An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
One of the best pieces of advice I received early on from one of my managers was to look at things from other people’s perspective. For example, when someone asks you for something, put yourself in that person’s shoes and try to understand why they are asking — what pressure they are feeling? Sometimes we don’t understand the pressure others are under. If it’s your client counterpart, they may be feeling pressure from their management to get the job done.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing P360 CEO Anupam Nandwana.
Anupam Nandwana, CEO and Founder of P360, is an executive focused on building solutions using artificial intelligence, SMS text messaging and the Internet of Things (IoT) for the life sciences industry. Follow P360 on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Like a lot of IT professionals from around the world, I first migrated to the US because of work. I came to America by way of India in the 1990s to work on IT projects for pharmaceutical companies. I was always fascinated by large enterprise operations and how they were able to operate globally. And the life sciences industry definitely fit the bill in that regard.
I was lucky to have had some great opportunities and amazing mentors during my early years, which allowed me to learn how pharmaceutical companies operated in such a complex regulatory environment. Even though I was a technical person by trade, the business side of the industry was fascinating to me. My technical skills combined with my passion for business made for a unique combination and helped me in founding a tech company with a different type of mission; one that understood both the customer’s business and the problems they need solved.
The community that I came from in India is known for entrepreneurship. So growing up, I watched a lot of people around me build businesses both small and big. This lit the entrepreneurial fire in me at a pretty early age.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Our mission at P360 is to help the life sciences companies connect with patients, partners and healthcare professionals in a more efficient, less abrasive way. For example, right now pharmaceutical sales reps are having a very hard time connecting with prescribers and their staff. In-person meetings are extremely hard to secure, email open rates are only 20% in most cases, and healthcare professionals don’t have time to deal with portal logins or app downloads (there are just too many). However, despite these barriers, it is vitally important that life science companies remain connected with the care community.
Given this, several technologies have been developed to try and help life science commercial operations and the healthcare community to better coexist. But despite there being some fascinating innovations, engagement hasn’t improved very much. And that’s why we created the ZING unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform.
ZING is basically an AI-powered platform that helps life sciences companies connect with healthcare professionals in a compliant, nonabrasive way. The platform features UCaaS features such as SMS text messaging, chatbot, video, co-browsing and more There are no apps for healthcare professionals to download and no portals for them to log into, and 98% of text messages get read. It is the perfect application to keep this complex relationship going, which is key to moving therapeutic development forward.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
As the saying goes, “If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t learning.” Mistakes are part of life, and they are definitely part of the entrepreneurial journey. To move ahead, you have to accept this fact, learn from it and move on quickly.
When starting a new business venture, one of the hardest things is pricing your products and services. Early on, we submitted a proposal to a potential client; and we ended up quoting 2–3 times the market price. It’s fair to say we didn’t get too far with that deal. But the lessons learned were invaluable.
From that mistake, we learned that relying solely on a single source of information could lead to mistakes. It is important to do your homework thoroughly, get as many opinions as possible and then listen to your gut instinct.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Mentorship is such a huge part of any success story. It makes it possible for young people to learn from those who have experience. And good mentorship also gives young professionals the opportunity to bring new ideas to the table without the fear of criticism. Good mentors make a huge difference in growing future leaders.
I am fortunate to have worked with some great people who were generous with their time and knowledge. One of the most impactful opportunities I had was working in a large corporate merger. It gave me an inside look at all the things that go into building technical infrastructure. I would be amiss if I didn’t thank Kathy McDede and Cynthia Redel.
At P360, we take this seriously and have a strong mentorship program.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Yes, it’s true that disruption can be both a good thing and a bad thing. And the difference between good and bad usually boils down to the amount of disruption and the timing of it. Take for example the Apple Newton. Great idea, however, poor timing and too much disruption for its time period. The technology industry just wasn’t where it needed to be for Newton to make good on its promise. And the end-user wasn’t at all ready for such a rapid shift in how we connect with our computers.
For companies like P360, this is an important lesson because, in the enterprise software space, major disruption is usually a big gamble. Companies have too much invested in legacy systems for there to ever be a sudden and complete change (disruption). As such, the key is to develop smaller disruptions that still live within that larger ecosystem. It’s somewhat of a puzzle, but that’s what makes it fun.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
One of the best pieces of advice I received early on from one of my managers was to look at things from other people’s perspective. For example, when someone asks you for something, put yourself in that person’s shoes and try to understand why they are asking — what pressure they are feeling? Sometimes we don’t understand the pressure others are under. If it’s your client counterpart, they may be feeling pressure from their management to get the job done.
The key is to build empathy. What would you expect if you were on the other side? We have applied this lesson across the board with everything that we do.
There are several quotes from Sir Richard Branson about how to treat your employees. He said, “Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business.” We have taken this advice to heart and have made it the center of everything we do as a company. It is powerful to experience the pride our employees have in representing the company, and to see their motivation for doing the right thing.
I often get unsolicited emails from our customers saying that an employee went above and beyond what was asked for. We don’t tell them to do it, but they do it on their own because of a sense of duty — and because it’s the right thing to do. Our employees are our biggest asset and the reason we are successful. It fills my heart with pride.
Lastly, Maya Angelou said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” I love this quote and have seen it materialize numerous times, in both positive and negative ways.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We will soon be releasing a next-generation version of our Swittons IoT (Internet of Things) device that can be deployed across enterprise workstreams of all types, to multiplex various tasks such as RFID scanning, video calls, e-system integration and instant messaging. This advanced modality will have broad, OEM positioning that combines the physical and digital with push-button ease.
We will also be releasing a patient-wellness version of Swittons, to be utilized in the healthcare space within patient homes. This will be a first-in-class technology, which will definitely (positively) disrupt the status quo of patient follow-up.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I love reading biographies and stories about great innovators and founders. I enjoy learning about how they became successful and the hurdles they overcame to make a difference. Shoe Dog, a memoir by Phil Knight, is one of my favorite books. It has resonated with me in many different ways in terms of the challenges he faced and how a world-class company was built from the ground up.
Great By Choice, written by Jim Collins, is also a great book. It provides a unique perspective and reference for anyone to follow.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My father told me this when I was a child, and I have used it with my children. “Try your best and let the results be what they may be. You can only control your effort, not the results. We don’t always get the results we want, and the only regret we should have is if we didn’t try our best.”
I am going to cheat and give you one more as well. It is an Indian quote, but let me try to translate it. “It is great if something we desire comes to fruition. But if it doesn’t happen, that’s great too.”
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Education is the key to transformation and growth. But too many children across the globe lack access to a good education and the Internet.
Remote education and the connectivity that the Internet creates are powerful and can make a real difference in a person’s life. People in every part of the world now have way more opportunities to learn and work than they did just 20 or 25 years ago. But they need access to those opportunities. We need to keep building upon the progress we’ve made.
Also, when I say education, it doesn’t necessarily mean a university degree. There are plenty of useful, job-specific skills people can learn online. And they can get good paying jobs with those skills. Also, on the job creation side, we need to work harder to be more inclusive. Equal opportunity will give society the best results.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow P360 online at P360.com. On LinkedIn. And on Twitter @P360_Solutions
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Anupam Nandwana of P360 On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
