[Music] zifo is all about culture there's a culture of playing to wi we call it what is called intent and intensity of action every action is measured in terms of intent and intensity of action not just on res cultivating a winning culture is Paramount but every action doesn't necessarily need to be purely focused on the outcomes celebrating successes navigating challenges and especially learning from losses Fosters both resilience and growth of course you lose but it's it's a team sport it's fu
n it is tough but winning it together or playing it together even losing it together it's [Music] fun welcome to grit and growth from the Stanford gradate School of Business the podcast where Africa and South Asia's Intrepid entrepreneurs share their trials and triumphs with insights from Stanford faculty and Global experts on how to tackle challenges and grow your business I'm your host Darius teer the executive director of Stanford seed for all the CEOs and Founders who are listening Stanford
seed will soon be accepting applications for the 2025 class of the seed transformation program this 10-month intensive program will start in January and it includes a combination of face-to-face teaching networking and virtual learning Founders and CEOs of companies based in subsaharan Africa South Asia and Indonesia with annual revenue of at least $300,000 are eligible to apply to learn more please visit Stanford seed. [Music] soapply today we bring you another installment of our series of shor
t takes bite-sized stories of amazing entrepreneurs like Raj prash the co-founder of zifo we are a science first people first company we technology informatics data services for science zifo is one of the largest global PurePlay science informatics companies with over 1,800 employees zifo focuses on the technology for collecting and analyzing data for the inference and findings that lead to basic scientific discovery and ultimately to new products all happens in the scientific space Labs experim
ents clinical search and variety of this environment zifo technology has been instrumental to the development of medications and vaccines for Global viruses and illness we have done close to two dozen initiatives helping variety of Co initiatives vaccines therapeutic candidates these successes derive from their early decision to bring in a broader set of skills aligned with their customers unique needs India has a lot of Technology services companies they're all generalist science is a specializ
ed area technology as a generalist people are really focused on audit taking instruction driven work you're not really closer to the problem it is about once the problem is defined it's about executing the solution you want to be closer to the problem defining a problem is complex we have fantastic people who are bilingual in nature they speak the language of science as well as technology so they reduce the frustration for scientist to interact with them this approach has really paid off today t
hey work closely with many of the largest global biofarma companies we're talking about drug Discovery programs which are multi-billion dollar programs high value programs high intensity things data confidentiality criticality IPS being involved we showed the persistence and tenacity we just lucky to Raj is downplaying the intentionality that went into building zifo thriving culture it's a people-driven mechanism that encourages persistence and tenacity to get results there's a culture of playin
g to win we call it what is called intent and intensity of action every action is measured in terms of intent and intensity of action not just on result you play to win of course you lose but it's it's a team sport it's fun it is tough but winning it together or playing it together even losing it together it's fun we want to be a place which is highly valued as a great place to work we we listed as one of the great place to work for seven consecutive years our trust index has been more than 85%
consistent gently year on year team engagement and empowerment are prerequisites for Revenue growth but Raj has a broader definition of what it means to grow it's just not Revenue it is a multi-dimensional way so even when we worked on our goals and transformational plan it is quantitative in some level it's lot qualitative nobody looks at how do you really optimize in terms of inward looking Contracting things it is all about how do you expand by growth it is about opportunity to people opportu
nity to expore self it's doing something [Music] impactful many times over zifo has been recognized as one of India's fastest growing companies working across research and development in multiple verticals including Pharma biotech chemicals and even oil and gas since 2019 when rajin is co-founder Vani participated in the SE trans transformation program zifa has grown their revenues more than five-fold I mentioned at the outset that we'll be accepting applications to the seed transformation progr
am starting this month so let's hear from Raj about how the program impacted him and voni we are roughly one1 of what we are today as founders mean none of us had any formal B school education we have been all like in a TR way experiment everything iterating and making it happen books and listening to individuals has been our education a seed is an composite comprehensive program for people like us who never had a formal a business education business management education it gave us the lingo it
gave us methodology it gave us templates and a great set of people also us to Benchmark in some of our business practices in fact we realize that are certain things we do it really really good in terms of culture and people if not for seed I don't think we would have even add this appreciation Raj also highlighted the power of networking in his cohort we would have done business with at least a dozen seed companies so it's almost like prequalified trustful relationship where you can easily go an
d engage both give and take it's so powerful I'd like to thank Raj for sharing his story as well as his experience within the sea transformation program Raj's story exemplifies the power of a growth mindset to drive business performance and make a positive Global impact Erica amake a and VN virgin researched and developed content for this episode Kendra gladich is our production coordinator and our executive producer is Tiffany Steves with writing and production from Nathan Tower in sound design
and mixing by Ben cranel at lower Street Media thanks for joining us I'm your host Darius terer we'll be back soon with another [Music] episode
Comments