Spotlight on Nachiket
Nachiket Paratkar | Senior VP & Business Head, Higher-Ed & Workforce
As part of our Spotlight series, we catch up with leaders, doers, and inspiring employees of LearningMate to see the personalities behind the work. We ask them a few questions about what they do, what excites them, and to ponder how they've grown in their careers. Below is part of our chat with Nachiket...
What do you do at LearningMate?
Professionally, I head the higher education and workforce business at LearningMate. Essentially, this means I am responsible for growing this market. Growth involves having a strategic plan, building customer relationships, and figuring out what types of work and deals to pursue. I oversee the overall strategy, customer relationships, and the profit and loss (P&L) of this segment.
How do you approach your role?
It’s crucial to understand the background we [founders] all came from. I only had a year of experience when I joined this team. Since then I’ve grown in my career with LearningMate. From day one, we had to wear multiple hats—there was always an employee hat and a founder hat. There was no one to go to and say, “this can’t be done”; we had to take full ownership.
Whatever we do today, we are essentially solving problems. We are solutions people, not a factory. We are a consulting company, a solutions company. Everything we do is always about solutions. This means having to think about things from different perspectives—the customer, user, technology, P&L, and employee perspectives.
How does LearningMate’s mission align with your personal values?
As a student, I was above average but never the top of the class. So I had to learn how to work hard. There is no replacement for hard work. There are so many things outside of our control, but determination and not giving up are key.
We have a big mission at LearningMate, and I believe, an important one. At every stage, there will be failure. Nobody has continued success. The ability to get out of that failure quickly and move on to the next thing is crucial. Hard work, determination, and grit are values ingrained in our culture and what we do. Success is not the only criterion we measure our people by; we value a willingness to work hard.
Tell us about a particular time you felt proud of your work at LearningMate.
One story that I absolutely remember is when we didn’t have big projects or international customers. At that time, we landed a small project with an NGO in India that worked toward education and literacy for people who couldn’t afford it. We were contracted by them to create multimedia CDs and make them fun with games and things the kids could relate to.
I had the opportunity to visit a village and saw the kids on computers, their excitement, and the light in their eyes. It was one of the most significant times I have ever felt the true impact of education.
Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” In that village I watched education make change happen before my eyes. This experience left a lasting impression on me.
If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
To my younger self, I would say: be bold in anything that you do. Sometimes we find ourselves constrained by things around us, but if you can learn to embrace action and the risks that go with it, it makes a huge difference. Skill is important, but people who succeed are those willing to make bold decisions.
Be bold! Be different.