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Jay Patel is the VP & GM of Cisco’s Webex CPaaS business, a role he assumed following Cisco’s acquisition of his company IMImobile for $730 million. Before this he had already led the company through a successful IPO. He is now focused on integrating IMI’s platforms with Webex technologies to enhance customer experience solutions.
Jay has a rich history of working with entrepreneurs and fast-growth tech businesses. His career includes co-founding Spark Ventures plc, an early-stage venture capital firm. A Chartered Accountant by trade, Jay has an INSEAD MBA and an Economics degree from the London School of Economics.
Passionate about technology, economics, and social justice, Jay is also an active investor in startups. He now shares his best advice to young leaders on how to navigate uncertainty.
Editor’s note: This is the twelfth in a series of guest posts where people from all walks of life share their best advice in times like these. A big thanks to the leaders who volunteered to share their life experiences. Reflection on the past is a deeply personal exercise. The willingness to share it with the world, especially in the written form, is a commendable act of vulnerability. For this alone, they have my deepest gratitude.
My Best Advice
“Being self-aware and having clarity about the business environment is critical. Today there is a debt and capital overhang everywhere, it’s going to take some time to unwind, so you need to factor this into your calculations for risk taking” says Jay over a weekend WhatsApp call. “But there is no magic success formula, don’t listen to most of the people advising you and don’t believe the hype. Once there is clarity of what you’re trying to do, focus on that, and then act! act! act! Don’t let the clarity get clouded by all the noise around you.”
“At IMIMobile we always saw a role for software in between the complexity of the channels and that of the business systems and we’ve stuck with it for quite a long time now. You have to focus on your customers, and constantly keep acting on that conviction and with relentless execution.“
