Q&A with Harshu Deshpande, Lead (Australia + Japan), Slalom Build

In February 2020, Harshu joined Slalom as one of the two founders of the Australian arm of the business, taking on the role of Country Lead for Slalom Build (Slalom’s engineering arm). In just 18 months, Harshu has helped establish a big challenger brand in the technology delivery landscape in Australia, building one of the fastest growing engineering start-ups in Australia.

Having only launched last year, Slalom and Slalom Build have already reached the goal of building a 200-strong Australian workforce in the first two years. Starting a brand-new business in Australia from the ground up is typically no easy feat but doing that amid a pandemic, where care for people becomes of the utmost importance, the complexity is significantly increased. Through the adversity of COVID-19, Harshu has created an amazing high growth workplace that has become a magnet for engineering talent and one that will help Australian organisations pivot to face new challenges and support their digital transformation and reinvention journey.

We sat down with Harshu to understand what the journey has been like so far, his thoughts on how you build a diverse team of free thinkers, innovators and engineers and the opportunity in the Australian market.

As a founding leader of Slalom Build Australia, can you tell us a bit about your background and what attracted you to Slalom Build?

I’ve always been interested in tech. During my university days, I worked on a 3D video conferencing project at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). Back then, 3D was the new kid on the block — not just the hardware but also the software. After I finished Uni, I had the opportunity to continue working in research or pursue a career in the industry. The advice I received at the time was that you can always come back to research, but it can be very difficult to get into industry after years in research given the difference in pace. I went on to work at a major consulting firm, where for eight years, I worked in a tech team on several large-scale and transformational projects with the big banks and telecommunications companies.

In 2008, when organisations first started to talk about agile and modern ways of working — and how to create software in different ways, I was part of the early movement and shift towards using Agile and helped several large Australian businesses figure out new approaches to work. This aspect of what makes people and organisations tick, really resonated with me, so I left tech for a while and immersed myself in organisational coaching and design for a few years — learning and developing experiences on how to build and coach effective teams. In many ways, this experience has shaped some of my more recent drive and passion here at Slalom Build, in building our very own talented family.

My final few years in the large consulting company also brought me at a crossroads — the role I was tasked to do was to build a highly innovative and unique team in the organisation, made up of people from start-ups, agency, industry and consulting. Watching the interplay between this amazing group of people, really opened my mind on the prospects of how we could really approach problems and challenges, differently — and in many ways led me to Slalom Build.

When Slalom was looking to launch in Australia, they reached out to me and said this is exactly the ‘raison d’être’ for Slalom Build — a bunch of talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, including start up, consulting and enterprise, delivering modern, cutting-edge and bold solutions for customers. It really resonated with me.

There are a few reasons I decided to join the Slalom family — most of them were people related. I wanted to help build a family, to come to work every day and be surrounded by truly great people.

Slalom has rapidly reached its goal of having 200 employees within two years of launching in Australia, what makes the hiring process different?

Over the past few years, I have realised that hiring for diversity of thought and opinion is a big part of what makes organisations successful. Where organisations have failed is when they have started hiring for “culture fit”, rather than “culture add”. When we recruit, we actively seek out these individuals who can add to the team with their various experiences and backgrounds. This ability to learn from each other makes a marked difference in how you can build and develop highly effective, high growth organisations.

Despite the pandemic, we have managed to grow the team at a rate of 10–15 employees every month over the past year, and I am very proud of the team we have assembled. We have now reached our goal of 200 employees ahead of the two-year mark — with a hugely diverse team coming from all walks of life.

At Slalom, we talk about the idea of having an “insurgent mindset” — we want people to come in and challenge ideas and thinking and help take the company to the next level in its journey. One of my favourite quotes by David Goggins perfectly captures this thinking — “Always look to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. Never look to just get the invitation and fit in.” We have actively looked for that combination of entrepreneurship and the willingness to experiment in the individuals we have hired.

How do you build diverse teams?

You don’t often get the opportunity to build a team from the ground up — as I have had here in the last two years. We had a unique opportunity to ensure we were building both a gender and ethnically diverse engineering team and in the last 18 months we have done just that.

We’ve been able to hire some amazing women leaders in Slalom Build, which has helped shape our organisation, to create the gender diverse team we have today and helping us create an environment where we can nurture that talent into the future.

In 2021, 45 per cent of our hires for Slalom Build were women, with women now accounting for over 40 per cent of the team — an unheard-of statistic in the Australian tech market. However, one of the biggest challenges I have found in the industry, is that the measurement of success in terms of gender diversity is only ever focused on the bottom line — the number of women in an organisation. We need to do more than that and start looking at how we are creating an environment where men and women can strive for long term success. I strongly believe this needs to be based on longer term metrics, such as women coming up through the ranks of an organisation and finding ways to decrease attrition rates for women mid-way through their career.

What excites you about the Australian tech industry?

We have some amazing talent in Australia and are much better positioned than some of the other markets in the region to service our own demand. We also have a great opportunity to serve the wider APAC market, using this talent base. This is also why Slalom Build has expanded to other markets in the region, such as Japan, where the need for talent to fuel their transformation is the key limiting factor and with Australia in the same time zone, we can help provide the talent to fuel that change.

When it comes to talent potential in Australia, the challenge we face is that our graduates coming out of university aren’t necessarily positioned well enough to enter the tech industry. The pace of technology is changing so fast, and academic programs aren’t always able to keep up with the pace.

The broader challenge is for the industry to work more collaboratively with universities around the country to help build up the next generation. This means that more companies locally need to look at ways to develop and grow their own talent, including supporting people with career changes and providing a structure for continuous learning. Here in Australia, we have pioneered the launch of a career learning framework — a structured learning path for early career talent that is now being rolled out across Slalom Build globally.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

When I’m not working, I love spending time with my wife and our five-year old son, Miksa, and Portuguese waterdog, Dexter. I’m also a massive health and fitness fanatic — being a big believer that goals in fitness translate to other aspects of life in particular, overall mental health. I usually exercise seven days a week — mostly being a big fan of resistance training and am always up for a new fitness challenge. If you ever need health, fitness and nutritional advice or just want to wind me up over a beer — I could spend many hours discussing, arguing and advising on the latest research, medical guidance and experimental thinking.

With gyms being closed throughout the many lockdowns in Melbourne (we’re currently in the sixth lockdown since the start of the pandemic), I’ve built my own gym at home. I’m usually awake by 4 am and working out by 5 am, which is not always easy on a cold Melbournian morning — but helps set up my whole day. I attribute my exercise routine to my ability to stay motivated through the pandemic.

Interested in finding out more about Slalom Australia? We might just have the right role for you. To learn more contact: Australia@slalom.com