Modern-day leadership is a product of numerous transitional shifts where the traditional top-down hierarchy, experienced by the older generations is no longer effective. In the olden days, the entire office culture revolved around keeping your boss content. More often than not, engineers would only speak in meetings if spoken to—keeping their opinions and insights to themselves.
During the next transition, customers would interact more with working engineers rather than the leadership personnel. This approach was responsible for the birth of a participatory management style where leaders largely took on mentoring and supporting roles.
Today, leaders must cultivate a collaborative environment and work with a younger generation who may be more brilliant than the leaders themselves—focusing primarily on building trust, empowering teams to step out of their comfort zones, and recognizing achievements.
Gomathi Perumal, Vice President of AgnoShin, with over two decades of experience, has closely witnessed all of these leadership iterations—implementing the lessons learned along the way into shaping her own leadership style—making her one of the most influential leaders to watch in 2024.
Cultivating Meaningful Impact
When Gomathi began her career in IT two decades ago, she didn’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur. Instead, she found herself involved in greenfield projects within her company, gaining a holistic view of the ecosystem. As these initiatives flourished over the years, so did her confidence in her own potential to create something meaningful.
Fortunate to have supportive co-founders by her side, she envisioned a work life that balanced enjoyment with responsibility—catering to niche customer needs rather than the scale-driven demands of large corporations.
“AgnoShin is Six years… if you ask me if we should have grown a little more—I would say yes. If you ask me if our number should be this much by this time—I will respond probably yes…”
However, what AgnoShin did achieve is remarkable: over 60% of the workforce are women, many of whom returned to professional life after extended maternity breaks, and a team predominantly from Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns.
Drawing Inspiration
Gomathi says it’s hard to pinpoint a single idol for her because she is not a die-hard fan of any specific individual. What truly inspires her are those who challenge the status quo, push their own limits, and take themselves to new heights. Moreover, she is deeply inspired by those who go the extra mile for their team and for humanity, along with those who pursue knowledge and wisdom without seeking personal gain.
Gomathi considers herself fortunate to be surrounded by exceptional people who exhibit these qualities. While she knows she can’t replicate their exact paths, she strives to gain valuable insights from their experiences to stay focused and driven in her own life.
Wearer of Many Hats
In larger organizations, roles and responsibilities are often clearly defined and segmented. However, in a young company like AgnoShin, leaders like Gomathi are required to multitask as the situation demands. Personally, Gomathi handles HR, finance, key customer relations, and also dedicates time to sales. This flexibility and range of responsibility are essential in smaller startups where agility and adaptability are vital to achieving growth and tackling challenges effectively.
Especially for young startups and first-generation entrepreneurs, there is no shortage of new challenges. Firstly, there’s the task of believing in the idea and ensuring that all co-founders are equally committed. Then, one of the biggest hurdles is effectively communicating the vision and plan to the core team, aligning them to the journey ahead.
“It’s crucial to convey to customers that the startup is capable, trustworthy, and committed to delivering on its promises. Building this trust is essential for sustained success.”
Solving Problems Through Continuous Learning
Gomathi highlights that every two or three years, new paradigms emerge, dictating new ways of working. To stay ahead, she makes sure to invest time in reading and engaging with industry leaders. She acknowledges that it’s impossible to figure everything out on her own, so she often reaches out to the company advisors to help better understand and solve complex issues. Continuous learning is crucial and should never stop.
Nurturing the Employees
AgnoShin has cultivated a work culture that revolves around the following core values: happiness, fun, mutual respect, social consciousness, and customer commitment. The company’s employees become the protectors of these values, passing them on to new team members.
The company has recognized that many individuals have a strong desire to contribute to society. To achieve this, AgnoShin provides opportunities for employees to teach in schools, mentor children from challenging backgrounds, and serve as scribes for visually impaired students and taking care of their educational and other needs through their CSR Wing “Meiporul Chennai foundation Trust” A basic objective of Meiporul, the non-profit volunteering Organization established in 2015, is to make a difference in the lives of the most underprivileged sections within the population of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs).
Balancing Work-Life
If I say I’m maintaining a perfect work-life balance, I’d be lying—says Gomathi. This balance is often out of control and can be quite painful. Over the years, Gomathi has realized that it’s not about the amount of time, but the intensity and quality of that time. While work and customer priorities largely occupy her schedule, she still manages to find quick ways to recharge—spending quality time with her knowledgeable friends and family. Eventually, it is the ecosystem around her that adapts—allowing Gomathi some space to be herself.
“I have a deep love for books, culture, history, temples, travel, good food, and enjoying music with friends.”
Technology-agnostic company
AgnoShin is a technology-agnostic company, offering ethical solutions that work seamlessly across various platforms, protocols, and devices in the world of customer experience management. It cultivates a professional culture, staying aligned with the latest market technologies to protect its customers from redundancy and keep them ahead of the curve.
The team boasts extensive expertise and thought leadership in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The organization is strategically positioned to enhance customer satisfaction, boost productivity, and drive organizational revenues. Its mission is to leverage its deep knowledge and innovative approaches to improve these key metrics for each client.
AgnoShin experts develop, enhance, and maintain the applications, irrespective of the technology used. The company is consciously aware of the need to upgrade applications along with the business growth. Hence, it provides flexible, 24×7 support services for maintenance, enhancement, and management of all types of application processes with due diligence.
“AgnoShin was established in the year 2018 with a mission to build universally relevant technologies by facilitating fuller human potential and resourcefulness.”
CRM Solutions—Present and the Future
1. Current Offerings:
- AgnoShin provides IT solutions across verticals in the CXM -Customer Expereince Management space supported by new-gen technologies like Cloud/AI and ML.
2. Future Plans:
- AgnoShin is developing several business transformation product suites for the SME segment, leveraging AI/ML platforms. This represents a significant transition for us.
- In the IT space, we aim to enhance service delivery within our customers’ native ecosystems.
Success Driven by Collaboration
At AgnoShin, associates are the backbone of the company’s success. Their domain knowledge in the CRM space, combined with their transparent working style and expertise in addressing customer requirements, are the primary reasons for AgnoShin’s achievements.
Gomathi emphasizes that while earning the trust and meeting the expectations of the clients is a challenging task, as a team, the organization has managed to achieve these goals together.
Company Overview:
- Established: 6 years ago
- Team Size: 150+
- Locations:
- India – Chennai and Udumalpet
- MEA – UAE and Kenya
- APAC– Singapore
- US
- Diversification: Beyond services into products and solutions
- Progress: Encouraging pilot runs in new ventures
Advice to Young Leaders
Gomathi Perumal
- Trust and bond with co-founders are the key. Come what may, you and the organization should not compromise on its values.
- You need a good number of friends/advisors who will be with you more in difficult times and give a lot of positivity to you.
- Remember—Very few are fortunate to become entrepreneurs, be grateful for the blessings. Companies may succeed or face challenges due to time, but please enjoy the phase of transition—Job seeker to Job creator.
- Have a larger purpose and take care of your customers/partners/vendors and employees… Believe me, they will take care of you.
Why Choose Agnoshin?
1. Team Involvement and Results
Maintaining team involvement is essential for achieving better results. By increasing agent engagement and retention, it aligns its team with organizational goals and values.
2. Improved Performance and Customer-Centric Development
The approach focuses on improving performance and fostering customer-centric development. It enables instant customer feedback, helping agents identify and address challenges, and delivering measurable business value.
3. Equipping Management with Performance Insights
The organization provides management with interactive data visualizations and dashboards for a complete view of agent and team performance. Supervisors can analyze and evaluate performance effectively, driving overall efficiency.
