Crafting software to crafting toys with Ramesh Shastri

In this episode, Ramesh Shastri, software engineer to business head shares his long journey of 38 years in professional career with Shiv, In this conversation he talks about-

• Gravitated to IT like peers, as that was the well paying sector
• Starting as an individual contributor growing to become a business unit leader
• From systems programming to business applications
• How his roles changed over the decades of the 80s, 90s and 2000+
• How he has enjoyed the roller coaster ride of 38 years
• Being associated with some of the early product development initiatives in India
• Working with partner organizations to create full solutions
• The importance of listening to customers
• His work with an NGO called MAYA on livelihood initiatives for the Channapatna toymakers over the last 5 years
• How he finds the toy industry situation somewhat similar to the IT industry situation in the initial stages, before export revenues started to grow significantly
• A quick overview of toy making in Channapatna
• How they are going about bringing in structure, process and product quality in the industry, by setting up a producer company
• Whether some of the approaches used to help the artisans can be relevant or applied to the software industry
• Some aspects that the IT sector [people] can learn from the artisan sector, particularly, pride of creation or ownership of what they create
• His view on opportunities in the social sector for people in IT, looking for a change

Ramesh Shastri’s professional career in Information Technology has been a long journey of 38 years; He has held positions from software engineer to business head. He has lived and worked in India and the United States while also covering a lot of ground in between.

For the past 5 years he moved from the leading edge of the technology sector to the trailing edge of the social sector. He is now focused on creating sustainable livelihoods in the handicrafts sector.

Reach him at : Linkdin/Ramesh Shastri