Learning to go with the flow pays off over the long term
Meet a Veevan is a series that looks at the employees who bring us life. For this edition we spoke to Akira Okamoto, Director, IT Infrastructure based in Columbus, Ohio. Akira is part of the IT team responsible for keeping Veeva’s internal systems running smoothly to maximize employee productivity. His interest in finding out how things work led him to pursue mechanical engineering, business, and a rich career in the IT field.
What is your personal and professional background and how did you get to Veeva?
Akira: I was born in Fujisawa, Japan, near Tokyo and when I was six, my family moved to Ohio for my father’s job. Adjusting to an entirely new life and culture is where I first began to experience the importance of resiliency.
As a child, I was always interested in building things. Legos were my games of choice and this planted seeds for my pursuits later on. As I grew up, my childhood revolved around sports, swimming, cross country and track, music and band, and academics. These experiences helped me learn the importance of putting hard work and dedication to any activity in which I was involved. The upside of all the hard work was a chance to travel to many competitions, and these are my fondest memories of high school. Looking back, the combination of my natural instincts and this environment made me a bit of a perfectionist. This is something that has stayed with me but also required some adjustment when I entered the working world, where it’s harder to control all the circumstances.
My childhood interests led me to pursue Mechanical Engineering for my undergraduate degree at Ohio State. I had several internships in the fields of mechanical engineering and manufacturing. I was hired as a mechanical engineer for my first job, but it was also part of a rotational program that included experiences in marketing, sales and IT. Through this rotation program, I had the opportunity to be an IT business analyst on a team working on a custom-developed application for field technicians. This was my first foray into IT and a new perspective on how things worked. After the program, I chose to move into an IT business analyst position full time. From there, I grew my career in IT as a project manager, program manager working on the application development team. I also had a tenure supporting the internal CRM system at the company.
My next career move landed me in consulting but it was an individual contributor role and I realized how much I missed working with a team. So, I decided to go back to pursuing an internal IT role as a program manager and team lead. I then joined another organization where I began as a program manager, then moved into application development, and due to a reorganization, landed in an infrastructure role. While I didn’t have previous experience in the infrastructure area, it was an opportunity for me to learn and develop new skills and I’ve been in an infrastructure role since the transition.
I found out about Veeva when my former manager joined and told me about the company. I had the opportunity to interview for a project manager position on the IT Infrastructure team and was hired in. It’s been a little over two years since I joined Veeva, and about a year ago, I was promoted to my current position.
Today, I am focused on keeping the internal IT works at Veeva productive. This includes all the tools we use every day — email, collaboration tools, laptops, internal servers, security, and a wide variety of other applications. I enjoy leading and supporting the team by helping remove obstacles, and prioritizing among all the stakeholders.
What’s unique about the work environment and culture at Veeva?
Akira: Working at Veeva makes you feel like you are part of something bigger. Collectively, we are helping get drugs out to the market safely. Compared to anywhere else I have worked, I feel connected to our employees and customers because if I do my job well and efficiently, they will be more successful.
When I was learning about Veeva, my former colleague told me that bureaucracy didn’t exist here. It actually turned out even better than I expected. Speed is one of Veeva’s core values and we make quick decisions because we have smart people and we trust each other. In the end, Veeva wants us to do what they hired you to do.
Veeva also stands by their commitment to employee success as a core value. It really feels that they care about you. It shows up in all the policies from Work Anywhere to the way leadership acts and the flexibility we have to manage our lives outside of work. The Work Anywhere program gives everyone a chance to work in their best environment and ultimately leads to finding better talent.
This flexibility is really important at this time of my life. I have three young boys of my own now — ages 1, 3 and 5. Most of my free time is spent with the family and I feel like working at Veeva has afforded me the work life balance that I need to be there for them.
How will Veeva help you grow?
Akira: My interest is to grow as a leader and I enjoy studying different leadership styles. To that end, I also went back to school a few years ago to obtain an MBA at Ohio University to broaden my skill set and support my work.
At Veeva, I see many strong leaders and can reach out to any of them for advice, hear about their experiences and develop reference points for my own development. I have enjoyed bouncing ideas off of them and observing how they operate. What I value the most is the trust that our leadership has in us and that they always have an open door. What they have expressed, and what I in turn pass on to my team, is that the key role of a leader is to make the team successful and work together to bring solutions to the table.
What industry topics are of interest to you?
Akira: I am really interested in organizational behavior and do a lot of reading on this topic. I particularly enjoy Adam Grant and his philosophy, experience and approach to teamwork. I find the topic of employee success can be addressed better by many corporations with more focus on treating employees as people.
What would you say to someone who was thinking of working here?
Akira: Veeva is a company that is making a positive impact to the public as a Public Benefit Corporation. If you want to come and work for a company that cares about you and makes a difference in society then this is the place for you. As a part of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to solve a lot of challenging problems and continually grow as an individual.
