It was with some trepidation that I joined Datacraft Asia on the 6th of August 2007. I had had some experience with the company in my role managing the Theater Program Office in Cisco where I was responsible for rolling out the Global Service Alliance. And to be brutally candid, the prevailing view of Datacraft within Cisco at that time was mixed.
However, any lingering doubt associated with the company culture was very swiftly dispatched when I joined.
Back when I joined Cisco, I was met at the reception, given an IP Phone, laptop, and shown to a hot desk with instructions to call the helpdesk for everything. And I never even spoke to my manager till 10 days later. Talk about having to sink or swim.
Contrast that with Datacraft where I was warmly welcomed, and on my second day introduced to Bill Padfield, the CEO, as a sort of casual “hello and welcome to Datacraft” introduction that was supposed to be two minutes long, but turned into a 45-minute discussion on the go-to-market strategy of Datacraft.
Two months after I joined, I was having drinks with a group of colleagues at an end-of-quarter party, and Bill asked me what I thought of the company. I said it then, and very happily repeat it – Datacraft is the BEST company I have ever worked for. Interestingly, he asked the same question a year later, and a year after that, the same topic came up.
Now, three years on, on my last day of employment with Datacraft, I find myself reflecting on the changes that have taken place since I joined.
First, we were acquired by Dimension Data, and probably by NTT soon. Along the way, we were hit by the worst global recession since The Great Depression. A lot of people have come and gone, and yet… the company culture stays the same. An environment where everyone is worked to the bone but also plays equally hard. Where EVERYONE regardless of position, has access to the CEO, and where more importantly, the CEO wants to hear what people are saying, feeling, and thinking.
As a company, Datacraft cares and shares. I have not encountered a group of individuals so giving and generous of their time and money anywhere else.
I recall an event I organized for the Regional Sales Directors during which we auctioned off FIVE items of no real consequence to raise some money for the victims of Cyclone Nargis. I had hoped to raise some five thousand as a minimum. By the end of the auction, we had raised 25 thousand, and Bill very generously committed that Datacraft would match that, dollar for dollar. And it did not stop there. Over the next day or two, more contributions trickled in so that we had over $52,000 for the Red Cross.
In terms of working style, there is no doubt that Datacraft encourages independence. And we are all driven by a belief that we, to borrow a phrase, had to “Just Do It”.
Although my role was to manage the Cisco-Datacraft relationship, I was not content to do so passively and wanted to raise the engagement to a new level. In the last three years, I have organized client-facing events, industry-specific workshops/retreats, joint internal marketing campaigns and networking events across most of the major cities in the region. I have, with the support of Corporate Communications and Cisco, managed to seed Fortune Cookies in all the Cisco offices in the region, and very shortly, will be reprising that campaign with another evolutionary iteration. And even though I will no longer be in the company, it is gratifying to see that Datacraft will continue that initiative.
Would I recommend Datacraft to my friends? Well, the answer to that is really dependant on who is asking. If the friend is one who is intelligent, creative, driven, independent and industrious – Yes!
Now that the curtains are coming down, it is definitely with a tinge of sadness that I turn off the lights, but as you well know, we work in a very small industry. There is always the possibility of a repeat engagement in the future because I firmly believe that there are few companies that are in the same league as Datacraft.
I remain your Number One Fan!
Go, Datacraft!
Melvin is the erstwhile Head, Cisco Alliance for Datacraft Asia. He was responsible for the Cisco relationship across the region, and came to us from Cisco. He crossed the abyss into the Datacraft Universe, and gleefully tries to feed the world with Cookies and Kit Kats these days.
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