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July 19, 2021
As a part of our series called ‘Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO’ we had the pleasure of interviewing Anurag Pal, CEO of Escalon.
Anurag Pal has over 25 years of experience in finance, sales and marketing and senior management roles at Fortune 50 companies. Under his stewardship, Escalon has guided over 3,000 companies across 22 countries with many growing from one employee to IPO and beyond. Mr. Pal holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Engineering in electronics and communication engineering from Punjab Engineering College.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I have worked in Industry and been an entrepreneur, and every time I was an entrepreneur there were all these things that were essential yet completely noncore that took up so much time. If we tried to do them ourselves it usually ended in disaster, and if we tried to outsource, we had so much overhead managing all the different vendors — hence this vision of starting this company and this career path was born.
When I hired our first batch of three employees, we then led them through a two-week training session, and I got on a plane right afterward. But when I landed 20 hours later, I had emails and voicemails s galore telling me that one of the new hires had quit and one was not going to work out. I went home, showered and was on a plane back in eight hours to go hire the second batch.
I cannot single out any one person — everyone we met along the way — but our families to begin with because starting a business is asking a lot from your immediate family. I am also grateful for every person who has been or is still an employee here all our amazing customers, our partners, everyone who has been kind to us along the way. We stand here because of all of them. As I often say — I have 800 kids.
Diversity of thought is essential to continually foster innovation. And the only true way to have that diversity is to have diversity starting at the top — so in my mind it is an essential element for organizations that continue to innovate and thrive.
I think it needs to start with making sure inclusivity is reflected in your culture, and if you have a set of values explicitly laid out for the organization, then inclusivity needs to be one of those values. But making it a living, breathing thing requires continual effort. You need to continue to emphasize inclusion in word and in action. So, whom you hire, where you hire from, whom you promote and how you continue to make sure that everyone has a voice and that voice becomes the collective voice is essential.
You mean other than being good-looking and charming ☺ Well I think it is not a job that is very well-defined. It is one of those amorphous roles where you know when someone is doing really badly or really well, but in many cases the CEO is sometimes at the mercy of events over which they have no control, much like presidents. At its very core, it means leading a group of people toward a goal, which can change based on external events. I think the best definition of the daily role of a CEO was explained best to me by someone who said –“How many ties did you break today?” Meaning were you able to move the organization along since you can never keep everyone happy.
That it is an easy job — not really. That you have a lot of power — well, not really. That you don’t report to anyone — completely untrue — every day you are responsible for everyone in the organization.
How lonely it can be at times. I was never really warned about that!
Being an executive is very much like being a parent, and I often find the best executives are parents. Because the jobs in many ways are very similar — you have all kinds of employees (just like kids), and you need to be able to inspire them through words and by example, keep them engaged and set the right boundaries with freedom to help them develop while continuing to keep them focused on a goal.
My advice is simple. Figure out (and this really takes some soul-searching) what work culture you truly want to establish first. This will be a combination of who you and the founding team are as people, coupled with what the business needs. Once you have this established, then you need to communicate it again and again and again and do that in actions and words, until it becomes a part of the fabric.
By ensuring a diverse set of people have fulfilling, challenging jobs in up-and-down economic cycles, serving numerous not-for-profits gratis or at significantly reduced rates, and donating time and money for a variety of causes that make the world a kinder, gentler, cleaner place. For example, we are holding an online India COVID Relief Fundraiser on July 15 to raise money to build an oxygen plant in India. We are proud of this sort of work as one example — https://info.escalon.services/fundraiser.
Have every company resolve to be carbon neutral within 5 years (including the carbon footprint of all their employees). It is the greatest threat facing humankind and needs immediate action.
It’s better to be a pirate than join the Navy (Steve Jobs). I say this out loud every time I wonder why I chose the entrepreneurial path.
Elon Musk — who else alive has done more to change the future direction of mankind than Mr. Musk — I am a big fan boy.
Our team is made up of seasoned professionals who bring years of industry experience to the table. You gain a trusted advisor who understands your business inside out.
Say goodbye to the hassles of hiring, training and managing in-house finance teams. You will never have to worry about unexpected leave of absence or retraining new employees.
Whether you’re a small business or a global powerhouse, our solutions scale with your needs. We eliminate inefficiencies, reduce costs and help you focus on growing your business.
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