Viju Chakarapany | Leading Red Hat's Sales and Strategy

Explore the responsibilities and insights of a senior leader at Red Hat who oversees sales and strategy in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China. Learn about team nurturing, cross-cultural collaboration, adaptive sales strategies, and the ever-evolving world of open-source innovation. Discover valuable advice for mentors and individuals pursuing global careers, all underpinned by the enduring power of curiosity.

In your role what are your main responsibilities? What aspects of the role do you love?

I lead both sales and strategy for Red Hat Commercial Sales across Asia Pacific and Japan.
My responsibilities include:

• Championing the experience of customers and our partner ecosystem for great outcomes and shared revenue growth
• Guiding teams in managing local customer and partner needs by operating within Red Hat’s globally defined Commercial Sales go-to-market strategy and approach
• Supporting Red Hat’s acceleration as a diverse, inclusive, customer-centric, and world-class leader in open-source innovation
• Collaborating actively with regional and global peers on the leadership team to drive performance and excellence at Red Hat
• Building exemplary teams and leaders through varied development plans to drive both individual and business outcomes

What I enjoy in this role is:

• First and foremost, seeing people grow, personally and professionally as individuals and collective teams. I really enjoy guiding, coaching, and personally investing in the future of my team members
• Building and mentoring diverse, cross-regional, insightful teams who make the impossible, possible
• Learning about the many business complexities that customers face and helping them navigate those with Red Hat’s solutions and services
• Pioneering a new segment with intrepid teams - Understanding the varied market dynamics across regions to successfully bring in new opportunities

What skills have you found to be universally valuable in fostering effective cross-cultural collaborations?

Having a natural sense of curiosity and developing it into the skill of asking questions is very valuable. It’s human nature to approach things from our own experiences and views - but to get on the same page, we have to factor in cultural nuances and learn about the differences we see.

That ties in neatly to a second important skill - being able to empathize with others and understand their points of view. People like to do business with other people rather than corporate entities; so when you empathise, ask questions, and work to create common goals, you build trust that goes beyond boundaries and cultures.

Knowing how to build trust is also a very valuable skill. It takes practice and effort to consistently deliver on your promises as well as be honest and upfront even when things are not working out. People not only appreciate honesty but also realise that perfection is a myth. When you build trust with your customers and partners, they know that if things are not falling into place, it’s an exception. What’s more, you support each other.

How do you navigate multiple markets and culture ensuring commercial sales strategies remain adaptable, successful, and in line with regional needs?

It starts with consciously recognizing that cultures and markets can be very different, and therefore, we must vary our approach accordingly. I’ve seen people go to new countries and get frustrated when they are not able to meet targets - but how can you, if you are not using the right approach for that country. As a multinational with a suite of solutions, there is some level of standardization we must effect in order to scale effectively - following the 80/20 rule, with 80% of standardization, we must vary at least 20% of our approach to suit local market conditions and cultural nuances.

Red Hat is recognized as a leader in open-source innovation worldwide, what trends do you see emerging in this space? And how can individuals benefit from these?

\Red Hat has always been at the forefront of innovation through collaboration in the open source world. We see technology evolving rapidly and our aim has been to demonstrate how ‘open unlocks the world’s potential’.

From a trends perspective, all of us in the industry have seen the world move towards the cloud to benefit from its various advantages as well as scaling their data centers beyond their on-premise settings. But we at Red Hat have always advocated a hybrid cloud scenario, where we see a fine balance between both. We are seeing this trend continue and believe that this is the future - run your applications anyway, anytime on any device.

Next, we are definitely seeing the advancement of Generative AI e.g. Chat GPT. But how do we incorporate this as well as domain knowledge into solutions to help individuals be more productive? Companies are beginning to look into this, both for their internal use as well as to help address the needs of external customers.

There is definitely lots more in terms of trends happening in the industry - but generally, most are focused on productivity, scalability, and accessibility at reasonable price points.

You actively mentor people, what would you say to others considering being a mentor?

I highly encourage mentoring. I would suggest the following guidelines when guiding someone for the first time:

• Treat your mentee with respect, compassion, and discretion. This builds trust between you and them.
• Be generous with your life learnings i. e. plant a tree to give someone else shade, and make the world a better place.
• Be open to different experiences and approaches. The world still has problems to solve and possible answers can come from anywhere.
• Commit to staying in the moment with them. Turn off your phone, give them your attention, and watch them blossom.

What advice would you give students that want to pursue a career overseas?

Firstly, be open to change - culture, language, social norms, etc. Give yourself time to adjust. Sounds simple enough, but is probably the hardest thing to do.

Secondly, read up on the history of your destination. The behaviour of people is molded by what they have gone through. Find out what happened in the past to understand the present.

Thirdly, don’t be quick to judge. Every country does things differently, and what may seem wrong to you will be backed by a solid reason elsewhere. So ask questions (be curious!) and find out more.

Fourthly, immerse yourself in your new home. If you remain an expat and stay isolated, you won’t learn much. For example, in Australia, explore the outdoor/sporting culture. In India, explore the cultural nuances that differentiates the country, but at the same time, unites it as one nation. In Singapore, visit hawker centers to understand how deeply the country loves a wide range of food handed down from different cultures.

Fifth, embrace your new community and give back. You will be taking a lot from your new home. It’s only right that you contribute by making a positive impact by charitable donations, volunteering, and more. Finally, bring your country’s best qualities to the table. What is your uniqueness and how can you use it to contribute at work? Knowing your speciality helps you become invaluable to your new workplace.

What is one skill you couldn’t live without and why?

The ability to be intentionally curious and like it! More than the right answers, it’s vital that we ask the right questions - these lead to a better and deeper understanding of any situation or challenge. To paraphrase Satya Nadella of Microsoft, be a learn-it-all rather than a know-it-all.

Curiosity is also not a time-bound skill. No matter how old you are, where you are, or what you’re doing, you can always be learning. This helps you understand life and technology changes as well as older generations and younger ones too. Seek to learn something new every day, and the world opens up for you.

Do you have a question for Viju? Connect with him on LinkedIn.