A Shift from Supervisor to Individual Contributor

Shakkthi Balasubramanian changed his role to maximize value for himself and Koch.

As a teenager growing up on the southern coast of India, Shakkthi Balasubramanian pictured himself designing buildings for the millions of people in his bustling home city of Chennai. “I went to college to be an architect,” Shakkthi recalled. But after Chennai launched one of India’s earliest and largest IT parks, his thinking changed. “I started wondering if my aptitude for design could apply to IT.” Shakkthi soon transferred into electronic engineering and computer science. His aptitude for solving math problems, a useful skill in architecture, was even more important in information technology.

“I was getting high scores,” Shakkthi said. “But I knew that I needed to equip myself with even more skills.” He did so by attending additional classes, obtaining as much specialized information as he could about databases, networking and server management. He hoped that knowledge would improve his ability to solve problems.

Instead, Shakkthi’s first role in IT was mundane with no opportunities for creative thinking or problem-solving. “I was taking calls and providing scripted responses,” he said. He began searching for a more fulfilling job, leading him to work for a variety of companies during the next seven years.

As his expertise expanded, Shakkthi was asked to supervise other employees. For another eight years, he worked in management roles, supervising people who were trying to “climb the career ladder.”

In India, IT professionals commonly transfer to other companies every two or three years. After 15 years in the industry, Shakkthi decided to switch jobs again. He was attracted to Koch Global Services (KGS) in Bangalore, which serves several Koch businesses, figuring he would have a greater variety of exciting opportunities.

Since he joined as a supervisor, he found that his role was still pulling him away from his passions. “My creative fire was slowly burning out as I spent less time addressing technology challenges.” Shakkthi was unfulfilled.

When he confided to friends about this, “they said it was too late for me to step back to an individual contributor role. They thought it would be like a demotion,” Shakkthi recalls. Regardless, he still had the courage to talk with his supervisor, figuring “if I didn’t deal with the issue, nobody else would.” He explained to his supervisor he was unhappy in his role and wanted to focus his skills on the technologies needed by KGS’s businesses.

Shakkthi’s supervisor was interested and supportive, affirming that, at Koch, everyone should seek roles where they are most passionate and can make the greatest contribution. “He told me to come up with ideas of where I could contribute more.” Shakkthi researched open positions at Koch and found a technology architect role that looked promising.

With the support of his supervisor, Shakkthi accepted a non-supervisory role as a solutions architect. Despite his initial nervousness, he embraced the opportunity to fully explore his creativity and curiosity. He sought as much information as possible about the technology market and new trends in hopes of applying what he was learning.

One of Shakkthi’s first projects in his new role was to rethink how to equip an office building with technologies. He proposed moving from on-site servers to cloud-based, which helped reduce infrastructure costs and created an environment for employees to operate securely and conveniently anywhere at the facility.

In the four years since then, Shakkthi has focused on continuing to learn. “Since my passion is technology, I constantly stay aware of what’s changing. I’m able to talk in technical terms with my IT peers and then translate that to our businesses in ways that help us improve results.” He makes a point of sharing knowledge with other Koch companies. “Right now, I’m helping a Koch business set up its assembly unit at a third-party manufacturing plant in Malaysia.” The machines have to safely communicate with a U.S. hub without endangering the company’s larger network. Shakkthi’s solution has improved access to data for real-time decisions, enhanced productivity, reduced errors and sped up delivery of products to market.

“Today, when people ask what I do, I’m able to introduce myself as an architect and describe what that means in the IT world,” Shakkthi said. His transformation is inspiring others. One of his friends has realized that changing from a supervisory role to an individual contributor role does not have to be a step backward. That friend chose to leave his supervisor position to work as a business analyst.

Shakkthi’s wife has realized something, too. “She tells me that I’m happier and more energetic. It means a lot to hear that from her. I can feel the difference, too. I’m thinking of big ideas again,” he said with a joyful laugh.