Anand Kadur VP, Cloud and Channels, Asia-Pacific & Middle East, Aspect Software
As vice-president (VP), cloud and channels, Asia-Pacific and Middle East at Aspect Software, Anand Kadur is responsible for establishing the company’s business in these regions and integrating it with the sales division to boost cloud sales. He is working towards devising a strategy that can work with the company’s partners, its own ecosystem and data centres.
He describes his current role at Aspect as his most significant, interesting and challenging assignment. “I handle diverse regions with each having its own telecommunication laws, rules, regulations and guidelines,” he says. “The challenge is to be able to devise cost-effective solutions that can be used across all these geographies.” He feels that there is a constant, unwritten need to meet customer expectations in the best way possible. According to him, it is important to think globally and act locally and, at the same time, extend flexibility to the customer.
Commenting on the recent trends in the telecom industry, Kadur says, “The buzzwords today are social media, mobility and cloud. I say this because communication is essentially being able to connect person A to person B – not just through email but through a variety of platforms such as SMS, Chat, Twitter, Facebook and WeChat. Social media is going to play a vital role in communications.”
Kadur considers his structured, organisational thinking as his biggest strength. As far as his weaknesses are concerned, he says that sometimes this structured and principled attitude annoys people. He describes his management style as one that focuses on empowering people. “I believe in working with the team and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of my team members. The key is to understand and trust your team. As a leader, you have to earn the trust and respect of the ones entrusted to you. The second important factor is that the team needs to understand your management style – expectations must be set, for both the leader as well as the team members,” he says.
In the past, Kadur has worked with Avaya, Lucent Technologies and Sun Microsystems. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science from Bangalore University and Western Michigan University respectively. He also has a master’s in business administration with a specialisation in technology management from the University of Phoenix.
Kadur enjoys reading biographies and fiction, and playing golf. He also likes spending time with his son and his wife.
