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Business
the long hours,” he added thoughtfully.
With his career seeing such an acceler-
ated trajectory, the long hours pile up in the
formof stress, hence hemakes it a point to
relax and unwind occasionally, cultivating
habits like taking time off during certain
days of the week to sit back and dream.
He also winds down by going on short
holidays with his wife to see the world
and explore different cultures, a perk that
comes with the job as he is required to
travel overseas.
Kalai adroitly observes that the SSO
industry inMalaysia consists of many large
multinational organisations, making it a
fully global environment that is culturally
diverse, which he realises is often not the
case with other industries.
“Being someonewho can’t really sit still
and perform mundane tasks, it helps that
the industry is always evolving with best
practices and there is always something
new to look forward to”, he added.
Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO) is
a categorical term to describe the combination
of both the Shared Services and Outsourcing
industries.Where “Outsourcing” reduces costs by
transferring portions of work to outside suppliers
rather than completing it internally, “Shared
Services” deals with the provision of a service
by one part of an organisation or group to other
parts of the organisation, so that they effectively
become an internal service provider.
To know more about career opportunities
in the SSO sector, visit www.mscmalaysia.my/
ssococ
Kalai BalakrishnanofATOSServicesregales
JamilahLim
withhisexperienceshuttlingup
the corporate ladder to be a regional head in the short span of 13 years in the Shared
Services and Outsourcing sector despite an initial disinclination towards the industry.
TheSSOsectorpromisessolidcareer choices foryoungMalaysianswiththeMultimedia
DevelopmentCorporation(MDeC)SSOClusterplayingakeyrole inmovingthecountry’s
SSOindustryupthevaluechaintomeetheraspirationtobeahigh-incomenationby2020.
W
h e n
K a l a i
Balakrishnan
first accepted a
job offer to be a
Technical Sup-
port Analyst
at a local IT
outsourcing (ITO) organisation 13 years
ago, he admittedly did it not by choice, but
because of a scarcity of “proper” IT jobs
due to the burst of the IT bubble.
“After numerous attempts to exit the
industry largely influenced by the percep-
tion of it being a brutal one, I am now
glad that I did not, for, if it was not for my
perseverance, I would not have made it to
where I am today.”
Armed with a degree in Computer
Science, the eloquent thirty-something has
carved out quite the career for himself by
working his way up so quickly -- only 13
years ago, he was a support analyst, and
now, he is the APAC Regional Head of the
Workplace Service Desk Services, an ITO
unit comprising over 1,200 employees
within the Asia Pacific region supporting
massiveMulti-National Organisationswith
their IT needs.
We were keen to know what his ITO
experience in the Shared Services & Out-
sourcing (SSO) industry was and how
he traversed through what we reckon
would have been a challenging land-
scape, considering his career and personal
achievements.
Somewhere within the early part of his
Carving a Niche in the IT World
career, he moved up to a leadership role,
but surprisingly went back down to start
afresh, much to the shock of others. His
decision to downgrade to a junior technical
role and work on improving his technical
skills proved to be a valuable strategy as
his next move brought him to his current
organisation that has a larger and higher
emphasis on IT delivery.
Very quickly, Kalai moved up the leader-
ship ranks, again, and from Team Leader,
he was promoted to Operations Manager.
After that stint, he took a short, ninemonth
role in the international field performing
consultancy work, which accelerated his
skills development. His progress noted, he
was then offered a role to head the Global
Delivery Tower in Malaysia.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would
not change anything, regardless of the
challenges and frustrations which have
come along the way.
“Having started off at the ‘bottom’ of
the career chain and making my way up
has undeniably defined my approach in
my current role.”
Inspired and motivated by the various
people he has met, Kalai says being sur-
rounded by helpful individuals and an
exemplarymanager made him realise that
opportunities for growth were immense,
and a fulfilling and enjoyable career could
be made out of the SSO industry, contrary
to what many people think.
Did his paper qualifications help him to
get where he is today?
“Having a flexible attitude is something
I deem critical compared to qualifications.
It has really been my pragmatism and the
desire to accomplish more, which turned
into sheer passion that I credit as the driver
of my growth in this sector, and not my
paper qualifications.
“Also, having a helpful, supportive and
understanding partner surely helps, given
New office, new spaces, and
tonnes of happy faces fromAtos
Kalai in Paris for
work, joined by
his wife after
it was over to
continue on a
short holiday
across the EU.