CxO Of The Week: Murali Urs, Country Manager-India, Barracuda Networks

CxO Of The Week: Murali Urs, Country Manager-India, Barracuda Networks, he is orking for close to 25 years now, started as a sales rep for a reseller – Binary Semantics in 1993 selling packaged software and it has been a nice journey so far!!

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

Customer satisfaction is always the top priority. We keep in mind customer requirements and feasibility of using our products while taking any decision regarding tech infra in our organization.

Challenges you face in driving digital transformation?

I think the challenge is making our customers keep up with the digital transformation. Technology is transforming at such brisk pace and not every customer stays updated. Hence, making them adapt to it at times can become challenging.

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?

Yes many of them do come with only basic knowledge they have learnt in their college or institute books/curriculum. Many of the courses they complete are based on old syllabus and might not be useful most of the times.

As technology gets upgraded too fast and there are too many changes happening very quickly.Students and colleges need to upgrade their syllabus, they need to start to refer to book, internet, digital media to learn about what is new and what is happening around in the industry.

Students need to treat this as an investment they need to put – in terms of time, effort and sometimes even money – without which they will be left behind. Colleges need to encourage their faculty to teach the students about the latest trends in the industry and also what the future holds for the students.

They also need to see what are all the different avenues (Security, Storage, AI, Networking, BI, Application development, etc.,) in the IT field and make a choice and work towards building their skill set around the chosen field.

What’s your mantra to become successful in life?

The right attitude – to learn, to work, to grow, towards life in general – organizations can invest in skill development, technology, training, etc. – but they cannot teach attitude. It is very important to have the right attitude

Money should not be the only objective, Career growth should be the focus – when one grows in career money will follow

Be humble, be modest, keep oneself grounded – this will help in building an eco-system that will support us in good and also in the not so good times

What would you like to give back to the society?

I always work to make life of people and things around better – that is the contribution we should make – it will help us build a legacy.

I believe that each individual should use his/her experience and learnings to teach others and help make the society a better place to live – not just at work but also in life outside work. I personally, have most of the times been hiring people from smaller organizations, who don’t have too much of a pedigree, into my team and enjoyed making their lives and careers better. Loved each role I have played till now.

I am a member of an International Charity Foundation, but as of now I spend very little time due to my work – but as time goes I intend to spend more time there and help school children to become better citizens of India and more so to become Good Human Beings.

Your favourite book and what are you reading now?

Favourite – there are many… not one in particular. As of now I am reading Chaos Monkey by Antonio García Martínez – it’s an interesting insight to the world of Start Ups

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Reading – anything – politics, current affairs, success stories, sports, thrillers – anything.

Listening to music – it ranges from Indian Classical to Heavy Metal with Hindi and Kannada Movie songs in between

Love driving with family and friends.. we do it quite a lot

Achievements (Awards & Recognitions)

Sales Achiever club – 3 times in Symantec

Sales Achiever club – 2 times in Barracuda

Awarded the best channel rep. in APJ for HP Security – 2 qtrs. in a row

Experience

Working for close to 25 years now, started as a sales rep for a reseller – Binary Semantics in 1993 selling packaged software and it has been a nice journey so far!!

First job - Sales rep for a reseller – Binary Semantics in 1993

Education - Completed B. Sc – Electronics and then did Diploma in Software development

Take a look at the previous CxO of the Week