Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Kannan Chettiar
Avvanz Pte Ltd
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR
Publish Date:
17 October 2019
Singapore
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
Across my 23 years of MNC corporate life, I’ve mainly held leadership and management positions in Technology companies with global responsibilities. Just before Avvanz, I ran the Asia sales for a global background screening company. I felt the Background Screening and Training space have so much scope for Technology but there were lack of cutting-edge solutions. That vacuum has been filled by Avvanz and we are continuing to innovate with client feedback.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Our Vision
To be clear number one choice for all organizations who care to hire the “right” and "safe" global talents and empower them to be able to achieve growth leaps.
Our Mission
Given the scarcity and difficulty to find effective and productive talent, Avvanz strives to help organizations attain the human advantage by screening for the right talents to ensure they are calibrated to the highest levels of "safety" and "integrity", onboarding them to integrate them quickly and developing them to achieve highest standards of excellence to ensure their organizations secure a revenue advantage.
Our Core Values CACTI
Customer-centricity
We craft and deliver solutions that address customers' pain points and challenges.
We strive to maintain the service levels in a consistent manner, honoring our commitments to our clients and make every minute count with a highly charged passion.
Accountability
Our Team members act as entrepreneurs in their areas of influence with a sense of shared ownership and shared leadership.
Collaboration
We encourage synergy amongst our departments to keep our goals aligned to deliver service excellence.
We support each other and believe in diversity of talents, ideas and perspectives.
Transformation
We foster a culture of innovation and think multi-dimensionally to be change agents and transform our space.
We invest in our business and in ourselves to enhance our processes, knowledge, skills and competencies to be future-ready
Integrity
We think and act with integrity to stay reliable and maintain the trust given to us by our clients and colleagues.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
In today's world, there is a global talent hunt for the right talents to "advance" organizations. Engaging, developing, motivating and even retaining talents have become daunting for organizations. Henceforth, a robust and uniquely integrated solution is warranted. This is where Avvanz plays a crucial role.
Given that more than 30% of resumes have discrepancies, there's an imperative need to ensure the hired talents are "safe" and of the highest level of integrity. The next immediate priority is to implement a flawlessly tight on-boarding program to get the new hires integrated into the organization and become productive within the shortest possible time. Training the talents to be top contributors and developing them to enable organizations surpass their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is highly critical to organizational success.
Organizations need to work with different individuals or partners to build a powerful talent asset base. Henceforth, Avvanz's strategic intent is to act as a 1-Point-Talent-Hub for all businesses.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
Now newer entrants are more Tech savvy which is forcing the more traditional giants to get their hands wet on Technology as well. However, some are struggling to cross the chasm. For example, under our DEVELOP pillar, even our Leadership and People Management workshops have a high Industry 4.0 flavour whilst some competitors are still talking about outdated models and frameworks. We use AR, IOT and AI technologies even in our traditional classes like Sales Training and Design Thinking workshops.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
People are the biggest assets to the business but can pose the biggest risks to the business as well. Given that more than 30% of resumes (or CVs) have discrepancies, it is extremely critical to screen Candidates thoroughly before hiring them. A Gallup's study has revealed that new joiners not onboarded properly tend to leave the company within a few months. This calls for a tight onboarding program which can ensure that the new joiners hit the ground running soonest possible to be fully productive. A continuous learning and development program has to be in place to enhance engagement, motivation, skills and competencies of the workforce. To retain a "safe" and completely capable workforce while under pressure to outperform as an organization is the top most challenge for business and HR leaders.
Avvanz has compelling value propositions to strengthen your human assets. With Avvanz's global domain knowledge by country and by market segment, Avvanz strives to understand your challenges, identify your needs and customize appropriate solutions.
Competitive Differentiators
- Avvanz can address your critical Talent Acquisition, Talent Management and Talent Development needs. It eliminates the need to work with different partners for your diverse needs.
- Avvanz provides a modular but integrated suite of solutions.
- Avvanz has nimble flexibility to be able to customize solutions for your organizationAvvanz has an extremely strong region-specific ground knowledge that will fasten the proposition of appropriate solutions.
- Avvanz can deliver world-class quality at cost-effective price points within expected turn-around-times.
What does the future hold for your company?
Background Screening (due to highly rising CV discrepancy issues) and Training (due to imperative need to digitalize workforce) spaces are growing dramatically and our business is accelerating rapidly especially in Europe and Asia. We want to drive further in NA as well. We want to bring in future innovations and we have Blockchain and Deep-AI projects in pipeline.