In an interview with Insights Success, Bimal Gandhi, CEO of Uniken gave some insightful answers highlighting the company’s contributions towards introducing a mobile-first world with amazing security and phenomenal customer experience.
- Tell us about you, your life-story and your journey since the beginning of your career.
As a product of two cultures – India and the US – I have strived to maintain the best of both cultures in everything I do. I feel so blessed to be a first generation immigrant who has been given amazing opportunities. I’ve always pushed myself out of the comfort zone and into the unknown. My career started with a start-up entrepreneurial venture, jumped to a turnaround opportunity at a global airline then to business school, management consulting, back to turnarounds, a member of the management team for Fortune 250 firm and then back to a “start-up” – you can say I’ve gone full circle and found that I love to build things, grow companies and tackle ground that has never been touched.
2. What keeps you motivated all the time?
My main motivation is obviously my family and the desire to do well for them – who can’t say that is number one on the list. However, my work ethic is driven by my desire to implement ideas and drive execution to successful outcomes. I’m your typical “type A” personality – driven to succeed – one who relishes challenges, works hard, plays hard and doesn’t mind being held accountable. I thrive on forming a well thought out plan based on fact based analysis, building the right team, executing on the plan, seeing milestones hit, and everyone and the company grow. I think failure is not trying – and when you try – take your best shot.
3. State us about the most memorable and remarkable moment of your life.
Hands down the most memorable moment has to be the birth of my three children – each of those three moments is precious in my heart. Professionally, the key moment for me was the launch of a major business that started as a concept on a cocktail napkin in a bar – yes, it really does happen. Have an idea – draw it on a napkin, then build a whole plan to create that business, find the right people to help you build it, then execute and do it.
Always put the client first – design the product to meet the client needs (don’t guess ! Do your homework and research !) and launch it. Once launched find out what needs to be tweaked and do it ! I promise you that that first day you hit the market and get your first customer will be amazing !
4. Kindly tell us about the major challenges you have faced while building up both your company and your career.
The biggest challenge for me is always taking that first step – it may be starting something new, it may be changing gears and taking a different path, it may be switching jobs or companies. Once you do that the rest becomes easier. Many of us tend to get paralyzed by looking at all the facts, the angles, the pitfalls – my advice is focus on what you can potentially accomplish – if its exciting do it ! The second biggest challenge is surrounding yourself with amazing people – find people that you work well with – not necessarily always see eye-to-eye with, people that have the same work ethic, same passion and belief in what you are doing. Lastly, for me always stay close to the customer – you will find that you can learn an amazing amount by keeping close to the customer – this takes time, effort and focus – not always easy when you are building a business but a critical element.
5. Kindly describe in brief about your company and its distinctive services/products.
Uniken is very unique – we are an innovative and disruptive cyber security company that is focused on helping our customers lock down every major vector of fraud and breach. Uniken’s REL-ID is a groundbreaking defense-in-depth mobile solution that puts our customers own mobile app at the center of their omnichannel security model. By bringing together strong authentication, channel security, endpoint threat detection, and transaction verification into one seamless platform – REL-ID delivers bulletproof security with a phenomenal customer experience for mobile, online, and omnichannel use cases. Our best credential is ZERO fraud! Zero identities stolen, Zero financial loss, Zero data loss.
For me, this was a no-brainer to join Uniken and take it to new heights. I have always been dismayed about the hoops one has too jump through to get great security – people forget about the client experience. Uniken blends amazing security with phenomenal client experience.
6. State us your major achievements and your company’s achievements under your leadership.
Taking an amazing piece of core technology and building it into something that truly is exceptional and solves several problems completely – not just one. By listening to customers, prospects and others in the industry, we figured out that solving the problem partially isn’t the answer. As a result, we have created several new products, built a world class global team, and are now starting to serve some of the biggest companies in the world. The best is yet to come !
7. How do you describe yourself in one-word or one-sentence?
A strong and loyal leader who blends finance, strategy technology and operations into a seamless portfolio to drive performance focused on building a great team that builds a great business.
8. Tell us about your passion, aim and goal.
I would say I am a passionate builder of things – be it Legos, high preforming teams, product or companies – my high comes from building and taking it to the next level or three and then moving on to the next challenge.
9. What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs?
Surround yourself with amazing, intelligent, interesting and smart people – employees, partners, mentors and board members. Being the smartest one in the room isn’t the key, it’s assimilating the best thoughts from those around you. Also, never be afraid of making the tough decisions – that’s what leaders do!
10. How do you motivate your employees and maintain a healthy working environment in the office? Share with us the work culture at your office.
To me motivation is being focused on a singular goal that will help everyone achieve their own professional and personal goals – along the way treat everyone with respect and ensure everyone knows what they are accountable for – also – have some fun along the way. If the company achieves its goals it has do so making sure everyone in the company can see the future and understand how they grow personally – be it skills, relationships, wealth.
- What are the most important lessons you’ve learned throughout and would like to share?
Two key lessons I would want to pass on – First, failure isn’t a bad thing – learn from it. Second, being loyal and showing loyalty is a must but don’t be blind about it.
12. How do you see yourself and your company in the future ahead?
I see Uniken continuing to grow and become a true leader in the space – we are not out for incremental change or success – we believe we are the future of security. As for me, I will do my best and when its time to let someone else take the company to the next new level it will be time for me to find the next challenge – but that’s a few years down the road.
