"I strongly believe that real-life scenarios and citing such situations can help to communicate in the workplace."
Yashu Kapila is the CEO of BugRaptors. The best part of her role is managing key client relationships, setting up and building large testing services and release for projects spread across the globe. She has diverse experience in release management, consulting, operations and presales. Driving key strategic initiatives that would provide edge in the market and demonstrate business value to clients in turn converting to business propositions.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Yashu Kapila: I am Yashu Kapila, the CEO of BugRaptors, an independent software testing and quality assurance company. Being a QA (Quality Assurance) enthusiast, I always had the vision to transform the world of technology with Quality solutions. And that’s how BugRaptors came into existence. Headquartered in the India and US, it is one of the leading software testing companies successfully moving towards the journey of becoming the most preferred QA solutions and Software testing service provider in the world.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Yashu Kapila: Literally, nobody anticipated the way Covid shook every sector of business. But the way every industry radically shifted from physical workplace to virtual was amazing! Based on our experience what I have learned is that the show must go on!! As this is the way you can stay afloat in your journey to success while keeping ahead of the competition.
As far as it is concerned making a business thrive with lessons learned from the past, I would say it’s only about keeping pace with all the technological advancements. The business market landscape is advancing and growing with the growth in digitalization. Therefore, a brand needs to be fully aware of all the ongoing diversifications and trends in the market. After all, change is an inevitable part of growth.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Yashu Kapila: Indeed, the pandemic does disrupt the economy. Companies and businesses witness both short-term and long-term impacts due to the outbreak of covid-19. However, the unexpected always brings opportunities to learn and strength to overcome unpredictability. In my opinion, businesses across the globe were required to make serious adjustments in the way they operated. The primary factor that should be taken care of is enhancing customer relationships. Secondly, the brands must keep a strong focus on supporting their employees and their work as well. I believe, that having a cordial relationship with employees and clients is the only thing that can help you keep moving forward.
Besides, I would highly underline the importance of prioritizing authentic and transparent communication in business. Every process, operation, or business idea can only thrive if people are able to communicate good and share their ideas/opinions properly.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Yashu Kapila: Honestly, the pandemic did not affect us much! Though it initially appeared like a threat, we were already maintaining our business operations virtually. We just made some minor alterations to our work processes and things get streamlined to meet our business requirements.
The only thing we were supposed to work hard on was keeping a close watch on the market trends. Since there have been abrupt changes in the market norms and pricing, we had to map up the changing market conditions and still support our clients, no matter how critical the times.
In a nutshell, it was an honest approach toward client service, an efficient effort from employees, and the right amalgamation of technologies, which we adapted early allowing us to embrace all the change
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Yashu Kapila: When the COVID-19 pandemic showed its first impressions in China, we already started gearing up to deal with the effect of its spread on our operations. However, the drastic exposure showed catastrophic outcomes bringing the entire physical operations to halt irrespective of the industry.
I believe it was only the lack of information on the seriousness of the situation that shook the business industry. At BugRaptors, we believe the same turned out to be the reason of little delayed preparedness.
But as soon as the pandemic started to affect the IT industry, we immediately geared up to push three major areas of Operational Productivity, Communication, and Marketing. We quickly made a switch to a hybrid environment to foster our productivity goals. However, going hybrid needed us to have a solid remote strategy, for which we leveraged the potential of collaboration tools. Besides, we were constantly pushing our marketing efforts to ensure our reach to global clients who were having trouble managing QA initiatives.
All in all, whether it is 2022 or beyond, I would advise every organization out there to use the full potential of technology when it comes to uncertainties. And the approach to technology should never be resistive rather it must be made a part of business practice to tame the unpredictability of situations.
More importantly, as an organization, we have learned that early efforts made in the right direction in context to communication (in-team & clients), productivity, and marketing are everything that you need to nurture long-term sustainability.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Yashu Kapila: Online businesses not only give flexibility to customers but also drives ease and comfort. Again, I would say here advancement in technology has played a major role in the surge of online business. In coming times, it’s only going to surge as people are getting used to it and fortunately, they are being happy with it. In our industry also the advancement in AI and DevOps have led to making things real that were far off reality.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Yashu Kapila: With digitization, most of our day-to-day tasks are done through mobiles devices and laptops, so my screen hour varies from 8 to 10 hours per day. But I make sure to have a good walk of 10 mins in every hour so as to make myself comfortable and a little relaxed.
Also, my suggestion for all the employees and business personnel who are continuously indulged with screens would be to schedule no mobile phones or laptop hours! I believe it is not only essential from the health perspective but is vital to achieving a balanced lifestyle.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Yashu Kapila: I strongly believe that real-life scenarios and citing such situations can help to communicate in the workplace. I use them in making the communication more understandable as the listeners can relate the same with real-life happenings. It not only keeps my team motivated but helps me to lead with an example. I would say communication is a key that is required for the enhancement of any business, thus it’s important to implement such strategies so as to foster good communication within the workplace.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Yashu Kapila: Keeping pace with ongoing trends and catering to the changing demands of clients or customers is what seems to be challenging. However, we make sure to adhere to such measures that can cultivate higher user satisfaction. It is keeping yourself involved with clients throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure you don’t miss any opportunity to add value. It sounds easy but it is the biggest business challenge that a company need to tame in order to bloom.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Yashu Kapila: I have a keen interest in crypto! Understanding how cryptocurrencies will interact with modern banking and overall business landscape is what excites me the most!! Moreover, I see the introduction of digital currency and concepts like Blockchain as an opportunity to outgrow our agenda of driving Digital Transformation with Quality Assurance solutions.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Yashu Kapila: Companies nowadays do hold a strong belief in the context that customers are the kings however, many of them often overlook the behavioural pattern of their employees. It’s a duty of utmost importance to keep a check on the well-being of your employees, not only because they are an asset to your company, but also because they are humans first. One should always take care of their feelings apart from the professional aspect. Make sure that the employees in your company are never being unheard, unseen, or misunderstood. Work in such a way that every employee, experienced or newbie dwells up nicely in your organization.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Yashu Kapila: Empathy is a superpower I would like to pick!! I think being empathetic is not only about a strong ability, but it also allows you to understand clients’, or users thinking. Understanding all these mental processes and then leading them with the dissemination of creative thinking can be the way of implementing this.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Yashu Kapila: Success for me in 2022 will be retention of existing clients, reinforcing of the marketing plan, and redemption of every possible business opportunity across different verticals. Besides, I cherish the vision of happy employees and happy clients as the most important aspect of business success, whether it is 2022 or beyond.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Yashu Kapila for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Yashu Kapila or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
