Amazingly, it is OVER a year since I joined Edwards Lifesciences. In that timeframe, Edwards' market-cap has grown by a staggering 75%, revenue run-rates have increased by over 10%, number of pople employed by Edwards worldwide has increased by a few hundreds, a couple of Manufacturing facilities have com\fully on-line, so to speak; and the IT team - for which I have accountability - has both grown modestly and stabilized in operations....
The first 4 months went by as if I were in a dream. Immense learning, about the structure of the company and the various key product-lines offered by Edwards. We are a Med Device B2B (really, B2 Hospital systems) company. We go to market leveraging 4 Divisions or Business-Units. Our Chairman/CEO is relentlessly focused on Product Leadership as the chosen axis of competence.
To make it easier to address specific geographic markets, we also have a geo-centric organization, with 4 loci of operations: Irvine for N Am; Nyon (near Geneva) for EMEA; Tokyo for Japan; and Singapore for ROW. In the 2nd 4 month period, I visited many different locations - in fact, all but Tokyo. (I was in Tokyo even as I clocked the 1st anniversary!)
In the 3rd 4 month period, thanks to this very solid grounding in the needs of the enterprise, we were able to clarify the role of IT at Edwards; organize our activities to optimally leverage our capabilities and strengths; articulate a multi-year vision for IT; and gain feedback and concurrence from the senior leadership team.
Despite the short tenure, it feels good to say that our team has started to move some big boulders, so to speak, in terms of Enterprise-class systems. Doing so is acting as a strong confidence-booster to the team. A couple of very large initiatives are slated for completion in the next several months, which will only add to the team-confidence.
I am very enthused and encouraged by the early traction and progress of our team. And delighted to be a part of a growing, product leadership oriented company.
The fact that this is an Irvine-based company is the proverbial icing on th cake for Deepa and me. As we bundle-off the twins to Atlanta, we are concurrently looking forward to returning to our home in Vista Panorama.
All izzz well !!!!
God Bless!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Kids' school choices
Talk about stress! After building a house and arranging for a wedding, kids' school choice-making has to be #3.
The process began in the Rangan outpost over 3 years ago - when the kids started to prepare for SATs and subject SATs. Dinner-table conversations started to lean towards expectations, cut-off scores, school criteria, likes and dislikes.
In Spring 2010, I wrote about a long car-ride with the 4 of u driving up and down the California coast. That trip opened all of our eyes to the great schools that this wonderful state has to offer. But....none of the schools stood-out for the kids as a primary choice. They just said that they would consider a couple of the Cali schools.
In Winter 2010, we decided to visit schools in the North East. We started in Pittsburg - with Carnegie Mellon - and worked our way to Brown U in Rhode Island, via Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. As luck would have it, that trip coincided with a day behind one of the two great blizzards in 2010. The kids enjoyed the snow - at least in the beginning, but soon tired of it. Something told me that the North East would NOT be where the kids would go....
Come November / December, both Taara and Soorya were busy with applications - and the tension in the Rangan outpost started to hit new highs! Thank God that Deepa plays point. Had it been me, I am not sure that I would have survived the experience without a serious health set-back.
The good news by January was that we - Deepa and I - were pretty sure about the lines of study that the kids were likely to pursue: Taara wants to major in Biology, with an open-option to pursue either Medicine of Vet Sciences; Soorya wants to pursue Bio Medical Engineering, with an open-option to pursue an MBA. That gave us a goal-post to anchor further thoughts.
In Spring, out of the blue, the kids wanted to visit schools in Atlanta. We immediately thought of our friends RN Singh and Rohit Lal in Atlanta. And arranged for the twins to fly to Atlanta. Rohit (who has his own G-B twins couple of years behind ours) escorted Soorya to Georgia Tech; and RN Singh (whose son is now in KSU and daughter, in Boston U) escorted Taara to Emory U.
Thanks to their reasonably good scores and grades, and by the grace of the good Lord, both Taara and Soorya were accepted into good schools in Atlanta. Taara is headed to "Oxford", as she puts it, which is a small-school campus of Emory U. Soorya is accepted into Georgia Tech. Both schools are "topper" in their chosen fields, albeit we keep arguing whether that makes any difference at all in this day and age of globally competitive schools.
So mid-August, Deepa and I will be escorting the twins to Atlanta.
God Bless!!!!
The process began in the Rangan outpost over 3 years ago - when the kids started to prepare for SATs and subject SATs. Dinner-table conversations started to lean towards expectations, cut-off scores, school criteria, likes and dislikes.
In Spring 2010, I wrote about a long car-ride with the 4 of u driving up and down the California coast. That trip opened all of our eyes to the great schools that this wonderful state has to offer. But....none of the schools stood-out for the kids as a primary choice. They just said that they would consider a couple of the Cali schools.
In Winter 2010, we decided to visit schools in the North East. We started in Pittsburg - with Carnegie Mellon - and worked our way to Brown U in Rhode Island, via Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. As luck would have it, that trip coincided with a day behind one of the two great blizzards in 2010. The kids enjoyed the snow - at least in the beginning, but soon tired of it. Something told me that the North East would NOT be where the kids would go....
Come November / December, both Taara and Soorya were busy with applications - and the tension in the Rangan outpost started to hit new highs! Thank God that Deepa plays point. Had it been me, I am not sure that I would have survived the experience without a serious health set-back.
The good news by January was that we - Deepa and I - were pretty sure about the lines of study that the kids were likely to pursue: Taara wants to major in Biology, with an open-option to pursue either Medicine of Vet Sciences; Soorya wants to pursue Bio Medical Engineering, with an open-option to pursue an MBA. That gave us a goal-post to anchor further thoughts.
In Spring, out of the blue, the kids wanted to visit schools in Atlanta. We immediately thought of our friends RN Singh and Rohit Lal in Atlanta. And arranged for the twins to fly to Atlanta. Rohit (who has his own G-B twins couple of years behind ours) escorted Soorya to Georgia Tech; and RN Singh (whose son is now in KSU and daughter, in Boston U) escorted Taara to Emory U.
Thanks to their reasonably good scores and grades, and by the grace of the good Lord, both Taara and Soorya were accepted into good schools in Atlanta. Taara is headed to "Oxford", as she puts it, which is a small-school campus of Emory U. Soorya is accepted into Georgia Tech. Both schools are "topper" in their chosen fields, albeit we keep arguing whether that makes any difference at all in this day and age of globally competitive schools.
So mid-August, Deepa and I will be escorting the twins to Atlanta.
God Bless!!!!
Friday, June 17, 2011
So much catching up...starting with Integrien
Short takes, since there is so much catching up to do....
Integrien was transacted in Q4 last year. It was such a happening company with such compelling technology that it had to register on sme radar or the other. in this case, it was VMWare. Nice exit for Integrien....The Alive (TM) offering now gets the benefit of lots of marketing, and peerless channel access.
Looks like the post-acquisition integration is going well.
Go, team!!!!!!
Integrien was transacted in Q4 last year. It was such a happening company with such compelling technology that it had to register on sme radar or the other. in this case, it was VMWare. Nice exit for Integrien....The Alive (TM) offering now gets the benefit of lots of marketing, and peerless channel access.
Looks like the post-acquisition integration is going well.
Go, team!!!!!!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
5 more books in the last (Oh, oh!) 5 months
Needless to say that I have been busy - what with travel and with the new job at Edwards. So my reading has declined somewhat....That said, I have managed to read 5 books in the last 5 months.
1 Nelson DeMille - The General's Daughter. John Travlota starred in the movie that was derived from this book. The book was as riveting, if not more so. Loved it. (You can tell that I am a Nelson DeMille fan, right?)
2 Nelson DeMille - Up Country. A well-written book aboutthe angst felt by so many veterans of the Vietnam era. Curious twist to the POV of the protagonist. Slow read, with lots of description about the country itself. I was told that it was remarkably true-to-fact. I wouldn't know, not hving traveled to that part of the world. Net-net, lumbered thru the book, but learned a lot.
3 Ayn Rand - Anthem. One of her earlier works dealing with the numbness of a totalitarian society. Quick read, but not very compelling. I could tell that she was still learning her skills as an author. Tha said, the starkness of such a society jumps out at you as you read the book.
4 Bob Burg - The Go-Giver. A gift from Edwards. Fast read. Very good pointers on things that work when people deal with people, regardless of the context. Some timeless pointers!
5 Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God. What a book! Stunningly well-written. From an African-American POV. In language that is so natural. The true flavor of the book haunts you days and weeks after finishing the book. Exactly what you would want from an excellent book.
Gotta read more....whenever I get time.
God Bless....Ash
1 Nelson DeMille - The General's Daughter. John Travlota starred in the movie that was derived from this book. The book was as riveting, if not more so. Loved it. (You can tell that I am a Nelson DeMille fan, right?)
2 Nelson DeMille - Up Country. A well-written book aboutthe angst felt by so many veterans of the Vietnam era. Curious twist to the POV of the protagonist. Slow read, with lots of description about the country itself. I was told that it was remarkably true-to-fact. I wouldn't know, not hving traveled to that part of the world. Net-net, lumbered thru the book, but learned a lot.
3 Ayn Rand - Anthem. One of her earlier works dealing with the numbness of a totalitarian society. Quick read, but not very compelling. I could tell that she was still learning her skills as an author. Tha said, the starkness of such a society jumps out at you as you read the book.
4 Bob Burg - The Go-Giver. A gift from Edwards. Fast read. Very good pointers on things that work when people deal with people, regardless of the context. Some timeless pointers!
5 Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God. What a book! Stunningly well-written. From an African-American POV. In language that is so natural. The true flavor of the book haunts you days and weeks after finishing the book. Exactly what you would want from an excellent book.
Gotta read more....whenever I get time.
God Bless....Ash
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Returning to live (and work) in the OC - After 6 + years!
I started with Edwards Lifesciences (www.edwards.com) towards the end of May 2010. So it is now almost 5 moths since I moved back to the OC. A new rhythm to life has developed in that time-frame.
Late in May, I drove down. I had not taken the Merc CLS500 for a 400 mile drive before. It handles beautifully on long stretches. Not that I had had doubts, but....it almost made a 400 mile car-drive enjoyable, LA traffic notwithstanding!
Our friends, the Guptas, invited me to stay with them while I settled back in the OC. Right away, I felt at home! Over the next week or so, I hunted for a suitable apartment. Dee - my wife - visited wth me the following weekend. We picked a suitable apartment, just a few miles from Edwards. Furniture enough to furnish my 1 BR apartment arived a couple of days later. Within an hour, the pieces were assembled. With familiar furniture around, the new apartment quickly felt like a lived-in home.
Driving to work in the mornings is a breeze. It takes me all of 10 minutes. And if you know OC traffic, that - in itself - is a blessing! Work keeps me VERY busy - just the way I like it. Evenings....that's a story in itself.
There are many reasons I feel welcome back in the OC. Familiarity with the local people. The OC "norms". The roads. OC traffic. The pro-business sentiment in the air. Our network of close family friends. My network of business associates and contacts. The fact that we have a home here. That I was returning to my "professional roots" in Manufacturing - albeit in a new and different Industry.
On the business front, I reinstated several segments of my old network. Celeste Signorino now serves as VP of Biz Dev with the OC Business Council. She was very welcoming. And connected me with the local business community leaders. I had stayed in touch with friends and business associates over the years too. They were welcoming in their stance with me. Plus, I was delighted to learn that Edwards had a relationship with the UCI. That gave me an opportunity to reinstate my connections with the University, especially the Paul Merage School of Business. Net-net, the business network was rapidly re-established.
On the personal front, it was as quickly re-established too, if not sooner :-). Our friends were all so very welcoming. Many of them went to the extent of saying that they were sure that Dee and I "would never feel at home anywhere else but in the OC"!
If dinner-table companionship is a measure of feeling "at home", I should surely declare that I am HOME. Despite living away from family, I have had dinner with my own lonesome self just a handful of times inthe last 5 months or so. So....a heart-felt THANK YOU to all of our friends and my business associates for the warm welcome. You have made the return sooooo easy :-).
My week is measured in 2 separate segments: Monday AM thru Friday PM, while I am in the OC; and Friday PM through Monday AM, while I am with the family in the Bay Area.
Between work and dinner-time socializing etc, I have been so busy that - although I had had a 55-inch TV moved with the furniture - I have not had the time, need or - truthfully - the inclination to get TV-service in my apartment.
Southwest Airlines will probably do a profile of mine in their In-Flight magazine, based on the amount that I fly that blessed airline. I must say that my experience with SWA has been blemishless. With one or two exceptions, SWA service has been predictable, all the way from ticketing to gate-designation through on-time departures and arrivals. Sure makes life simpler.
Dee picks me up and drops me off from and to the San Jose airport. It is literally 20 minutes from home. At the OC end, Edwards is just 2 mile from the airport - literally a 5 minute cab ride away.
It is a good rhythm. The pace at work has been brisk to hectic. But that's a blog post for another day....
God Bless.
Late in May, I drove down. I had not taken the Merc CLS500 for a 400 mile drive before. It handles beautifully on long stretches. Not that I had had doubts, but....it almost made a 400 mile car-drive enjoyable, LA traffic notwithstanding!
Our friends, the Guptas, invited me to stay with them while I settled back in the OC. Right away, I felt at home! Over the next week or so, I hunted for a suitable apartment. Dee - my wife - visited wth me the following weekend. We picked a suitable apartment, just a few miles from Edwards. Furniture enough to furnish my 1 BR apartment arived a couple of days later. Within an hour, the pieces were assembled. With familiar furniture around, the new apartment quickly felt like a lived-in home.
Driving to work in the mornings is a breeze. It takes me all of 10 minutes. And if you know OC traffic, that - in itself - is a blessing! Work keeps me VERY busy - just the way I like it. Evenings....that's a story in itself.
There are many reasons I feel welcome back in the OC. Familiarity with the local people. The OC "norms". The roads. OC traffic. The pro-business sentiment in the air. Our network of close family friends. My network of business associates and contacts. The fact that we have a home here. That I was returning to my "professional roots" in Manufacturing - albeit in a new and different Industry.
On the business front, I reinstated several segments of my old network. Celeste Signorino now serves as VP of Biz Dev with the OC Business Council. She was very welcoming. And connected me with the local business community leaders. I had stayed in touch with friends and business associates over the years too. They were welcoming in their stance with me. Plus, I was delighted to learn that Edwards had a relationship with the UCI. That gave me an opportunity to reinstate my connections with the University, especially the Paul Merage School of Business. Net-net, the business network was rapidly re-established.
On the personal front, it was as quickly re-established too, if not sooner :-). Our friends were all so very welcoming. Many of them went to the extent of saying that they were sure that Dee and I "would never feel at home anywhere else but in the OC"!
If dinner-table companionship is a measure of feeling "at home", I should surely declare that I am HOME. Despite living away from family, I have had dinner with my own lonesome self just a handful of times inthe last 5 months or so. So....a heart-felt THANK YOU to all of our friends and my business associates for the warm welcome. You have made the return sooooo easy :-).
My week is measured in 2 separate segments: Monday AM thru Friday PM, while I am in the OC; and Friday PM through Monday AM, while I am with the family in the Bay Area.
Between work and dinner-time socializing etc, I have been so busy that - although I had had a 55-inch TV moved with the furniture - I have not had the time, need or - truthfully - the inclination to get TV-service in my apartment.
Southwest Airlines will probably do a profile of mine in their In-Flight magazine, based on the amount that I fly that blessed airline. I must say that my experience with SWA has been blemishless. With one or two exceptions, SWA service has been predictable, all the way from ticketing to gate-designation through on-time departures and arrivals. Sure makes life simpler.
Dee picks me up and drops me off from and to the San Jose airport. It is literally 20 minutes from home. At the OC end, Edwards is just 2 mile from the airport - literally a 5 minute cab ride away.
It is a good rhythm. The pace at work has been brisk to hectic. But that's a blog post for another day....
God Bless.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Joining Edwards Lifesciences as CIO
Earlier in the year, I had put the word out that I was seeking new opportunities. To assess goodness-of-fit, I had created a multi-stage sieve:
Filter 1: Location - In the Bay Area, in the OC, outside the US, wherever.
Filter 2: Industry - Banking, Healthcare, Retail, whatever.
Filter 3: IT imperative - Transformative, Re-engineering, ho-hum BAU.
I reached-out to the usual networks to spread the word: Friends in the CIO circles, the Big 4 placement agencies, my own network of placement pros in 4 boutique agencies and a few good friends from prior working relationships.
2 opportunities simultaneously matured: One with BofA and the other, with Edwards.
The Bank is expanding rapidly, especially in promising new markets in the Far East. Filters-wise, this meant #3(1), #1(2) and #3(3). Very interesting, no doubt.
Edwards is growing rapidly. And is poised for even more growth in the near future. This meant #2(1), #2(2) AND #2(2). An even more interesting choice.
Edwards reached-out to me via an in-house recruiter - something that rarely happens at this level of search. Kudos to the recruiter for locating talent in this fashion! Her pitch was simple: We are a compelling business-story in the OC, look us up and study us, let me know if you are interested.
Her timing was perfect. I studied Edwards and really liked what I studied. A couple of "What do you think of Edwards?" calls returned compelling feedback. Our casual conversation progressed to a firm offer in less than 5 weeks. I look back at this with amazement!
Edwards Lifesciences (www.edwards.com) is a market-leader in Cardio-Vascular medical devices, both in-body implants and external pre- and post-op monitoring devices. Edwards closed 2009 with revenues of $1.3 Billion. It appeared poised for rapid growth, based on a very strong pipeline. IT focus had to be on solidifying the basics and building-out for scale.
Deepa and I discussed our options at some length. The Edwards option, for us, was "coming back home" in a number of ways: back to the OC, back to a circle of friends that know us, back to our home on Vista Panorama....
For me, on a professional footing too, it was "coming back home": back to building and strengthening basics, back to Manufacturing, back to a business that was investing in its future, back to addressing scaling issues....
I started with Edwards on May 27th. So far, so good. I like the leadership team. And I like the way the prospective work ahead is shaping-up.
God Bless....
Filter 1: Location - In the Bay Area, in the OC, outside the US, wherever.
Filter 2: Industry - Banking, Healthcare, Retail, whatever.
Filter 3: IT imperative - Transformative, Re-engineering, ho-hum BAU.
I reached-out to the usual networks to spread the word: Friends in the CIO circles, the Big 4 placement agencies, my own network of placement pros in 4 boutique agencies and a few good friends from prior working relationships.
2 opportunities simultaneously matured: One with BofA and the other, with Edwards.
The Bank is expanding rapidly, especially in promising new markets in the Far East. Filters-wise, this meant #3(1), #1(2) and #3(3). Very interesting, no doubt.
Edwards is growing rapidly. And is poised for even more growth in the near future. This meant #2(1), #2(2) AND #2(2). An even more interesting choice.
Edwards reached-out to me via an in-house recruiter - something that rarely happens at this level of search. Kudos to the recruiter for locating talent in this fashion! Her pitch was simple: We are a compelling business-story in the OC, look us up and study us, let me know if you are interested.
Her timing was perfect. I studied Edwards and really liked what I studied. A couple of "What do you think of Edwards?" calls returned compelling feedback. Our casual conversation progressed to a firm offer in less than 5 weeks. I look back at this with amazement!
Edwards Lifesciences (www.edwards.com) is a market-leader in Cardio-Vascular medical devices, both in-body implants and external pre- and post-op monitoring devices. Edwards closed 2009 with revenues of $1.3 Billion. It appeared poised for rapid growth, based on a very strong pipeline. IT focus had to be on solidifying the basics and building-out for scale.
Deepa and I discussed our options at some length. The Edwards option, for us, was "coming back home" in a number of ways: back to the OC, back to a circle of friends that know us, back to our home on Vista Panorama....
For me, on a professional footing too, it was "coming back home": back to building and strengthening basics, back to Manufacturing, back to a business that was investing in its future, back to addressing scaling issues....
I started with Edwards on May 27th. So far, so good. I like the leadership team. And I like the way the prospective work ahead is shaping-up.
God Bless....
Losing Bala - a close friend from NITIE
It was 2 AM. I had just finished the stage-gig at the NITIE 25th re-union; and gotten back to the Hostel. In Mama's room, the party was still in full swing. Our "usual" gang was assembled. And talk turned to our 'Bucket List's.
Travel figured high on practically all bucket lists. Destinations ranged from the moon to much closer destinations, both in India and in the US.
Bala - our ever-smiling, always pleasant, gentle friend - shared his views. He wanted to travel to Leh and Ladhak in the contested regions of Kashmir. That figured high on his bucket list.
3 weeks back, we heard that Bala passed away. What?????? Evidently, Bala and his wife were part of a convoy of 30 Jeeps, traversing some mountainous terrain in the Leh area. The convoy was broadsided by a landslide. Bala jumped out to help; and was crushed to death. What a tragedy!
It is hard to imagine that Bala is no more. My last memory of him is that he stayed back to spend a whole day with Mama and me (and a few others) when we met at NITIE. Bala joined me on stage when - later in the evening on the day after - I met with the Entrepreneurship Club at NITIE. His perspectives added depth and "locality" from an Indian perspective.
Bala is the 3rd classmate that we have lost from our Batch of 48. It is difficult to come to terms with mortality, even at the best of times. When Death so abruptly takes away a dear one, the evanescence of life comes into sudden and sharp focus. It reinforces timeless wisdom - that NOW is all that we have.
May God rest Bala's soul in peace. May God grant his family with strength and courage as they grapple with such an untimely and unexpected loss.
Our good friend, R N Singh, assured me that he would join hands in helping organize a fund to further one of Bala's charities. I look forward to helping him to do so.
God Bless....
Travel figured high on practically all bucket lists. Destinations ranged from the moon to much closer destinations, both in India and in the US.
Bala - our ever-smiling, always pleasant, gentle friend - shared his views. He wanted to travel to Leh and Ladhak in the contested regions of Kashmir. That figured high on his bucket list.
3 weeks back, we heard that Bala passed away. What?????? Evidently, Bala and his wife were part of a convoy of 30 Jeeps, traversing some mountainous terrain in the Leh area. The convoy was broadsided by a landslide. Bala jumped out to help; and was crushed to death. What a tragedy!
It is hard to imagine that Bala is no more. My last memory of him is that he stayed back to spend a whole day with Mama and me (and a few others) when we met at NITIE. Bala joined me on stage when - later in the evening on the day after - I met with the Entrepreneurship Club at NITIE. His perspectives added depth and "locality" from an Indian perspective.
Bala is the 3rd classmate that we have lost from our Batch of 48. It is difficult to come to terms with mortality, even at the best of times. When Death so abruptly takes away a dear one, the evanescence of life comes into sudden and sharp focus. It reinforces timeless wisdom - that NOW is all that we have.
May God rest Bala's soul in peace. May God grant his family with strength and courage as they grapple with such an untimely and unexpected loss.
Our good friend, R N Singh, assured me that he would join hands in helping organize a fund to further one of Bala's charities. I look forward to helping him to do so.
God Bless....
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