CxO of the Week: Himanshu Jain, CEO and managing director, Ant Audio

What is your top priority while making decisions to improve tech infra in your organization?

The top most priority in my opinion is the cohesion between departments. It’s important for the whole team to understand what each department does and why each job in important. We’ve learned that appreciation is a great way to encourage voluntary productivity. This also brings about a strong sense of empathy amongst the workforce as everyone starts sharing ideas to boost each other’s efficiency. So it becomes a self-governing system that is constantly evolving.

Challenges you face in driving digital transformation?

At first, there is the challenge of training the staff of each concerned department. Then comes the long term challenge of inconsistencies that we find during internal audits. Much of that is attributed to human error but it does pose a sizable problem that we have to fix now and then.

Do you feel that freshers in the industry come with only basic knowledge but don’t have the right skills to fulfil job requirements? If yes, your suggestion to students and colleges?

We’re living in a constantly shifting landscape. Especially in the electronics and computing segment. Even with our experienced team, we sometimes find ourselves out of our own Depth. Knowledge in itself can be a limiting attribute. What we tend to go for in our organization is the versatility of ones wisdom.

For colleges, what we would recommend is they place a stronger emphasis of creative problem solving. We need people who can adapt quickly and efficiently.

What’s your mantra to become successful in life?

Discipline.

One can be highly motivated at the beginning of any project. But what enables that person to see things through is the discipline they have. If not for that, no amount of hard work, creativity and knowledge would ever take you anywhere in life.

What would you like to give back to society?

We have always been blessed with the support of the community that we have done business with. This has given us a great amount of sustained growth in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Now, what we want to give back in terms of support of the new developing ecosystem that is critically dependant on such support. This new ecosystem will help the community grow and ultimately develop its own economy.

Your favorite book and what are you reading now?

Sociology has always been my area of interest. Books by Malcom Gladwell have always been a great set of books to read. Currently I’m reading through a highly insightful book by the name of Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

My family is the set of people that I always turn to at every instance I get to myself. My work keeps me engaged and traveling so I prefer to share any time I get with the people that deserve it the most.

Achievements (Awards & Recognitions)

Most of the awards I have had the pleasure of holding have been with my team at Acro Engineering company.

My most recent personal award was in late April 2019 when I was able to place myself 3rd in the corporate shooting challenge 2.0 in New Delhi.

Experience

I’ve had the pleasure of serving the high performance IT market for nearly 20 years. In that time, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing my business grow from a humbled store in Nehru Place to a national distribution channel with 13 branches that serves over 4200 retail counters.

First Job - The first job I got was this very business that I run today.

Education - Despite my love for technology, he chose to move ahead with my career in the world of commerce. I enrolled into the Saheed Bhagat Singh College and had attained an honours degree. Then I moved further ahead with a Global MBA program which included the ‘UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND (U.S.A.)’, the ‘UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH (UNITED KINGDOM)’ and the ‘HOGSCHOOL VOOR ECONOMISCHE STUDIES ROTTERDAM (NETHERLANDS)’.