I’ve been working in many industries, and one could argue that I got bored easily. What I realized is that I have in a way, been a consultant my whole life. In every job I had, I would come in and solve problems to take the business or the department that I was part of to a certain point. I started out in the corporate world, and at a certain point decided I wanted to take my skills and make them available to entrepreneurs. And I, myself, have always had a passion for entrepreneurship.
My dad’s a second-generation entrepreneur, so I grew up in that, and also just living and working in Silicon Valley, many of my friends were in the startup scene. I had initially started my own company when I was 24 in Silicon Valley, and ran that for a while. I always wanted to go back to that. Having a consulting company 8S2BUSINESS, with my business partner is a way we could have our own business and help others run their businesses.
I’ve been working remotely without realizing it, for about 4+ years now. I think the difference after the pandemic is that we started doing things more consciously.
Remote work makes a lot of sense. I would say the sad part is that I wish I personally had made a more conscious effort sooner to truly push into it before the pandemic forced me to, because this is always what I wanted to do.
I think that remote working is the future of work. It had already started before the pandemic in many places. It was pretty common for years now, for companies in Silicon Valley to mandate that employees work from home at least once if not up to three times a week to reduce pollution, traffic, etc.
Livit is definitely way ahead of its time. Remote Skills Academy, in particular, I thought is doing a really good thing here. There is a need on both sides, both for employers as well as employees to adapt positively and consciously to working remotely which Livit and the Remote Skills Academy address. Remote Skills Academy gives people access to very useful marketable skills. Now we can access experts and their learning wherever they are.
So to anyone out there, whether you’re a business owner or someone who wants to work remotely, it makes sense to be part of this. By helping Remote Skills Academy, you’re going to be helping yourself.
Practically speaking as someone who runs a business, finding and recruiting qualified staff is an ongoing struggle for startups as well as established companies. So organizations like the Remote Skills Academy, help entrepreneurs find the staff they need and at the same time, are helping people gain the skills required by the companies of the future. To me, it’s a win-win. Remote Skills Academy also helps by supporting the economy, in essence, providing the skill sets and meeting the needs of both the employers as well as that of the employees, and providing guidance for what it’s going to be like in the future. So that’s the reason I would say it makes sense to be part of it and to support it. And yeah, I think it’s a good cause as well.
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Kannan Ramakrishnan is a strategy and organizational consultant and also a partner at 8S2BUSINESS. He has a background in corporate finance, strategy, and private equity spanning Fortune 500 companies to startups in a variety of industries including aerospace, semi-conductor manufacturing, software, e-commerce, and online games. Spent 12 years in Silicon Valley and Singapore working for a number of companies including KLA Tencor, Analog Devices, Portal Software (now a part of Oracle), and 1-800-Flowers before shifting focus to South East Asia. Join Kannan in supporting Indonesian youth to reskill and upskill here.
