its offerings every couple of years. The IIM programme helped us run the business with much more discipline and structure, with a lot of importance to financial governance, and better HR processes. The peer learning and peer network from IIM is also a very strong community that continues to help and we definitely get a lot of value add from there as well.

What advice you would like to give to young girls and women who are aspiring to be business leaders and entrepreneurs?

If you are passionate about something and have done your research, never be afraid to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. Nowadays, it's much simpler to accomplish this because of start-up incubators, crowd funding, and more access to early investment money. You'll taste success if you hang in there and have the fortitude to persevere. There are ways to reduce the risks, such as investing in rigorous market research, positioning, and market analysis to test your idea and support it with a solid business plan. The journey is never easy, but it can be very exciting with a huge learning opportunity. Stay in there, be strong to persist and you’ll surely taste success.

Indu Aromal, CEO, Carmatec IT Solutions

Indu Aromal is demonstrating her leadership skills by spearheading various verticals of the firm. With her expertise, she is guiding her team to perform and achieve organizational goals efficiently.