Rakesh Kumar Gupta is the founder and director of MQ Spectrum, a leading provider of learning solutions for corporates and government agencies. Today, MQ Spectrum is a 40-man team, and was recently a winner of the Singapore Top SME Achiever Award 2014/2015, awarded by the Corporate Business Group.
The hands-on leader confesses: “I am a developer at heart, and I still love to code and build up the products we have on offer.”
Juggling business development, execution and team leadership is no easy task. Gupta shares his tips on effective time management for enhanced productivity.
What are some of the challenges your company faces and how do you solve them?
Gupta: In the IT sector, we face competition from both local and international players. Our strength lies in our long experience of working in the learning industry and with the Singapore government.
Our biggest challenge is recruitment of good talent. Being a startup, we often have difficulty with recruitment as most of the desirable candidates wish to join MNCs. We approach this challenge in a couple of ways. First, we try and market our jobs as interesting, and we guarantee that people who join us will definitely learn new things. Secondly, our internal work culture is quite informal and flexible, just like all startups, and this appeals to a lot of the younger candidates.
How do you network or build new relationships for your business?
Gupta: Most of our current projects come from GeBIZ, which is a government-to-business public e-procurement business centre where suppliers can conduct e-commerce with the Singapore Government. Some projects are with clients whom we have worked with before.
In addition, I graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and am a regular attendee of their alumni entrepreneur gatherings. These prove to be a great place to network and meet new people.
How would you prefer someone to reach out to you?
Gupta: They can reach us through the information provided on our website, or contact any company personnel to set up a meeting. It is naturally best if they make a personal connection with us first, though.
What is your most effective tip for increasing sales?
Gupta: Delivering excellent service for our products every time. This keeps customers coming back to us and wanting more.
What is your most effective tip for improving your own productivity?
Gupta: Effective time distribution between business development, execution and delegation of work. We all have limited amount of time in a day, and delegating work as well as making sure that we dedicate time for all our different duties is very important.
What do you think about a business card management service such as Sansan?
Gupta: Honestly, we have placed very little emphasis on managing our business cards. It is a real pity, as often we want to get back to vendors whom we haven’t been in touch with for a while, but are unable to do so since we have lost or misplaced their cards. Therefore, I think a business card management service such as Sansan would be excellent.
