May: Asian Heritage Month
Member Feature: Vijayan Swaminathan
May is Asian Heritage Month, and we're promoting some of our Asian Business Owners! This feature spotlights Vijayan Swaminathan, Founder and CEO of Xaddwell.
What inspired you to start your own business?
I had lived in 14 cities and worked for several big brands, realizing that there is something unique here that we can offer to people and businesses. We wanted to get in there and see how technology can help a business transform. The brilliance of technology and how it is applied to aspiring businesses just blows my mind every time. Take for instance Uber, it is like magic how the cab arrives at your doorstep in a few minutes, technology in your palms.
What does being an Asian business owner mean to you?
I don't think about it as much, but all I can say is how can we help and solve the next big problem for our clients. It is a very grounding experience and being an Asian always brings a deep spiritual reflection of humility, which I think often is very satisfying.
Do you feel your cultural background influences your business practices or strategies? In what ways?
Being an Asian brings with you also the qualities led from your Indian parenting expectations. Indian parents are so keen on their kids doing well, learning math and science without exception. I am happy I am at this space right now and thanks to my Indian parenting urging upon me at the time to take science seriously. It has definitely shaped my career and allowed me to venture into Computer Science and Software Engineering as a profession. Extremely humbled by the roots and the global experience I share with everyone each day.
Also, those Indian expectations allow us to bring forward to our clients some of the top-tier tech and we want our clients to do really, really well. If we're able to be a small part of it, we're extremely delighted.
In what ways do you celebrate Asian culture within your business or with your customers?
We enjoy working with our teams in India, which happens to be where I was born. Knowing the country well allowed us to set up teams that we enjoy working together from here. We eat more sweets on occasions of Indian festivals, just another good reason to grab some more sweets to celebrate.
Vijayan Swaminathan, XaddWell
XaddWell prides itself on helping clients with advanced technology solutions. Xaddwell thinks about advanced technology like MAGIC, when techs like the Internet of Things, AI, Machine Learning, Augmented Reality, and more start talking with each other, connecting the dots.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your business, heritage, or experience as a business owner?
It has been an absolute privilege to be part of this initiative and what we do every day. Edmonton Chamber has simply been amazing in doing what it does best, cheer for the businesses in town and some of the best people I have met on my journey. I love our chamber, the staff, the members, and the initiatives.
When it comes to technology and XaddWell, some of the best actions business leaders can do is make better decisions, and business data feeds into them. The best way to feed the right data is having technology provide real-time or close to real-time access to data. If the leaders can make better decisions and in such reduced time for them and the staff, it is going to be a huge value add and massive opportunity to scale growth. I would like to genuinely share with the visionary business owners to understand this regardless of where they are at in their journey, 'Technology adoption is not a choice anymore, it definitely is a necessity to transform the business.