Devita Saraf – Leaders In Tech & Auto

1. What’s your leadership mantra in the fast-evolving tech landscape

We are very customer-centric as a company, and we have a very good lab that understands the change in the environment, what customers are looking for and accordingly develops products. And that sets the tone for the rest of the company to be ahead of the market. In terms of innovation, product, processes, people, etc. So, definitely investing in your own tech lab will allow you to be innovation-first.

2. How do you inspire and motivate your team during a challenging time?

So the good thing is that most people who work for us, and we like working with them, tend to be lifers and stay with us for a long time. And have together seen ups and downs. So whenever there is a challenging situation, we work together as a team, because we also celebrate like a team.

3. In an era of AI and automation, how do you see the role of human leadership evolving?

Well, AI and automation dramatically increase the pace at which things get done. So the value of leadership becomes two-pronged. One is being able to make decisions quickly and course-correct quickly. Second is to be able to make quick judgment calls on where you use AI and where you use humans.

4. Tell us about a major screw-up in your career—what went wrong and what did you learn?

A couple of years ago, we were very heavily exposed to only one major distributor who was about 80% of our business. And when that deal went down, our revenue dropped drastically. Fortunately, we found a new mechanism of distributing our product which actually was on e-commerce and our business grew 5x within one year of business itself. So I guess screw-ups are always an opportunity for you to reinvent and to do it right.

5. What’s a mistake you see many young tech entrepreneurs making?

The big mistake most tech entrepreneurs make is considering money-raising as an achievement. Money-raising is like a bank loan that you don’t have to pay back, but it’s not an achievement. So that’s the biggest mistake tech entrepreneurs make, is thinking money raised is an achievement.

6. How do you handle failure, and how do you encourage a failure-friendly

Honestly, I am not a sportsperson, I’m an artist. I don’t look at it like things and wins and losses, success and failure. An artist is always creating, doing new things, imagining. And I don’t think my brain is really geared to look at things from a failure perspective.

Also Read: Bharath Sesha – Leaders In Tech & Auto

7. What’s the next big disruption you foresee in the tech industry?

Well, AI is the big disruption which is driving the tech industry, right from software, how you build hardware. In fact, AI will disrupt every industry possible over the next 15 years.

8. How do you unplug from the tech world? Or do you? Any non-negotiable habits?

I would have said that my workout, my Pilates or swimming or dance, would be the time I’d switch off from tech. But now with my Apple Watch, I’m quite addicted to seeing how many calories I’ve burned. So maybe I can say the important part is when you’re with people, with your friends, family, make sure that you keep your phone away and actually connect just person to person.

9. What books that changed your perspective on leadership & Technology

I’m actually reading a very interesting book right now. I’ll send you the link. It’s called The Dumbest Guy in the Room by Australia’s first unicorn, this CEO-author named David Sheen. And he was a speaker at my Harvard Business School reunion in Sydney in March. And they shared his book, and I think it’s one of the best books I’ve learned as an entrepreneur, and especially a tech entrepreneur. I’ll definitely send you the details.

10. Podcasts and inspiring quotes that you want to recommend to our readers

So there are two podcasts that I love. One is Wall Street Journal for Women in Business: Has This Tell Me How She Did It. It’s a great podcast on understanding wealth and women. The second one is called Acquired. I think it’s by Financial Times. And what they do is they take companies from Hermès to Rolex, etcetera, and use their data and talk about their story, etcetera, on a podcast. So I really enjoy these two.