Naveen Rajkumar: An Impactful and Authentic Leader

In our issue, “10 Best CEOs to Follow in 2023,” we are highlighting CEOs who are difference-makers and have taken their businesses to new heights while remaining undeterred by macroeconomic fluctuations. Naveen Rajkumar is a well-known personality in the league of new-age business leaders. He is a thought leader on purpose driven leadership and has a track record of having a positive impact on businesses he has led and the communities he has been a part of.

Naveen stands out as a notable inclusion in this special edition because of his impactful leadership, successful track-record, strong techno-business skills, and an unwavering commitment to developing other leaders.

Naveen’s Leadership Journey

Naveen is a great example of purpose-driven leadership. His incredible career growth demonstrates a combination of visionary thinking as well as impeccable execution. He has a reputation for being an inspirational leader who builds high performance teams and successful businesses.

Naveen has over two decades of experience as a seasoned C-level executive with a good blend of business and technology skills. He started his career in 1999 at Aditi Technologies, a specialized software services company that worked with some of the biggest technology brand names to solve complex software issues and create top-tier products. He played a key role in promoting business growth in his role as General Manager, which in turn helped raise the company’s market value.

In the year 2009, Naveen joined Onvia Inc. as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer and made an immediate impact in turning around a declining business. Naveen worked with the board of directors of the publicly traded company and created a technology platform that helped thousands of businesses thrive by finding business opportunities with the federal, state, and local governments in the USA. The technology and data related IP eventually enabled the company to triple its market value while helping thousands of businesses survive a tough recession.

After Onvia’s successful exit, Naveen joined iLink Systems as their Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer in 2018. In just over 30 months, Naveen built global teams and instituted processes and systems that helped the business more than double its revenues while also building the foundation that enabled inorganic growth in the future.

Having developed a reputation for turning around flatlining or declining mid-sized businesses, Naveen was asked to lead ISOutsource in their journey to take the next big step.

Naveen also serves on the board of multiple organizations. He serves as a business and technology advisor for such organizations and advises them on go-to-market strategy, tactics to achieve high client satisfaction, assembling scalable systems, and building high impact teams.

ISOutsource at a Glance

ISOutsource is a Modern Technology Consulting Firm for small and medium-sized businesses in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. They have been in operation for more than 30 years and currently have over 550 active clients.

ISOutsource offers end-to-end IT services and technology solutions to help businesses simplify their IT infrastructure, reduce their IT spending, and stay safe from cybercriminals. They are proficient in IT managed services, business intelligence, collaboration and productivity, backup and recovery, and cybersecurity solutions and services.

“CEOs who are driven by purpose and who are intrinsically motivated by the positive impact that their business creates inspire their teams to work towards a greater purpose.”

ISOutsource takes a proactive approach to assisting small and medium enterprises to leverage the power of IT in a world of MSPs where reactive service is the norm. They have a team of a hundred people who are laser focused on client satisfaction. Consultants work with clients to map out their technology journey while engineers help build the IT infrastructure and tooling required to achieve the required level of technical sophistication to help grow the client businesses and to keep them safe from cybercriminals.

In the near future, ISOutsource aims to revolutionize the IT services industry with BlueVault®, their proprietary platform, and toolset. BlueVault will be established as the gold standard for delivering IT as a service.

The ISOutsource Impact

At ISOutsource, Naveen and his team strengthen their communities one business at a time. They do this by empowering hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses to succeed by providing innovative and strategic technology solutions. Successful small and medium-sized businesses create jobs in the local community and make them thrive. The work done by ISOutsource makes businesses feel happy, productive, and supported.

Naveen’s Advice for New CEOs and Entrepreneurs

We asked Naveen to share some advice for new CEOs and Entrepreneurs. Here’s what he has to say:

“As CEOs and business leaders, the first and foremost thing to remember is that we are all in the business of serving people. We serve our clients, our team members, and our shareholders. The industry we work in defines who we serve and how we serve them, but people are at the core of everything we do. A laser focus on delighting clients and inspiring team members helps build a great foundation for the business.

Secondly, a CEO is required to be a visionary. Understanding the evolving needs of clients (current and future) is important to develop the right vision for a business. Understanding what makes client businesses thrive, what makes client business leaders successful, and how technology can disrupt all the above is very important for a CEO. An effective CEO does not develop business strategy in a vacuum. Listening to the right set of people is important in this process – clients, team members, industry leaders, peers can all provide insights into developing the right strategy.

Thirdly, a CEO is required to inspire. Setting a vision and hiring the right people is only one half of the job. Execution of the strategic plan and achieving the vision needs inspiration. The CEO needs to be an inspirational leader who can get people excited about the vision, bring about alignment, remove roadblocks, and make sure that there is consistent communication at all levels in the organization.”

“A CEO who sees success through the lens of creating a positive impact is more likely to make the vision come alive in an organization.”

Leaving a Lasting Impact

Naveen wants to be remembered for making a difference in the lives of people. He hopes that his actions as a leader will inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more (quoting John Quincy Adams).