[Inside FIXER #4] Working in a Dynamic and Fast-Growing Global Team

Interview with our General Manager, Dr. Mohamed Osamnia

When you think about how to get your brand well known in a local marketplace, there are certain necessary steps you should take. When you shift your target toward a global scale, the spectrum of possibilities become wider and the challenges greater, but the opportunities for growth also increase. Here at FIXER, we love challenges and after establishing a strong presence in Japan, we are now aiming to target a strategic space in the global market. The backbone of our global strategy is having a talented and international environment. Because sharing our global culture and values is as important as our products and services, we decided to start an employee interview series to let everyone have a look and understand what it is like working at FIXER.

The fourth person interviewed (if you missed our previous interviews, please take a look here) is Dr. Mohamed Osamnia, General Manager of our Global Business Acceleration (GBA) Division. He implemented the scrum methodology within GBA and transformed it in an “agile team”, where we can respond promptly to rapidly changing market opportunities and customer demands.

Fabrizio: I can finally interview my manager, Ossa! Thank you for your time and as usual, let’s kick off with a quick self-introduction and what brought you to Japan.

Ossa: Thank you, Fabrizio. My name is Mohamed Osamnia, but everyone calls me Ossa since I was a kid, so I haven’t heard my real name for long time [laughter]. I am originally from Algeria in North Africa, and people over there tend to move either to Europe or North America to pursue a higher education. However, in my case, I have been constantly putting myself out of my comfort zone, so I decided for something different and more challenging. Once I had completed my Master’s Degree in Computer Science back home, I was accepted to a PhD program supported by the government of Japan called MEXT. I moved to Japan in September 2012 and started my PhD at the National Institute of Informatics based in Tokyo. This is when my professional journey in Japan started.

Fabrizio: The path you choose is challenging indeed. Now, walk me through your professional transition from the PhD to FIXER.

Ossa: After completing my PhD program 3 and a half yearslater, I worked as post-doctoral researcher for about a year and started cultivating strong interest in managing cross-collaboration projects in different fields. One of the achievements I am proud of during my PhD journey, is being able to raise funds for my university and establish a communication platform for the whole institution. Through the platform, researchers were able to connect with their peers in different fields and find smoother and more agile ways to collaborate. This motivated me to take a step forward in my career and make a transition from the academia to industry. Afterwards, I started working as a project manager for a healthcare tech start up in Tokyo. There I had both technological and business exposure while managing a small but talented team and this experience was crucial for my current role at FIXER, where I am thrilled to see what the future will bring to us.

Fabrizio: Like you, I have also built up my professional career in Japan from scratch and it has been a wonderful journey so far. Can you now explain to me how you joined FIXER and where you heard about us?

Ossa: I heard of FIXER unexpectedly through an article shared by our colleague Nicolas Duchemin about an AI meetup he attended. This is one of the reasons we are here today and doing these article interviews [laughter]. From reading Nicola’s article, I was able to have a general understanding about FIXER’s business and its ambitious expansion plan which I found extremely interesting. I contacted Nicolas directly and he explained to me in detail what FIXER is doing, its mission and the management vision. I was even more interested than before, so I asked for the opportunity to discuss to FIXER management directly to find out more. After a great meeting with them, I discovered that FIXER had exactly what I was looking for in the next step in my career: the chance of working with cutting-edge technologies, an agile environment and excellence in the cloud business.

Fabrizio: This is exactly what we tried to achieve with our digital marketing activities and am very glad about the outcome. Could you give us more detailed information regarding the GBA Division, with a focus on each team’s responsibilities and main mission?

Ossa: I joined FIXER in December 2017 as a product manager and I am currently the Product Owner / General Manager of the GBA Division. We have 3 teams in the GBA Division and they are focused on product development, business development and crowdsourcing operations. The product development section, where I am acting as a product owner, is currently rebuilding FIXER’s flagship solution, cloud.config and making it globally accessible. The business team manages sales, branding and marketing strategies for the product release as well as market research, partnerships and business development. The crowdsourcing team is focused on leveraging offshore resources to help accelerate our product development as well as supporting the whole company with other projects. We are also building the foundation for helping external customers to build the latest software solutions, in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner. Ultimately, the mission of the GBA Division is to leverage different expertise from technology to business and offshore operations to accelerate FIXER’s overall growth both locally and more importantly, globally.

Fabrizio: Now that we have a clear picture of the GBA mission, let’s discuss about how you are strategizing for achieving the above goals.

Ossa: With a focus on the global scale, we are aiming to expand FIXER’s presence in different markets. We have recently established our first branch office in the US, based in San Francisco and soon we will establish a new branch office in Bangalore, India, as a step forward in our global expansion strategy.

Fabrizio: How would these 3 branches work together in the future?

Ossa: My vision is simple. FIXER HQ in Japan will be the strategic core for business, product and strategy planning. FIXER India will be our technology hub to ensure fast product delivery and FIXER Technologies Inc., our US-based branch, will be focused on strategic sales, marketing and building the best business practices. With this triangle model, GBA is planning to take FIXER to the next level by establishing a competitive presence in the global market.

Fabrizio: Just to summarize what you said, this triangle model will establish smart and powerful interactions between our three branches which will allow us to obtain a competitive advantage in the global market. Thank you for your insights and I have only one last question. How do you personally evaluate success and how does this apply to FIXER?

Ossa: That’s correct, Fabrizio. Regarding your last question, success for me is making a difference in other people’s lives regardless if they are FIXER members or not. This is by helping everyone reach their personal career goals and for our customers by solving their challenges through our services and technology. In other words, success for me is all about the state of mind, accompanied by great team work.

If you have any questions or suggestions, I am happy to receive your thoughts! You can comment here or contact me directly.

Contact Detail:

Fabrizio Calogero
Global Branding Lead at FIXER Inc.

Mail: fabrizio.calogero@fixer.co.jp
Website: https://www.fixer.co.jp
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