"The great growing engine of change is technology."

Alvin Toffler

Megha Tatiya, Affluent Technopreneur Revolutionising Woman Leaders In It Industry With S M Solutions

Hailing from a small town of India with an insight into the struggle for necessities and education, Megha Tatiya transformed into an incredible businesswoman, a hands-on entrepreneur, and a subject matter expert leading team at one of the most prestigious government agencies in the world, US federal government at National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Like a classic entrepreneurial story, the young, passionate, and focused, Megha Tatiya found calling as an entrepreneur post being a part of the traditional corporate industry. She graduated in India and started her career working for a large Indian multinational IT services company.

Her journey took her to the United States Of America. She continued to grow offering her valued guidance to different multinationals in designing and implementing complex Enterprise Asset Management Systems.

It did not take long before she founded an IT consulting start-up focusing on Enterprise Asset Management Solutions based out of the Washington D.C. area in the United States of America. In April 2020, she established her brainchild technology start-up, S M Solutions.

The CEO Magazine had a chance to converse with the talented businesswoman Megha Tatiya and take a deeper dive into the different facets of her thought-provoking success story:

TCM: Megha, kindly enlighten us about an Enterprise Asset Management System?

Megha: Enterprise asset management (EAM) is a combination of software systems and services used to maintain and control operational assets and equipment. EAM is aimed to optimize safety, quality, and utilization of assets throughout their lifecycle, increase productive uptime and reduce operational cost.

TCM: As a businesswoman, what was your mission at the outset?

Megha: Growing up in a small town in India, I did not have easy access to even the basic facilities or the education but I always had dreamt to make a mark in the world fighting against all the odds and creating something that serves a purpose bigger than myself.

Women empowerment is especially a topic close to my heart. Having mentioned odds, woman leaders in the IT industry is an eyebrow-raiser. I ensure that my body of work and my brand S M Solutions sews together these passions to become a fabric of various other success stories.

TCM: What is the change you are bringing with your brand today?

Megha: I am proud that S M Solutions is a woman-owned and managed IT services start-up with headquarters in the Washington D.C. area. Our focus is on women empowerment in the technology space. As we expand our operations, the focus is to have at least 80% of our workforce as women. As things get back to normal, we plan to expand our reach in India with a local office.

TCM: In the journey, did you deal with the challenge of acceptance? If not, what were the other challenges you overcame?

Megha: A major part of my journey has been in the United States. As an immigrant, I recall one of the biggest challenges is, feeling of being unsettled. Quite honestly it took some time for me to get over that feeling. Living abroad has its challenges but I am grateful for this incredibly life-altering opportunity.

TCM: What are the mistakes you wish you could've avoided as an entrepreneur?

Megha: Not starting early enough. Although I am still young, I believe, if I had started my entrepreneurial journey earlier, it would have helped us with our mission of making a difference in the lives of people. It is not easy for a lot of individuals with tremendous skills to make their mark and I have been very lucky to be where I am today.

TCM: How are S M Solutions assisting the target audience?

Megha: We are a software company with a focus on building Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) applications. These systems help to improve the quality of assets. This in turn has the potential to avoid catastrophes and save lives. Think of a scenario where a nuclear reactor is not maintained or serviced in a way it should be and there is a radiation leak.

 EAM systems are a critical component of the infrastructure. In developing countries like ours (India), use of such systems is even more important both to improve safety and improve asset life thereby saving costs.

TCM: How did you build your team? How do keep them motivated?

Megha: I believe recruiting the best talent is crucial to the success of an organization and our focus has always been to bring the best people on-board. I also believe there should be a culture in a company where each employee is treated like a partner bringing that sense of ownership. This goes a long way in keeping all motivated enough in the fast-moving environments today.

TCM: How do you plan on growing your business in the upcoming years?

Megha: Our near-term plan involves two crucial aspects of expansion locally in India and building a strong team. With the increase in Infrastructure spending and governments vision to improve the quality of life of people of India, we believe EAM systems can play an important role.

We had some starter conversations with a handful of state government officials and they had expressed interest in building such software systems to manage and maintain the growing infrastructure.

TCM: Since you are a growing start-up, any plan to raise funding?

Megha: Unlike a product development company demanding an abundance of funds to fuel the product development, the beauty of the consulting business is that we do not need a lot of funding to run our operations. We can expand our resource pool easily as the business grows.

TCM: What does success look in the current role and for the company?

Megha: Lately, our prime focus has been to expand our operations. We see ample opportunity in Indian EAM space and not many companies focused on the domestic markets. While many giant Indian IT service companies indulged in EAM work, their client base is still more globally targeted. Thus, we want to focus on the local market with affordable EAM solutions.

TCM: If you were to answer a young female executive's question of 'How can I be a good leader?', what would you advise?

Megha: Leaders are those who inspire themselves and others. My advice would be to understand and view leadership to be greater than a mere position.

The journey to becoming a good leader can be travelled by acquiring qualities of leading with integrity, empowering others, walking the talk, playing to your strengths, believing in yourself and most importantly always being focused on your long-term goals.

TCM: Do you believe in giving back to society, if yes, how?

Megha: Absolutely, the belief is deeply rooted in my journey to the position I have reached today. I believe education is a fundamental right of every child. Even in 2021, there are a lot of children deprived of this right.

Intending to bring change, I deploy my sincere efforts working with a few non-profits focused on early childhood education and organizing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) workshops to introduce children to coding. Moreover, I help organize technology-focused training workshops for women.