Leaders

The face of technology is a matter of constant change and when it comes to a country like India, we have witnessed many young technocrats that have entered the business ecosystem with advanced product innovations. Technology integrations in the financial sector have taken it to a whole different level which has made various financial operations possible just at the click of a device. Micro is an innovative financial platform that helps people deal in alternate assets in a smooth and worry free manner. The technology has been developed in such a way that it adopts the trends and helps the society in an effective manner. The Women Entrepreneur India magazine engages in a conversation with Prathima Kadari, CTO, Micro to know more about her life and her view towards the changing face of technology in the country.

Tell us a little about your educational journey and prior industry experiences that helped you reach where you are today.

I graduated in B.Tech, ECE in 2009 and then finished my M.Tech, Embedded Systems. In the past, I have worked with a product based company and gained knowledge about the overall product life cycle. I have solved challenges and issues coming from ex-plorations in the role of research and development engineer. This experience taught me how to do research oriented work and add creativity in whatever products are built. Then I stepped into the world of open source that fascinated me enormously and GitHub helped me work independently on many projects as a freelancer and collaborative projects to the communities. This exposure got me working with clients and scratching the technologies ex-tensively. I'm currently pursuing my diploma in IT management with my present designation as CTO of an organization, Micro.

What are your current roles and responsibilities at Micro and how do you manage to keep a smooth flow of operation in the company?

Being the CTO, I set the company's technological vision. The responsibility involves building and scaling the organization's potential by leveraging the ideas and deciding on the various technical factors. I devise the right strategy to achieve the key goal of making the product viable for the market. My responsi-bilities also include ensuring that the organization's technology fully serves its business strategy by identifying the nec-essary resources to put the plan into action and over-seeing the entire process from scratch to finish. I get in-volved in managing the team of developers for making them shape the technicalities of a project effectively and striving for a well-defined process. I also constantly prefer working closely with developers in finding out the path of success and ensuring good performance in order to maintain the productivity of the team.

What are the challenges that you have faced during your professional journey and how did you overcome them?

My role was basically to enable the teams to think big-ger and expect the bigger picture and multiple angles as to how to deliver the solutions that have competi-tive advantage, looking at the workflow or planning an approach that can help me solve the challenges I face and add the measurable goals to overcome it. The most challenging aspect of my role includes managing the company's technology policy and securing a skilled IT workforce, complex working environment and cyber-security trends. To meet these obstacles, choosing candidates with prior exposure and skills matters the most. We have also developed an actionable response to privacy, security breaches and ways to protect the system that keeps our organization safer.  Another key factor is planning the employees' inclusion and flexibil-ity in their work hours without sacrificing efficiency.

"Your purpose will get you on your feet and will keep propelling you forward to achieve greater things"

Tell us about the milestones achieved in life and also about the learning from professional experiences.

My journey of becoming a professional is equal to a milestone as it was all a bumpy road with the hurdles which I had to overcome to be what I am today. Recounting my memorable milestones, one is being a technical mentor that involved mentoring many budding developers. It helps me in giving back to society and transforming creative minds which I have been doing for the past nine months. So, this not only helps me in growing my career but also enhancing their technical skills. It enriches me by bringing a better perspective to them that generates more engage-ment and productivity. Another milestone that I would like to mention is building a real-world social impact based project that helps the locals and communities on ground to tackle and overcome the issues. Precisely, looking at how people at the other end of the world are using your products is really an awesome experience.

Highlights : Women Tech Network Global Awards Nominee : Best Mentor Of The Year, Regional Jury Mem-ber for Euro Asian, Asean and Northern Africa regions.

Where do you see yourself in the future? How are you preparing yourself for it?

I would like to see myself set a startup on my passion like sustainable lifestyle and travelling. In the current scenario, where fast fashion is a trend and an environment getting ditched out, this is a need of the hour which makes it safer for future generations. Being a self-reliant person, another such goal is to travel extensively across the world, spread positivity and promote different cultures. Setting out the corners to come up with an interesting tale.

Being a technocrat, what is your message to the budding women entrepreneurs and technocrats of the country?

Amidst the gender bias, judgment and unsolicited advice you receive from all the stereotyped mindsets around, it's not an easy feat even today to be what we are. Believe in yourself and ride your waves boldly. You are the best person to decide what is best for you. People should look up to you for your work, vision and passion irrespective of gender. Your purpose will get you on your feet and will keep propelling you forward to achieve greater things. It's smart to dream high and go for it wherever you are as part of your journey.