Welcome to Guhan Bala, our new Head of Consultel Solutions. Guhan brings 20 years of IT and consulting leadership experience to the role, which will be a key asset in collaborating with customers to create innovative IT solutions for their organisations.
Guhan will also focus on the continued growth strategy and customer development programs for the business.
Guhan joins us from DXC Technology where he was Managing Partner. Previously he has held roles at Avanade (subsidiary of Accenture), IBM Global Business Services and PwC Consulting.
We took some time to get to know Guhan (remotely, of course) and what he’s looking forward to about leading the charge at Consultel Solutions…
Welcome Guhan! It’s a strange time to join us given the current state of the world due to COVID-19. How do you plan to get to know customers in the difficult circumstances?
Yes it’s certainly a unique time to be taking on a new role and in my long consulting career, it’s not a situation that I have encountered before. It certainly forces you to think “outside the box” and be more agile in terms of how you connect with people. My priorities will be our customers and our people and recognising that they are all also going through challenging times. My approach is going to be to leverage technology as much as possible to maintain and build relationships, and recognise that in times like these communication needs to be focused and purposeful.
What attracted you most to the role at Consultel Solutions?
I have been a customer of the Entity Solutions Group (of which Consultel Solutions is a part) in the past and as a customer I have appreciated their focus on delivering the best outcomes for their customers. In terms of Consultel Solutions specifically, there is immense potential in the business and the people who make up the business. The Consultel Solutions business has some specific solutions and expertise which is going to be even more valuable to our customers as they emerge from the post-COVID-19 world.
What do you believe is the most important part of implementing large IT projects in a business?
There are many things that contribute to successful IT projects. However, my belief is that one of the most important ingredients to a successful implementation is clarity and agility around the business outcomes, that we are trying to achieve, and total alignment and understanding of those outcomes amongst all the key stakeholders. As projects proceed, it is critically important to constantly validate progress against the outcomes, but also to take account of changes to those business outcomes.
What do you look forward to bringing to the table in your new role?
A strong belief in the power of teams and that every individual brings their unique perspective based on their own experiences, which leads to better team outcomes. What I bring will be my own perspective based on extensive consulting experience both locally and globally across a diverse range of clients and projects. It will be another additional perspective which further strengthens an already strong, outcome-based Consultel Solutions team.
And lastly just for fun, what’s your best working from home tip?
It is important to stay connected, not just from a work perspective, but also socially. In the “old normal”, social interaction with your work colleagues in the office was taken for granted and was an important part of an effective team. In the “new normal”, it is important not to neglect that and things such as “virtual drinks” on Fridays, or just social chats are things that we should foster and encourage as a way of staying connected.
