Known for being a hotbed of innovation and having fresh Silicon Valley–like energy: that’s Pune for you! So, it’s not surprising that Snowflake, as the innovator behind the Data Cloud, chose to expand its presence in Pune, India, a perfect geography to build global economies of scale.
Pune is a city where I’ve spent quite a few years of my career. I’ve seen it grow, innovate, and attract young energy over the years. It’s nothing but pure ecstasy to be part of the cloud data revolution occurring in this city.
For Snowflake, having a strong foundation that personifies a globally oriented mindset is important. Hence, our strategy is built on three pillars: cultural congruence, hiring top talent, and a mindset of measuring everything that we do. Here is what these pillars mean to us.
Cultural Congruence
Starting a strategic center at Pune, especially this early in Snowflake’s growth cycle, could not have been possible without the executive sponsorship from Mike Scarpelli, Snowflake’s CFO, and Sunny Bedi, Snowflake’s CIO. At Pune, we constantly drive for excellence and to be a partner location that picks up the baton in this perennial relay, not just a stereotypical extended offshore arm. This new “digital first” world necessitates an open-door culture to be successful. Does that sound oxymoronic? It’s not; here is what it takes:
- First, given the challenges of distinct time zones, our engagement levels, our knowledge sharing, our hand-offs approach, and our trustworthy relationships are extraordinary, especially because they occur across geographies.
- We leverage skills at all levels. Our large-scale investment in early in career (EIC) talent, repatriated talent, and talent from best-in-class companies allows our teams to work on new-age initiatives that are in line with our leadership in the Data Cloud.
- We also build motivating brand stories for both individuals and the company:
- “Snow@Snow” initiatives allow us to taste our own champagne and create exciting stories for our customers.
- “Snowvation,” a recent innovation event we conducted, portrayed many automation and product use cases.
Hiring Top Talent
Our simple yet effective talent acquisition engine is based on a three-pronged recruitment method:
- The strength of our brand was evident when we attracted a third of our employees from established high technology organizations. More than a dozen repatriating leaders and specialists moved to Pune from North America and Europe.
- Who would not like to bring friends and families to join them? Our employee referral program brought in 35% of our hires. We aim to continuously leverage this for a long time.
- Also, we recruited 45 interns, 33 of which became full-time employees as EIC talent from top-notch engineering colleges. They bring in much-needed agility, fresh thinking, and diversity.
A Mindset of Measurement
Our mindset of measuring everything drives the following:
- First, we achieve operational excellence through continuous review of our work pipeline, service excellence, major programs, and user experience metrics. Having a direct impact on the customer experience and on organizational productivity is constantly on our radar.
- With the dashboards of Snowflake’s Data Cloud, we have real-time visibility into our performance against CIS (Center for Internet Security) controls and how we can automate processes for remediation.
- Our data organization produces strategic business insights such as Customer 360 and it provides the infrastructure for data scientists and data analysts.
- In addition, our organizational effectiveness is measured by our ability to hire (turnaround time, candidate quality, skill level, and geographic distribution), our ability to rotate and promote talent, and our commitment to EIC talent.
In conclusion, as Snowflake marks our first year anniversary in India, this is just the beginning of our story. We will continue to demonstrate a global mindset by driving top- and bottom-line impacting initiatives, strengthening our innovation fabric through Snow@Snow initiatives, securing our technology and data assets, building our leadership pipeline, and leveraging talent at Pune holistically. We eagerly wait to share more success stories.