Software People Stories

In this second part of my conversation, Bill Hall, President of Simulation Studios sharesSome of his professional failures when he was given large responsibilities at a very young ageHow sims enable executives to get a feel for the impact of their decisions and learn from that experienceThe role of software in the simulation exercises he runsA quick walkthrough of how a sim is runAspects of an organization that need to be built into a simulationQualities that would help someone be like BillNo fear of failure or encouraging failure as an opportunity to learnGiving things a go and learning from the experienceHow he communicates with all levels of roles in any organizationHow he understands the context of an organization quicklyUsing butcher paper to spatially and visually organize his thoughtsTaking a break and breathing in nature - to organize thoughts and doing a brain dumpCascading learnings in an organization by training learners to also be trainersRelevance of simulation based tools to enable high performing teams quicklyWhat he readsLimits of simulationBill partners with companies and individuals to build highly strategic mindsets resulting in accelerating change. Utilizing business simulations, leadership development, and business coaching, Bill helps shift mindsets and build skillsets resulting in driving positive change more quickly and with less friction. Currently President of Simulation Studios, Bill closely partners with companies and people in all types of corporate development scenarios. Bill has successfully worked for and with companies such as Apple, Sony, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Korn Ferry, Caterpillar, Sephora, and many more. Prior to Simulation Studios, Bill managed Skype’s global strategic software business, was in executive marketing roles at AOL and Nortel, and enjoyed working with Steve Jobs on various strategic projects during his 15+ years working with Apple where he was a five-time Apple MVP, and a Golden Apple Award winner. Bill authored a #1 Training and Development Amazon best-selling book, been featured in major publications and podcasts, and earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship and a Strategy Execution certificate from Harvard Business School. Bill spends the majority of his time with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Book Link:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMBP1TA Forbes Articles:https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/people/billhall1/?sh=373b957726aa Contact Info:Contact at SimulationStudios.com and ask for BillLinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/wphall

In this conversation, Bill Hall, President of Simulation Studios sharesHow he used to be part of a bandThen deciding to go to college and doing some work for AppleGetting into roles that needed to turnaround organizationsImportance of getting people to be behind the turnaroundsGetting an inspiration to start simulation studiosThe importance of unlearning in a turnaround situation, along with relearn and learn newChallenges of changes in an organization across teams, geographies etcTechnology should not come in the way of learningTeam and learning architectures for transformationsUsing personality profiling tools, such as MBTIHow he got into simulations or games, as he calls themHow a typical sim session looks likeAttributes of an effective simIdentifying metrics and justifying investments for a turnaroundI asked how simulations help with individual contributors taking up transformation leadership roles.The answer to this question and more in the next episode.. When Bill starts taking about some failures he had faced in his careerBill partners with companies and individuals to build highly strategic mindsets resulting in accelerating change. Utilizing business simulations, leadership development, and business coaching, Bill helps shift mindsets and build skillsets resulting in driving positive change more quickly and with less friction. Currently President of Simulation Studios, Bill closely partners with companies and people in all types of corporate development scenarios. Bill has successfully worked for and with companies such as Apple, Sony, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Korn Ferry, Caterpillar, Sephora, and many more. Prior to Simulation Studios, Bill managed Skype’s global strategic software business, was in executive marketing roles at AOL and Nortel, and enjoyed working with Steve Jobs on various strategic projects during his 15+ years working with Apple where he was a five-time Apple MVP, and a Golden Apple Award winner. Bill authored a #1 Training and Development Amazon best-selling book, been featured in major publications and podcasts, and earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship and a Strategy Execution certificate from Harvard Business School. Bill spends the majority of his time with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Book Link:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMBP1TA Forbes Articles:https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/people/billhall1/?sh=373b957726aa Contact Info:Contact at SimulationStudios.com and ask for BillLinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/wphall

In this episode, I continue the conversation with Steven Aberle, founder of a company in stealth mode, working on domain aware, large language model based processing for very niche applications.In the previous episode, Steven spoke about his origin story and also how he got into and some of the technical challenges related to a domain aware large language model solution - and his patent in that area.He continues to share aboutHow the same engine can still retain some originality and uniquenessHow updates to the base model can happen, to mature the model over timeHow ingesting content from various sources is becoming easier with APIsThen the reverse podcast starts! The questions are Steven’s and responses are mineSteven asked about where young companies could go wrongFounders’ passionChemistry with the investorsScaling too fastHis own trigger to jump into this venture.. That it was born out of hating some of the persistent pain points in the area of workHis philosophy of ‘what you do is what you are’Fremen culture - from DuneThe importance of being frugal during the startup phase and being funded by customersHis experience of playing a CEO role; the moment when he made the decision and support from his familyYou must take care of the people in the community you are trying create and be fanatic about solving their problemsHis personal practices to stay calmNot measuring success only by monetary standardsSteven Aberle is the Co-Founder of The Rohirrim, a start-up bringing Domain-Aware Generative AI to the Enterprise. He has 18 years of leadership and executive-level technology capacities and is a recognized expert in unstructured data processing at scale. Steve holds the patent for Domain-Aware Generative AI, Generative Stitching and Vector-Attributable Large Language Models.

Hope you had a wonderful start to the new year.This episode is special for multiple reasons.This is one of the few episodes when I had the conversation with a guest in person - and that was also video recorded, with a fireplace in the background, on a cold day!You would be able to watch this conversation as a video on the PM Power youtube channel.This episode was recorded in November, 2022 - much before ChatGPT was made available to the public and the subsequent increased interest.My guest today, Steven Aberle, is a founder of a company that is in stealth mode, working on domain aware, Large Language model based processing for very niche applications.In this conversation, Steven sharesHow he joined the military half way through college and then went back to finish his studiesGetting interested in IT during the military serviceNavigating away from the back end to the front and, focusing on how the users interact with the systemsBeing in the Washington DC area, getting to work on Defense related areasWorking on defense proposals, that need to be technical, unique and bring out the uniqueness of the proposed approachCreating a piece of patented technology for domain aware generative AI, based on Large Language models and transformersThe challenge for small technology companies to break into the defense procurement spaceCouple of challenges with the open LLMsTrained on open content available, thereby missing contextual insights that are more valuableNone of the data that is generated, can be attributed to the source material [explainable AI]How he organizes his own learning even when moving across specialization areasIt is always about the dataHis exposure and experience with ETL approaches, including working with unstructured dataAbout being a full stack engineer, to be aware of many areasNot be as much of an expert as one may want to be in any one area, but connect the learnings to the new areas as wellHis approach for being a T-shaped individual, going deep into LLM, on how they are trained Transformers are the next big wave now, after the cloud a couple of decades agoThe concept or role of a solutions architect and how that may be implemented in a large language modelAspects related to LLMs and content / data more than just text, to also include images, figure descriptions etcHow generative AI has made the life of graphic designers / UX specialists much easierCapturing conversations with solutions architects, use a transformer to generate a proposal-language based outputHis answer to that question and a lot more - including questions he asked me, related to startups - effectively making role reversal - the guest becoming the host!Steven Aberle is the Co-Founder of The Rohirrim, a start-up bringing Domain-Aware Generative AI to the Enterprise. He has 18 years of leadership and executive-level technology capacities and is a recognized expert in unstructured data processing at scale. Steve holds the patent for Domain-Aware Generative AI, Generative Stitching and Vector-Attributable Large Language Models.

This is another year end special episode.As coaches engaged with various organizations and teams, PM Power coaches are always learning, adapting, helping others internalize good practices in work and life situations.We have the personal reflections of some of the coaches at PM Power Consulting on what they have learnt during the year and what they plan to learn in the coming year.As Shiv - Sivaguru - reflected on 2022, these were his thoughtsHe talks about  hybrid working modelHow he could start reading books againHow we handle longer podcastsWhat he would like to do for 2023Anantha Natarajan, or Anand, as he likes to be called, shared thisVision, Love and Courage : 3 words that are his key reflections of 2022How he learnt the importance of coaching in his lifeThe vital life lessons from his experienceFocus areas for the upcoming years 2023This is what JV, had to sayHow things have changed after Covid.How at Pm Power we found innovative ways to handle online workshopsHelping customers in their Enterprise Agile transformation journeyWhat we can expect in 2023Next, here are the thoughts from Zafar AhmedEngaging with people in person though technology had brought us together virtuallyMore and More organizations are embarrassing AgileIf Agile coaching needs domain knowledge or is it domain independentAlways Mindful, Vishu's reflections are next.Engagements and contributions in Agile transformation, leadership developmentHow fulfilling was Mindful leadership coachingBelow is the link to know more about our PM Powerian’shttps://pm-powerconsulting.com/experts/Also, watch what our PM powerian’s have to say  on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3F2N5Abhcz-OEcqg9B20OQ

This is a special episode.After a long time, the co-hosts of the show had an opportunity to get together to reflect on what the impact of this podcast has been on our own lives and ways of working.We also talk about what else or more we can do for you, our listeners in the coming year.We hope that this podcast has brought cheer and some inspiration over the last 200+ episodes and thank you for the love and support.Do share your reflections as well with us.You can subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast client, so that you don't miss any of the exciting episodes.You can also subscribe to the PM Power newsletter, S-curve - on LinkedIn. Thank you

In this episode, the conversation continues with Bhaktha Muralidhran, AVP, Unified Communications at Sompo International..In the first part, he shared:A brief history of some of the computer networking technologies based on his experienceWorking on some of the emerging standards at that timeExploring roles in sales and marketing supportPreferring to work with customers and solve their problems using appropriate technologiesI asked him about: how comfortable it was to be working with customers and supporting them, coming from an engineering or developer mindset?We continue the conversation with Murali sharing The importance of understanding the customers’ temperament, beyond technology glassesBeing comfortable with not developing cutting edge technologyThe experience of being part of a sales teamThe importance of considering the cost of solutionsHis move to the current role, working with a Japanese firmThe impact of covid on the collaboration infrastructureSome interesting metrics about when meetings really startThe shift from being an individual contributor in technology to an enabling roleSome options he considered from a career advancement perspectiveThe stress when one has to let team members goHis suggestions on what can be done to increase and improve the adoption of technology, to be more effectiveOver three decades of experience in software development in computer networking technologies and support. Experienced in managing a team of engineers. Led several projects from concept to delivery. Specialization: VoIP, Cisco Collaboration technologies, UNIX, Embedded Programming, TCP/IP, QoS, SNMP, Wireless, ATM, Frame Relayhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/baktha-muralidharan-2221344/

In this episode, Bhaktha Muralidhran, AVP, Unified Communications at Sompo International shares:His first job to develop electronics solutions for use in the Indian Navy, for data collectionGetting an exposure to software towards the end of his course and liking itAfter masters, getting a job at Digital and getting an opportunity to work on ethernet that was just becoming more widely adoptedCreating an ethernet with existing hardware and infrastructure, in the lab - to connect computersExploring client server approaches in the early days, understanding the close relationship between computers and networkingDeveloping a print server and later working on frame relay technology and network managementLearning SNMP [Simple Network Management Protocol] that opened up new opportunities for his careerMoving to Lucent, when AT&T was split upWorking on MIB - Management Information Base - for knobs that could be manipulated to change the behavior of networksHow DSL technology enabled having multiple phones [numbers] in a homeMoving to Cisco, when the company was acquiredPreferring to work more with technology and interfacing with people - read customers - and so, taking up roles in service, over software developmentWhy one needs appropriate technology and not necessarily the latest technology, when IT is an enabler for the core businessOver three decades of experience in software development in computer networking technologies and support. Experienced in managing a team of engineers. Led several projects from concept to delivery. Specialization: VoIP, Cisco Collaboration technologies, UNIX, Embedded Programming, TCP/IP, QoS, SNMP, Wireless, ATM, Frame Relay

In this episode, the conversation continues with Maha Mahadevan, CEO of BOSS Solutions - a company providing technology solutions for ITSM, Help desk and 811 ticket management for the damage prevention industry. Maha talks aboutHow he built and kept the team together and stay motivatedHow he bridges the gap between developers and actual usersHow they sharpened the positioning and chose industry segments to operate inHow to handle scale and stay current, as the # customers and team size growsHis secret sauce about acquiring and retaining new customers and growthThe importance of new member selection, onboarding and cultural integration for building a high performing teamMotivating team membersHis career guidance tips for mid career transitions as well as entry level Domain expertise and experience in industry segmentsMaha Mahadevan is the founder CEO of BOSS Solutions, an Atlanta GA based company providing SaaS solutions BOSSDesk for service management and BOSS811 for Onecall ticket management for the damage prevention industry. The company started off as an IT staff augmentation business and transformed into developing innovative solutions providing SaaS solutions to a sizable customer base across the US. Maha has a bachelors in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and Masters from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a regular tennis player and practices yoga. He enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.

In this episode, Shiv is in conversation with Maha Mahadevan, CEO of BOSS Solutions - a company providing technology solutions for ITSM, Help desk and 811 ticket management for the damage prevention industry. Maha sharesHis origin story of getting into IT after graduating in electrical engineeringGetting a call from a friend asking if he would like to start a businessWanting to create IT solutionsHow he approached a selling role, that was needed for the startupProviding staff augmentation services to start and developing a solution to help with Windows NT migrationExtending the solutions with additional products, some based on suggestions or requests from customersHow a ticket management solution could be enhanced to manage a solution for utilities and serving many customers for over seven yearsIn hindsight, learning that drastic steps and dropping the old could be very risky - and happy that his bets have proven successful in the longer runThe context when he chose to become an entrepreneur, and the risks he faced at that timeHis advice: do it as if there is no other option, network and tap into your networkHow to retain confidence, when things may not appear to go the way one would like toBeing ready to adapt and change, when in uncertain situationsHis personal practices to stay calm under all circumstancesHow to communicate the value of IT solutions - in terms of benefits and not featuresWhom to engage in a customer organization, not just what to communicateHow he built and kept the team together and stay motivatedMaha Mahadevan is the founder CEO of BOSS Solutions, an Atlanta GA based company providing SaaS solutions BOSSDesk for service management and BOSS811 for Onecall ticket management for the damage prevention industry. The company started off as an IT staff augmentation business and transformed into developing innovative solutions providing SaaS solutions to a sizable customer base across the US. Maha has a bachelors in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and Masters from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a regular tennis player and practices yoga. He enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.