CHANNEL CHIEF
Process, collaboration,
teamwork
Responsible for driving business operations, Savitha Bhaskar
brings a rich variety of experience with her from STME, GBM,
IBM and Informix. By Arun Shankar.
Savitha Bhaskar is Chief
Operating Officer at
Condo Protego.
A
s the Chief Operating Officer at
Condo Protego, Savitha Bhaskar
is committed to driving the
business goals as a Middle East systems
integrator, specialised in IT infrastructure
and information management. Savitha
assumed this role since the company’s
inception in 2005. She is also part of the
Board of Directors for the Condo Protego
Group of Companies.
Savitha reflects on her most memorable
achievement at Condo Protego. “It has
been growing Condo Protego’s customer
base to more than 300 of the largest
enterprises in the UAE, and posting year-
on-year double-digit revenue growth, while
earning major vendor accolades.”
Prior to co-founding Condo Protego in
2005, Savitha worked as Sales Manager
for STME. During her four-year stint
with STME, she grew the territory’s
revenue from below $1 million with three
customers, to $13 million and more than
40 customers in her last year. Savitha
moved to the Middle East in 1998 to join
Gulf Business Machines as Sales Manager
60
with focus on retail and distribution
verticals. Prior to that she held a similar
position in IBM India’s Retail and
Distribution Industry Solution Unit.
Before her tenure with IBM India,
Savitha accumulated seven years of
IT experience with various technology
companies, including Informix, Aptech,
and Betamatix, in various roles, giving her
exposure to business fundamentals of the
IT industry.
Growing up in Bangalore, India’s
Silicon Valley, made her think of a career
in technology. “I was in the right place at
the right time in the 1990s when multi-
national corporations began opening up.
After graduating from university, I built on
my experience of working with Apple and
Informix, and joined IBM.”
Working in multiple departments,
including operations, education, and
sales and marketing, has given Savitha
breadth and depth of experience to
prioritise consistent delivery of service and
customer satisfaction as the cornerstone of
a successful business. At Condo Protego,
she is keen to foster a process-driven
environment that enhances collaboration
and teamwork.
Savitha is a strong believer in personal
leadership. Her management style is to
make each individual understand that their
success and failure, as well as of the team,
is in their hands, in addition to pushing
themselves to be useful, productive,
relevant to their team and to their
customers. “In my role, I am dedicated to
driving collaboration and teamwork with a
I believe there is
no unbreakable
ceiling for women
in the IT field.
successful team, relying on individuals who
take their personal leadership seriously,”
she points out.
With regards to hot technologies for
the region, Savitha mentions, “From a
solutions standpoint, we are seeing strong
Middle East demand for software-defined
technology, converged and hyper-
converged infrastructure, all-flash storage
and disaster recovery orchestration.”
Introspection is a key aspect of
Savitha’s personal development and
she believes that each of us has the
responsibility to support positive social
change. This change first begins within an
individual by changing their mindset to be
open and inclusive, requiring conscious
investment of time to introspect and
evolve on a daily basis.
With regards to the role of women in
technology, Savitha feels there are many
more career opportunities for women
in technology than when she broke into
the field in the 1990s. At present there
are many more, though not enough roles
available in front-line sales or decision-
making. “I believe there is no unbreakable
ceiling for women in the IT field.”
Issue 10
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS