Growing up and living a Mumbaikar life, Madhusudan Warrier started his career like any other person who wishes to mark his footprint by giving work in this big city. When recalling his initial days, he thinks the hustle-bustle lifestyle of the dream city helped him to create his professional upfront “Being disciplined or particular about time was something I learned while growing up, whether to meet someone, interview, or office, I was always on the clock. Most of Bombay bred people use the bus and train timing to plan their daily activities. This culture which I picked from my family and friends helped me to be punctual, disciplined, and focused. The attitude of helping others is also something that I built up with my family.” Warrier reminisces.
“As I started to get in higher grade, the principles became stronger,” he says, intending to follow his path. Warrier’s motto “Live and let live” is the learning that he acquired with his jumpy experiences. “Whenever I have interacted with people, I have realized that we should not interfere with other people affairs. There should not be done any harm to others. We should not think only about ourselves but also think about others. It got imbibed in me since my school days and similarly, corporate training shaped me up.” Warrier said.
Rise and Lead 
Warrier’s first job at Asian paints came as a rescue to him “I wanted a job to support my further studies,” he says. So, he grabbed the opportunity to be part of an organization that was focused on automating processes in the early 1990s. The role offered him was to be part of Purchase Accounting operations and redesign the accounting system. “Yes – proud to have worked in APIL, my fundamentals right from understanding corporate culture was framed up and my bookish knowledge for business operations was experienced,” he says with pride.
However, his second job was a last min call to action “I joined Unit Trust of India, a public sector undertaking. So, I took an entrance exam and then received the letter. I was not sure first but at the last notice with my colleague’s and boss’s advice, I realized the economy structure opening up at that time, I understood, yes finance sector was growing up and will Fastrack my process and joined organization” he said.
Within 6 months at UTI, Warrier was transferred to managing director office “I was designing and implementing the system for MD system, then moved up to TATA Mutual Funds, and worked there for 11 years.” he adds.
Soon, he embarked on the journey from an employee to a leader which gave him whole new learning to function as a team player. Stating the words of wisdom for budding leaders he says “We have to accept responsibilities and take the ownership. Give the team the credit and own up the failures of the team. As an employee you deliver, but as you start moving up, it is not just delivering but also proactive thinking. Giving directions, planning and make sure it is happening as per the agreed process. A person should not look at being a champ who runs the show and is indispensable. For any organisation to progress it is necessary the team performs and all members move ahead”
Discover, attempt, and live
As someone who hooks himself with discovery channel and tries “to learn about nature and other unique things”, he also locates his hobbies in his profession “I keep on learning new things, and getting deeper, just like mobile technology which keeps raising the bar. In today’s world there is focus on how make the mobile as the first choice for interaction and doing business. Therefore it is important to map business process operations compatible with mobile technology this is something I am keen about” he says.
Not only a learner but Warrier is also a cyber crime analyst and it is one of his ways “to understand what the thought process is going on in-person mind”, which interestingly connects with his selling skills which he developed by knowing the customer wishes.
“I discovered, I do have selling skills, in my early days at Tata MF. The staff was less so all had to take additional responsibilities. In those days every fund when offered as an IPO or NFO had to collect a minimum target specified in the offer document. Working on the means, available resources to meet targets and I was good at selling the funds explaining features and converting leads into customers by understanding the thought process of the other person” he adds.
Thought reader, or a knowledge digger, with his urge to do something which he never tried is also on the list of his professional hobby. From setting up a data-centric cloud system at his current company to first time implementing the SMS transaction platform at his previous entity, he never stops attempting.
“The organizational culture promoted the thought process and we sat together and connected service providers and tracked our customer data and then operationalized the whole process of SMS transaction. Another chance attempted was moving the data centre operations to cloud, every minor detail was thought through and planned for deployment. One thing I learned from the cloud is that we are responsible for how it will function, and a continuous review is important,” he says.
A Satisfactory Note
In the year of the unexpected, Warrier found his way to be satisfied. “People when they work from home, it was like seamless transition, the satisfaction that we were able to visualize and put it up in phase. It gives us a great feeling that business was running, and technological change was successful,” he says.
When asked about his upcoming plans, he says “Technology side I will be evaluating and implementing solutions that bring RPA/BI/AI to improve business processes. I am evaluating solutions that can help in analysing system performance, reading logs interpreting and giving meaningful analysis, which can help keeping organization information secure. Information Security today is very important and as an IT resource we need to ensure sufficient checks and controls. It is constant learning for me, and I keep evolving.”
“Process automation”, is also another thing that he is exploring. “If myself or any colleague is accustomed to doing an operation process in a particular way, if it can be automated and if it will cause more delight to the user. Automation of processes that effectively bring improvements and benefit the user is something I will keep focusing” he said.
