As Allied Worldwide turns 30 years-old in 2022, an integral part of its continued success celebrated his 10-year anniversary with the company on 1 April.
Operations Lead Rakesh Kumar oversees the service delivery to many of Allied’s customers and is responsible for managing a team of engineers based in locations across the world. He ensures that clients receive outstanding customer service and that all of Allied’s obligations and Service Level Agreements are exceeded, a big evolution from when he started with the business a decade ago.
“My role has changed as fast as the world has transformed over the past 10 years. I started off as the only person supporting a service desk contract. When that ended I moved over to a different customer, where I eventually became team leader and then service delivery manager. From there, I took over the customer services team and started working with more clients one-by-one. There was no looking back and no barriers!
“Every time that the management has given me an opportunity, I feel proud that they have noticed my skills and put their trust in me. I love this job and I enjoy every day I am at work. Having the ability to switch between a diverse range of tasks is one of the best features of my role.”
Rakesh’s role now encompasses almost every aspect of the business – from IT, operations and delivery through to sales, recruitment and partner/vendor management, meaning he is in constant close contact with most of the Allied team either in Cardiff, Bangalore or those based remotely around the world.
“There is a genuine spirit of cooperation and collaboration all focused on helping the customer that I have not found at other organisations,” he says. “The open-door policy we have now allows for much more flexibility and creativity. It means I can go and speak to Richard (Skellett, Allied founder) or Brian (Jones, Globalution chair), they are happy to talk to me and I learn and gain something every time I do that. We should all share and learn from each other, and if everybody is happy to do that, we will all find it hugely beneficial.”
As he reaches a major milestone with the company, it also provides a chance to look forward. In the future, he would like to get involved in high-level consulting and advisory work, and wants to provide job opportunities to under-represented people.
He says: “Too often in business we look at gaps in a person’s CV and decide not to hire them, because they have taken some time out or don’t have the right experience. I don’t like that and would like to take a chance and give some opportunities to good people that might normally be left out.”
Away from the office, Rakesh likes to wind down by watching films or reading, and is a big follower of cricket, glued to the screen at this time of year whenever Royal Challengers Bangalore play.
Rakesh is passionate about the work he does, considering the team at Allied as close as his immediate family.
“Looking back on where I started and where I am now, I am very happy. I owe a huge ‘thank you’ to all my colleagues and managers who have helped me develop on my journey to where I am today.”
Everyone at Allied thanks Rakesh for his fantastic work over the past 10 years and congratulates him on reaching such a momentous milestone.
