Gurdeep Grewal, CEO of a global company that wants to grow globally with a regional axis
For Gurdeep Grewal, CEO of the European technology company Initiative, talent shortage in the technology sector is a “global war”: the gap between the huge demand for jobs in the software industry and the number of people actually qualified for those positions.
Grewal has a big challenge in his future: to make a leading global design and engineering company the next step of its development as a hyper-growth company.
With this in mind, the company announced that over the next 18 months, it will double the number of employees in the region: with axis in Argentina, Intive will hire 1,000 new people, to grow its business under the verticals Technology, Media and Communications, Healthcare and Retail, Fintech and EdTech.
In this way. the company is investing in consolidating its global position, with a presence at points unlike Argentina or Colombia, Spain, Poland, Romania, Ireland and Pakistan
During his visit to the country, and in conversation with Clarion, Grewal, who has a birth certificate in India and residency in London, highlighted: “We came to Argentina for the first time in 2017, so we’ve been in the country for a while. We did it for two reasons:” a great talent pool and a great education system which makes for great software engineers. But it’s not a characteristic of Argentina, I think it’s in all of Latin America. “
for the executiveArgentina has a combination of “great talent, great technology, active people with challenging profiles to the size of our customers. ”Faced with the question about what is the secret of attracting these profiles and keeping them in your company, Grewal argues that company culture may be one of the keys.
“One of the biggest efforts we make with our teams is to make sure that they like the culture of our company, who really enjoyed the opportunities to develop certain technologies. And we also want to create a fun place to work: our teams stay for this reason, because we have exciting and long-term projects and long-term relationships with our clients, ”Grewal said.
Grewal acknowledged that Argentina’s economic volatility is becoming an additional obstacle to overcome. “The government doesn’t help us much because it has changed a lot in policies and it doesn’t help its money. I think, in general, governments should adopt a long -term strategy to attract value to countries and grow their overall productivity, and make their money more stable, ”he said.
In this context, the exchange rate gap works against talent acquisition. “Our challenge is to make sure we can attract people, offer them the right salary and the right benefit package. But the challenge we have to overcome is ethical: it is unethical to pay our employees blue dollars, which is not legal and in the long run the economy will collapse, ”he explained.
“I think the government should help us by creating a solid platform for investmentand that in turn will generate more competition that will attract more revenue, more growth, more taxes for the country and in the long run it will be better for business, ”the executive added.
Grewal knows that helmet changes at the macro level are difficult but he cites an example to promote his advice: “Just 20 years ago, India decided to invest in IT. Today the country is home to some of the leading technology companies in the world. And if you look at the CEOs of these companies around the world, a good portion of them are Indians. Because they invested in it and created the environment for it to happen. ”
In this sense, for the executive, post-pandemic Argentina has a good chance in the future: “Argentina could be a huge innovation hub relative to the region, but for that it should promote competition, stabilize its currency and support companies in the sector with incentives that make them invest more and more“.
Source: Clarin
